How Chord Progressions Work

so let's say I'm sitting at my keyboard with the intent of writing a chord progression I let my hand fall wherever at once and this is what it plays it's a G major okay cool nice I like the way that sounds but what do I do next this G major by itself can actually be many things that's because chords have functions based on the context that they exist in the context of the word context in this case is a key that you wish to play in there are seven tonal functions and they have names names that I will not use in this video in the name of simplicity the functions are denoted by Roman numerals one through seven in which capital and lowercase character is denote major and minor how do we figure out which chords have which function in a given key well we need two things to figure that out the first being the circle of fifths let's say our desired key is G major we find that on the circle of fifths we can see how many accidentals or sharps and flats are in its key as well as which notes have those accidentals so now that we know in G there is one sharp and it's F we can place the notes on our scale and order along the seven tonal functions but how do we know which chords our major and minor luckily there's a pattern for determining this a major key this pattern is major minor minor major major minor diminished while in a minor key it is minor diminished major minor minor major major so now with all that being said what role do I want this G major to play what hat will it wear let's try on some heads the first hat to try on is the one this is a beautiful hat because it establishes this chord as the tonal Center I want to play a two five one chord progression with G major as the one since G major is one the context or the key is established as G major in G major the two is an a minor and the five is a D major here's how those three chords sound together cool but what does G major sound like wearing another hat what if two major is the five that situation exists in the key of C major or C major is the one in D minor is the two here's what that two five one chord progression sounds like in C major [Music] as you can hear while g-major remains the same collection of pitches it sounds different in varying contexts because it plays a different role if we think of chord progressions as a series of functions we can better understand what we want out of our progression the relationship between tonal function is part of what makes a progression flow and the flow of a progression is a major factor in determining the emotional journey the listener is guided through when we play a 2 4 6 5 chord progression in D sharp major verses in G major [Music] the emotion seemed quite different but the flow feels familiar in many ways though the emotions and flow derived from music are subjective it's up to you to experiment and determine what tonal functions mean to you

Channel: Pierce Porterfield

Views: 397,623

Keywords: Chord Progression Tutorial, Music Theory Chord Progressions, Diatonic Function, Harmonic Function, Tonal Functions, Chord Functions, Music Theory Tutorial, How to make chord progressions, How music works, vox music, Chords Explained, Circle of Fifths Explained

Id: fCNuaubi95Q

Length: 3min 42sec (222 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 14 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/jb2824]

Christ. I've been playing/enjoying music by ear for 30 years and this makes absolutely no sense to me. I have a Phd in Architecture, and watching this video was, once again, just baffling. Is there some part of my brain that just does not work?

[u/the_darkener]

Thank you for sharing this!

[u/detailed_fred]

i've been making music for 5 years, and im self taught.

i watch this, and as simple as it feels, i get so god damn lost as soon as the roman numerals sit in.

i know how chord progressions are meant to work based on how they sound, but jesus...this stuff just makes my brain scream.

[u/modest_radio]

Great video!

[u/Signature2200]

Great video and great job!

[u/Voxmanns]

Great video. Thank you for saying more than "have fun" at the end and actually prompting the viewer to go and explore it in practice. Most of these types of videos I end up with a bunch of theory knowledge and am unsure how to apply it. You clearly defined the theory and said "and the rest is subjective! :D" and for an overthinker like me that was really nice haha!

Great video!

[u/Alberaan]

Many times I find myself explaining this to people, and I usually have trouble doing it in an ordered and intuitive way. I think this is a very good way of explaining it.

I want more videos like this!

As the only criticism, I would say that I have trouble distinguishing when you drew minor and major chords, specially whith the roman numerals. Maybe paint them in a different colour? A "m" after the chord name/function?

Please, do more videos. I'm specially interested in secondary chords :)

[u/PorkChop007]

You have no idea how I've struggled to understand this. Thanks to your video I finally grasped the concept. Thanks!

[u/musicalissima]

To the point! Very nicely done! I will share that with some of my students.