Do music and sport have anything in common? Today
we improve our chances of scoring the musical equivalent of a goal, by playing
the right chords when jamming with others.
Jocks are good at sport: they hit harder, throw balls
further and score more love interests. I was never one of the school
"jocks". It was a tough school and I was no good at skills like
running, jumping, throwing and kicking. And that was just the chess
club.
Later in life I was surprised to discover musical jocks: The ones who manage to
play something impressive no matter what gets thrown at them. If you've ever
floundered around in a jam session; perhaps spending every song just trying to
figure out what key everyone's in; you'll know the people I'm talking about;
arpeggio athletes who always figure out the key and chords in no time at all.
You wonder, How do they do that?
Some spent years studying music. They did all the
hard slog that most of us thought we could avoid by playing ukulele. Not having
benefited from such an education I've instead acquired a somewhat incomplete
knowledge of chords to the point where I can now make, shall we say, un-educated guesses about what chords
are coming next.
And just like the jocks, who are always looking to improve
their percentages in terms of hits, runs, goals etc., I look to increase my
chances of landing on correct chords when I'm jamming with others. Here are
some tips to help you do that:
1) Find the Key That Everyone is Playing In. This is challenging but gets
easier the more you do it. Try to find the single note that most fits with the
song. If a song is in C then C will generally be the name of the last note and
the last chord. In most jams the songs tend to be in the keys of C, F, G, D, A,
and Bb so try those notes first. When the key note (or root note) is played
repeatedly through a song it fits the song better than any other note.
An obvious way to figure out the key is to ask someone.
However this doesn't always work; others may be even more confused than you
are. It's also possible that they are one of the special breed of (usually) old-timers
who play according to finger-shapes and have no idea what the names of the
chords actually are (more about this another time.) So check people's
chord-fingering. If you notice C, F and G7 chords are being played a lot then
you can pretty well bet that the song is in C. Similarly F, Bb and C7 point to
the key of F and so on for other keys.
But watch out for minor keys! For example if you're fairly
sure that the root note is D but the chords D, G and A don't sound right it
could be that Dm is the key and the chords Dm, Gm and A will work better.
To expand on this idea play these chords: C Dm Em F G Am Bdim C. You can
actually hear the C scale right? These are the characteristic chords that help you know you're in C/Am.
This is a useful framework for figuring out the chords in a particular key. But
it doesn't give a full picture since it fails to account for seventh chords and
for the fact that composers, ignoring musical rules, often put in other chords
that sound cool but aren't in that key.
2) Notice the Song Style. Certain song styles have
predefined structures which help when figuring out chords. Blues songs in C, for example, generally
have the chords C, F and G (or G7) and you only need to listen a few times to
know exactly where those changes happen. Traditional
folk songs also use those same three chords plus an occasional
minor chord such as Am or Em. The chords can come in any order so look at some
songs and notice common chord patterns. Modern
songs--from the last few decades--often use the I V VI IV chord
progression (those Roman numerals correspond to the characteristic chords
mentioned above.) In the key of C they are C, G Am F. This sequence has been
found to produce the greatest emotional impact in western society's humans (and
believe me, the music business is well aware of this fact.) Part of the
emotional appeal of Iz's Over the Rainbow is due to this chord progression. If
you want further proof visit Youtube to see a hilarious
multi-song medley by Australian comedy group Axis of Awesome (warning:
there's a naughty word near the beginning.) It's in the key of E, if you want
to play along; the chords are: E B C#m A
3) What is the Circle of Fifths For Anyway? Songs from the pre-Rock n Roll
era (jazz, swing and tin-pan-alley type songs) often use a lot more chords than
those described above and are harder to figure out by ear. But this is where
the "circle of fifths" diagram that you often see at the front of
music tuition books can come in handy. Look at any song in the key of C. You'll
notice the last chord of the song is C and the one prior to it is almost always
G7. That G7 chord leaves us with a feeling of hanging. And then when we play the
C chord it's with a feeling of landing. In music theory G is known as the fifth
of C. Count on your fingers starting with C as the thumb: D is the index, E is
the middle finger, F is the ring finger and G is the fifth finger.
Do this again with G as the thumb. Count up from G and you
now find that D, the pinky, is the fifth note. Repeat this with D as the thumb
and you discover that A is the fifth of D. E is fifth of A and so on. (You
don't have to use your fingers but it helps me!)
Many songs use the sequence of fifths and knowing this can help a lot.
Take the song Five Foot Two Eyes of Blue. The chords go C E7 A7 D7 G7 C. You
can see it's all fifths: E is the fifth of A, A is the fifth of D, D is the
fifth of G, G is the fifth of C. Not all songs have such a nice string of
fifths but if a song is in C and everyone's playing an A7 it's a good bet the
next chord will be D7, after that G7 then C.
4) Transposing. As you work through the above
chord changes in the key of C you also need to transfer what you've learned
into other common keys. For example take a three or four chord song that you
always play in C and play it in the key of F. Now try it in other keys such as
G, A, D and Bb. Get used to doing this and you'll notice the difference next
time you are jamming.
Even a full understanding of all the above will not
guarantee that you always find the right chord. But your chances of success
will increase as you gain experience. Perhaps from time to time you'll play a
string of correct chords; the musical equivalent of scoring a goal or hitting a
home-run. And what a great feeling that will be!
© Ralph Shaw
Just "found" you - and what a great post this is! Thanks for posting - just the post I would like to have written myself!
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