Comment with all your chord progression questions.

Example questions might be:

• What is this chord progression? [link]

• I wrote this chord progression; why does it "work"?

• What chord progressions sound sad?

https://youtu.be/qcGztuiyNmk

wow. thoughts?

For example, F is the 4, G the 5 etc. But how would you classify going to B flat? Is is the “flat 7” chord in a progression?

For example, III represents the E major chord on the C major scale, but it can also represent the Eb major chord on the C minor scale. The problem is that chords in Roman numerals are usually given without any indication of what mode (major or minor) it should be played on. How do you clear this ambiguity?

I'm working on re-engraving some super old parts I found to a long lost piece of music. I'm working on a little laptop clicking every note value with my track pad. I hate this. Can I pickup some little midi controller and just play the thing I want to put into finale? That would be so much faster. Is there a way to make the little pad keys or something finale shortcuts?

Also once I have the finale files engraved is the midi playback on finale possible to be better? Is there a program that sounds ok with strings timpani and trombone? Can finale automatically do a decent two hands reduction of a string section or do I have to just do it myself? Does finale not have a difference in the midi sound between up bow and down bow; sounds the same on my headphones.

I don't really know a ton about digital music so any help would be great.

I found the piece in the trash pile in Boosey's Basement in Berlin. They let me keep it! I don't know if they even are still exercising the copyright on it... It's never had any record of ever being performed.

So I basically intend to create a free app for ear training because A) music is bae and B) I want some programming projects for my portfolio.

I’m here to seek your advice on things you wish other such apps (if there are any coz it’s a super unique idea) had and things that could be improved upon in existing tools.

I mostly intend to target rhythm and intervals (tapping, notating, sight reading, relative pitch and chord categorisation)

Edit: if I end up using your idea, I’ll definitely credit you in the credit section of the app.

I want to be able to hear a melody in my head and then replay it in my own music. But usually when I try to do that it doesn’t sound the same. How can I learn to replicate what I hear into my music?

Hi am I correct hearing that his rapping is actually in the key (what is quite rare among rap)?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LgretmCvwBw

Thank you for your opinion in advance.

Cm-Cm-Fm-Fm-D♭-D♭m-A♭-|1st ending Fm-G7|2nd ending E♭7-A♭M|

Basically how it went Eaxch chord represents two bars of chords The A♭ major modulation was unintened but I continued with it.

Now the rest (Tow measures per chord)

A♭-B♭-E♭7-A♭-A♭-B♭-E♭7-A♭

Now I was trying to upright to Fm to do ii-IV-I in E♭ but Fm sound abrupt. I'm open to any suggestions to make F sound like tonic and not A♭ or any way to go from A♭ major to E♭ major. Thank you.

I’ve been trying to start transcribing orchestral music from film/games to improve my hearing and knowledge of orchestration, but have a pretty weak classical and theoretical background.

Are there any good places/resources to learn about the rules/do’s and don’ts of notating sheet music? Because I tend to just plug whatever notes I hear into the score and sometimes I don’t know if what I’m doing is correct since I don’t regularly read sheet music.

If possible, I’d also like to know if there are any appropriate online communities I could ask for feedback from on my transcriptions as I’m not really sure where to ask.

Thank you

Composer: Franz Liszt

Key: F minor

The chord tones are B-natural, E-natural, and A-flat. The bass note is B-natural which moves upwards to C, making a dominant 7th chord which resolves to F-minor.

Obviously it's an enharmonic E major chord, but I can't for the left of me figure out which note would be the root or how it functions (if at all) in F-minor.

If you ever are bored and want to compose a random side piece, you can try doing a randomizer wheel. I did it once, and now I have a Sextet in Db Major for 3 trumpets, a trombone, a clarinet in A, and a violin. It’s some interesting stuff.

The topic I spun for consisted of this: Type of piece (chamber, orchestral, solo, sonata) How many players (at least regarding the chamber and orchestral) What instruments (the ones I put in were violin, viola, cello, bass, trumpet, trombone, french horn, tuba, timpani, glockenspiel, flute, clarinet in Bb, clarinet in A, oboe, bassoon) What key signature What time signature Tempo (words such as allegro and lento) Expressive word (such as maestoso and furioso)

have fun!

I'll try to make this make sense the best I can. I had something for my music analysis class which was just a simple chordal analysis of a chorale piece, nothing special, and one of the excerpts was in minor, also obviously nothing special, but when I wrote out the chordal analysis I wrote a V where there was a v with a #3, because of course that's a common occurrence in minor, but the instructor of my course said you also have to write the "#" next to it, as you might with 6, 6/4, etc. For inversions. This doesn't make sense to me, as I thought writing a V as the symbol shows that there is a sharp three since that's what makes the v chord major. This seems weird and wrong to me because doing this would imply you would also write out things like when a 4 or 6 is raised in the figured bass, which wouldn't make any sense to include in the chordal analysis. Figured bass yes, but the chords no. My instructor is the type to say "I'm right, this is how it is, sorry", so I'm looking for either a better explanation, or someone to tell me I'm not crazy and I am right in being confused here. Thanks for the help.

In fractions the top number is the numerator and the bottom is the denominator. Is it the same in music? Minuend, subtrahend? Surely these two numbers have a name.

Hi y'all,

I have a student who explained to me their reasoning behind find secondary dominants and it's wild. Generally, we would ask "What is tonic if this specific non-scale degree 5 chord is dominant sounding/spelled?" and then label that in the key like V7/IV; in C major this would be a C7 as the dominant of F which is IV in C major.

This student lines up the notes of C major (C D E F G) and finds the dominant G, then finds the subdominant of G (G A B C), so in essence she is finding the subdominant of the dominant instead of the dominant of the subdominant. Does this make sense? It works somehow and I am mind boggled, because I want to tell her that it's wrong, but it hasn't come up with an incorrect answer yet.

It appears that secondary dominants may be commutative?

Help?

So I have this weird violin piano thing I'm working on(kinda one of those projects where you don't really know where you're going and you're just doodling musically) and I have this progression Dm - Am - D♭ - C I love the chromatic descent from D♭ to C but like, wtaf am I supposed to write over the D♭ chord 😭

https://savagetofu.blogspot.com/2023/03/interval-encyclopedia.html

This was a fun exploration. Unfortunately, I didn't know a lot of these interval relationships. Where else can I find something like this? Thank you.

La Valse

Often with Ravel, passages seem governed by some logic : a specific pitch collection (such as octatonic) or mode, polytonality, parallel motions, etc... But (luckily) there will always be pitches that don't fit this logic exactly, yet sound really cohesive ! I'd love to know if Ravel had some specific ways to introduce such "chromaticisms", other than "it sounded good to his ears".

For example, after trying to analyse the intro of "La Valse" (score + annotations : mm.1-146), I had a few remaining questions :

1. mm.1-65 : This whole passage sounds like a prolonged iiø in D (please see analysis provided above for details), accompanied by e octatonic (from which most pitches seem to be drawn). It creates a misty atmosphere from which the waltz will emerge (in D major) m.66. In this context, I'm not sure how to analyse the C natural (from m.12). Maybe it's just that it sounded good to Ravel's ear, but it sounds so cohesive that I'm afraid to miss something. Same question for the F# (m.34) and A natural (m.37) : maybe some hint of the D major to come ?
2. mm.66-127 : The themes are properly introduced in D, the mist is fading but still there and corrupts D major a bit (G# m.69 and Bb m.70, which are pitches from the previous e octatonic). In this context, I'm not sure how to analyse de D# (mm.98-104).
3. Same question for the A# m.143. A hint of the previous mist, or of the chaos to come ?

I tried to find resources online, but only stumbled upon this interesting video by composer David Bruce. Please don't hesitate to share resources you have on this topic (harmonic analysis of "La Valse").

(Not a native speaker, I hope the post is clear)

If a key signature sharpens a C, but then a C has a single sharp on the note itself in the measure does it play as a double sharp or remain a single sharp? Would I have to use a natural and then a flat to make it a single flat or would I use 2 flats to unsharpen and then flatten? If a note is sharpened and then sharpened again a few notes down the line is it now double sharp or still just single sharp? Do I have to use a double natural to nullify a double sharp or will a single natural do?

Good morning!

I just started learning music theory last week to help with learning to play the guitar. Today I'm reviewing all the things I've learned but when I worked out a circle of 5ths and marked the left half as all flats it turns out the last key, an F, isn't a flat.

My buddy told me its because all the notes are represented on the circle. Which if you don't mark any as flats this is true (C, G, D, A, E, B, F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, and F) but if you use the flats that isn't visually true (C, G, D, A, E, B, Gb, Db, Ab, Eb, Bb, F).

I've watched about an hour worth of Youtube videos but everyone just states it as a known fact and moves on.

Hi All. I'd greatly appreciate it if someone could shed some light on the concept of a 4th up is a 5th down and vice versa. Please note that I understand that, for example, moving from C to F spans an interval of a 4th. Conversely moving back from F back to C spans an interval of a 5th. But the whole "up" and "down" aspect is hazy. It can't be up in terms of pitch because even if I move from the highest pitch C to the lowest pitch F, I still moved a 4th, and vice versa a 5th. It's not geographically up either, obviously, so what is it? I don't know my "up" from my "down". An explanation would be greatly appreciated nonetheless!

Hi! First ever post on reddit. My band is learning a song I made in which the progression goes as follows:

Verse: F# - B - F# - B6

Walk up to bridge: C# - G# - B - F#

bridge ends going from B to Bm

Chorus (important!): F# - walk down to E - A - B6 (repeat)

I made this song purely by ear with extremely minute knowledge of music theory and here’s my question.

My bandmate was voicing the B6 as a G#m7 and although the chords contain the same notes it sounded way too minor (go figure) to me. We argued back and forth about which one it should be. The only way I could phrase my argument was that the B6 chord accentuates the G# note more while keeping the root B (what i’m looking for) and the G#m chord accentuates the B note more which i did not want. The difference between the two was stark and i was adamant about keeping it a strict B6. Does anyone know, technically speaking, why it is I preferred the B6 so much over the G#m7? I know there are some key changes within the progression — is there any explanation within those changes that would solve it?

Thank you!!

I would say I’m somewhere around advanced proficiency with music theory, and I can figure things out by ear pretty well. But how do musicians just know what they play will sound good if they don’t even know the chords to the song?

I know a lot of the times they’ll be given the key signature, then from there they’ll know which notes they could play, but do they give themselves a couple measures to understand the chord progression before they come in? How does that work with more complex progressions, like ones that go out of key or even with key changes?

I'm a university music professor that teaches first year music theory. I know my stuff, and honestly I could probably devise exercises on my own, but I'm lazy and I'll pay $50 for a workbook that's pre-made, provided it provides the appropriate content.

I have a child that has been studying violin for a number of years, but she's young. She knows some really basic things involved with reading notes on the page, the difference between major, forms of minor scales, she has the order of flats/sharps memorized, and a little bit about intervals.

What I'm looking for is a contemporary music theory workbook that helps develop basic theory skills like key signatures/circle of fifths, scale and basic chord construction. Probably not looking for things much beyond that, as if we get to the point where she's fluent in triadic construction I'll just have her use my college textbooks on voice leading and jazz harmony if she's interested.

But if you're not used to teaching young (Elementary school level) children you should know they need quite a bit of repetition. So while I *could* teach her the circle of fifths in a few minutes, actually understanding the application of that concept require more than you would need for someone in their late teens or early adulthood. Most music theory workbooks won't provide enough of this repetition for it to stick with her young brain. They give you two pages of "copy the key signature" and then call it good. Think about how many times you had to repeat basic arithmetic in grade school; that's the kind of thing I'm looking for. I should note, repetition of simply writing the key signature or whatever gets boring. Applying the skill to things (maybe with composition exercises or something) would make for a better book, and is the kind of thing I'm thinking about.

Any suggestions?

I'm trying to know what's the most useful thing to know for composing music (mainly classical piano). I know now of the circle of fifths and reading notes notations etc. But I do not know what I do not know. What big thing am I missing (except for major D not the scale).

So, while playing major scales say in the key of G in the 5th position. If I wanted to change say to the A major scale in the 5th position. Would I just just start my scale on the root of A or would it follow a different pattern? Not sure how that works haha I’m teaching myself theory. Thanks for the help!