Howdy guitar enthusiasts,
We have an upcoming Club happening August 29th at 8:30 pm BST. It will be an Open Q&A session with Justin!
Cheers,
The JustinGuitar Team
Really love these live interactive sessions. I wasn’t live because of timezone issue. Watched the recording and surprised to see the questions as many were above Grade 3 of theory course.
Thank you Justin and the Team for putting all this together.
That was really a pity I couldn’t make it to attend the Class as I had some questions about Scales and Keys!
But I hope the absence can be considered justified: one of our favourite local band was performing in a bar nearby and we loved the concert! I’ m going to check the lesson soon!
Now that I watched the lesson I have more questions than before! Which seems quite a natural thing 
So much input and very good questions too; a lot was about stuff I haven’t studied yet, but I somehow found those demonstrations on the guitar soloing over the looper (chords progressions) more effective than words and I thought it a good pre-taste of what I’ll study as I progress in the PMT Course.
About the last question, there was a typo and the song is “Bella Ciao” (which gave me problems last year as someone thought it shouldn’t be sung at school 
) Anyway I’m not sure I understood the question right…is it about how you raise up a tone the chord progression of a song? Which is actually a little trick that catches the listener’s ear when you do it on the last verse of the song…I thought it was a good question…the song I’m learning at the moment gets from the key of G to the key of A in the last verse by using an A7 and then Dsus4 and D…I thought D is a chord which is common to the two keys, that’s why maybe it works…
Thank you for these sessions…I always find them very interesting!
Do you mean G to A or A to G?
If A to G …
A major as tonic shifts to become A7. A subtle yet vital change. This is now a dominant 7 chord. A7 is not found in the primary key of A major. It cannot be. Tonic I chords extend to become major 7 not dominant 7. Only the V chord is dominant 7. A7 a secondary dominant. It is the V chord in the key of D major. It therefore pushes the progression towards a D chord. The tension of A7 is resolved by the resolution of D. The resolution is delayed by placing Dsus4 between. Then D itself takes on the role of secondary dominant. It is the V chord in the key of G. It pushes the progression through a key change.
A (tonic) → A7 (secondary dominant) → Dsus4 → D (secondary dominant) → G (new tonic)
Changing tonic to a dominant 7, as a precursor to changing key via secondary dominant, is a move you will come to recognise.
If G to A it would be useful to know where the A7 comes in. D is common to both keys and its use to modulate from one key to the other means it can be described as a pivot chord. D is the IV chord in the key of A. IV chords do also provide a push to a new tonic, just not as powerful as V to I chord. If it goes G → A7 → Dsus4 → D → A the A7 is a secondary dominant but an optional extra not needed to steer to D because, as stated, D is already in the key and can arrive naturally.
@Richard_close2u Thanks Richard for your reply…in today’s practice I’m trying to make my ear make sense of what you wrote about tension and resolution.
The song is in the key of G, only the last verse and chorus are played in the key of A (same chord progressions) and in between there’s this bridge
where (Am7 Bm and C) = one bar and the D4 starts on A7’s AND after 2 (this push feeling is very peculiar of the all song).
Interestingly before the bridge the verse ends with a A7 D4 D and it end like that even before after the chorus into a new verse in the key of G
The A7 is played when in the key of G, in the key of A it becomes a B7.
Maybe the link to the sheet music will be more clear than my screenshots
Thank you for helping me analyse this!
The link you shared takes to a site that I must confess makes me confused and have to do a lot of calculations. I need to translate to chord names and Roman numerals as I am very slow at working with solfege. And this site seems to use fixed DO solfege which is even more confusing for me when a key change occurs.
From the link you shared, I needed to use the transpose button. Using it (+ 7 semitones) brought me to the same instrumental as you shared above (beginning on DO = C major chord.
That means the sections are:
Intro
Chord movement (not written in bars)
G → D → C → D
G → D → C → D
G → D → C → D
As Roman numerals
I → V → IV → V
I → V → IV → V
I → V → IV → V
Verse
Chord movement (not written in bars) chords not in the key of G are bold
G → D → C → D
G → D → C → D
G → D → A7 → D
Dsus4 → D → C → Bm
C → D → B7 → Em
C → Am7 → D → G
D → C → D
As Roman numerals
I → V → IV → V
I → V → IV → V
I → V → II7 → V
Vsus4 → V → IV → iii
IV → V → III7 → vi
IV → iim7 → V → I
V → IV → V
Both A7 (pushing the the D chord) and B7 (pushing to the Em chord) are secondary dominants. These chords do not belong to the key but are placed there deliberately and give a sense of forward movement towards the subsequent chord.
Instrumental
Chord movement (not written in bars) chords not in the key of G are bold
C → G/B → Am7 → Bm → C → D
C → G/B → A7 → Dsus4 → D
As Roman numerals
IV → I → ii7 → iii → IV → V
IV → I → II7 → Vsus4 → V
Once again, A7 is a secondary dominant pushing the the D chord.
The fact that this break ends on a D chord and immediately shifts to the new key of A major for the final verse and chorus confirms that D is being used as a pivot chord. It is common to the keys of G major and A major so can act as a smooth door to travel through in making the key change seem natural and not abrupt or forced.
Final Verse (key change from G major to A major)
Chord movement (not written in bars) chords not in the key of G are bold
A → E → D → E
A → E → D → E
A → E → B7 → E
Esus4 → E → D → C#m
D → E → C#7 → F#m
D → Bm7 → E7 → A
F#m → Bm7 → E → A
F#m → Bm7 → E
As Roman numerals
I → V → IV → V
I → V → IV → V
I → V → II7 → V
Vsus4 → V → IV → iii
IV → V → III7 → vi
IV → ii7 → V7 → I
vi → ii7 → V → I
vi → ii7 → V
Thanks a lot Richard for such a detailed analysis, I’m taking this as an example and do it from now on for each new song I’ll study.
I’m sorry it took you longer to translate from the solfege system, we don’t use the letters for notes and chords here in Italy: C Chord is translated as "accordo di DO. This is actually one of the best italian sites for sheet music, and also the youtube channel is quite good even if I don’t find it beginner friendly. I use letters for my own music sheets though, because it’s easier to write the chord exactly on the syllable where it is supposed to fall.
Since I study my Music Theory in English I get confused all the time with my C (which I pronounce like ‘Si’) and my B which I have in my head like SI (TI in english) 
all great fun 
Back to the song those 7ths do sound really good and go along really well with the melody.
This is useful to know, as I often need to do my own arrangements of little easy tunes: now I have an additional tool of which I’m aware for those too.
Thanks again for all your help, it’s much appreciated!
