No problem. I was responding to the text from here https://www.justinguitar.com/guitar-lessons/music-theory-live-class-i-chords-in-keys-pmtlc-001 which is āI have a challenge for you to complete before our next session! If you follow along with my challenges and stick with these Live Classes, weāll build up something cool. The Challenge for Live Class I is to write two chord progressionsā,
Finally got round for a listen Mari and really enjoyed those progressions. Some great chord choices, sounded real sweet. And the Gm fitted like a glove
Wow! I just listened to your recordings and they all sound very sweet!
@TheMadman_tobyjenner Iām a minor chordsā fan as well, why do they say theyāre sad? I thought that playing with the backing track made your fingerstyle really richer, I enjoyed that!
@Mari63 you played some very sweet chords there! I liked the strumming too
@TheCluelessLuthier your chords were very sweet too to my ear and loved the fingerpicking patterns
I have my progressions ready and only need to find sometime to recordā¦maybe tomorrowā¦I read your discussion about the number of bars and Iām afraid my verses are to short (only 4 bars) But Iām leaving it the way it is at the moment, itās just exploring and experimenting funā¦no more than something to learn from.
I watched the video after the live session and really enjoyed it. Iām taking the Music Theory course and found that the live class reinforced and clarified some things with which I was already familiar. And there were enough new concepts to pique my interest. Some discussion was over my head but that was OK; I expected that. For the first attempt I thought this was outstanding and I look forward to more!
Thatās not too short at all, Silvia. Justin referred to progressions as being commonly 4 bars or 8 bars. They can be any length you want really, but I interpret Justinās comments as saying that 4 bars is fine.
@SILVIA Sylvia, to echo what @Mari63 said, I thought I heard Justin specify two four- or eight-bar progressions, one feeling like a verse and one like a chorus if you can do that. Iām in Grade 2 guitar/Grade 3 PMT (Iāve read Grade 4 but havenāt done the exercises), so there wonāt be any fancy stuff coming from me at this point!
The Gm chord has the note Bb, which is not in the key of A major and sounds pretty rough over an A major chord.
If I let my ears guide me, then I perceive a different tonal center when you play the Dadd9 - Gm - D - A - E part. The E major chord at the end almost sounds out of key to my ears. As if you quickly modulated to a different key and then returned to the key of A major.
Another way to think of it, is that we borrow the Gm chord from a different key where it naturally occurs:
major keys: Bb major, Eb major and F major
minor keys: G minor (natural/harmonic/melodic), C minor (natural), D minor (natural/harmonic) and F minor (melodic)
The Gm chord is also found in the A phrygian mode.
Which one is it? I guess you can look at it however you want, but it doesnāt matter. It sounds lovely.
Thatās a lot of analysis @Jeff ! It kind of lands on āif it sounds good it is goodā, and thatās kind of where Iāve landed too, with no specific explanation
I wanted to keep it as simple as possible in order to use the progressions and apply what Iām learning in the Strumming Dynamics Courseā¦but no matter how much I practice with the metronome on the 8th notes strumming then I most of the times have to put some sort of double strumming in my patterns
Anywayā¦itās all homemade, hicups and messy hair included, and great fun to work it out.
Big thanks again to Brian for suggesting that maybe I was in the key of Bm and not D as I thought, and to Rick for suggesting a trick to find out where to find my homeā s key ā¦we need a key to get home, right? Butā¦what if we lose it?
finally got the time to catch up with the first online lesson and make my homework. But beforehand: It was a pleasure to listen to (and read through) all the progressions posted so far. It feels, creativity got a boost for us with this first session. At least it felt like that for me. So thanks for this nice little homework, Justin! You resurrected my songwriting itch.
Key: C
Verse: C |Am|F-Dm7|G played 2x
Chorus: Dm-C|G|Em-G|Am |Dm-C|G|Em-G7|C
Hereās how I play it:
Itās still a little rough and I had a hard time with RBS kicking in full strength this time (it probably wanted to protect me from my bad choice of clothing ), so I was extremely tense and had difficulties to remember my own progression.
The sound quality isnāt the best, as I only record via phone and amp position is probably not the best for this setting.
I think the easiest way to figure it out is to think of a couple of songs you like and you can play: what are the verse and the chorus like? How do they sound?