Music Theory Live Class #I

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 :slight_smile: ā€œI have a challenge for you to complete before our next session! :slight_smile: If you follow along with my challenges and stick with these Live Classes, weā€™ll build up something cool. The Challenge for Live Class I is to write two chord progressionsā€,

Happy to listen to them but I wont be :slight_smile:

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That is great, much cleaner chords than I can play. All sounded very musical and fitted together well.

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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 :sunglasses:

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Wow! I just listened to your recordings and they all sound very sweet!

@TheMadman_tobyjenner Iā€™m a minor chordsā€™ fan as well, why do they say theyā€™re sad? I thought that playing with the backing track made your fingerstyle really richer, I enjoyed that! :notes::notes::notes:

@Mari63 you played some very sweet chords there! I liked the strumming too :blush:

@TheCluelessLuthier your chords were very sweet too to my ear and loved the fingerpicking patterns :notes::notes::notes:

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 Iā€™m afraid my verses are to short (only 4 bars) :thinking: But Iā€™m leaving it the way it is at the moment, itā€™s just exploring and experimenting funā€¦no more than something to learn from.

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Thank you Silvia, you canā€™t beat a bit of mean and moody. :sunglasses:

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I watched the video after the live session and really enjoyed it. Iā€™m 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!

Thatā€™s 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 Justinā€™s comments as saying that 4 bars is fine.

Mari

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@Silvia80 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. Iā€™m in Grade 2 guitar/Grade 3 PMT (Iā€™ve read Grade 4 but havenā€™t done the exercises), so there wonā€™t be any fancy stuff coming from me at this point!

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@Uninvitedguest i quite liked your progression, and I thought the similarity between the opening bars of both our progressions was kind of cool!

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Thanks Toby. Now if I could only figure out why it worked, or if itā€™s just one of those things that work even though it maybe shouldnā€™t!

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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 doesnā€™t matter. It sounds lovely.

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A video of the chord progression:

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Thatā€™s a lot of analysis @Jeff ! It kind of lands on ā€˜if it sounds good it is goodā€™, and thatā€™s kind of where Iā€™ve landed too, with no specific explanation :slightly_smiling_face:

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Em / D (or Bm7) / C / B7 (related or ā€œstolenā€ from the Andalusian Cadence)

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Hello everybodyā€¦here are my chord progressions

Verse: Bm Em F#m G
Chorus: D A Em A

I wanted to keep it as simple as possible in order to use the progressions and apply what Iā€™m 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 :see_no_evil:
Anywayā€¦itā€™s 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? :blush: Butā€¦what if we lose it? :thinking:

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Hi folks, :smiley:

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! :smiley: You resurrected my songwriting itch. :rofl:

Key: C
Verse: C |Am|F-Dm7|G played 2x
Chorus: Dm-C|G|Em-G|Am |Dm-C|G|Em-G7|C

Hereā€™s how I play it:

Itā€™s 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 :rofl:), so I was extremely tense and had difficulties to remember my own progression. :roll_eyes:

The sound quality isnā€™t the best, as I only record via phone and amp position is probably not the best for this setting.

Cheers - Lisa

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These are my chord progressions:
KEY OF G
VERSES:
G C
Amin C G

CHORUS
Amin C G w/ Cadd9
Amin C Amin Emin D

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I really enjoyed the first live class, in every aspect. Can someone please explain a ā€œverse-likeā€ vs. ā€œchorus-likeā€ chord progression. Thanks

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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?

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Iā€™m just watching the video and, at around the 15 minute mark, Justin shares his screen with this:

EDIT: But toward the end he says itā€™s not essential that the chords chosen are in they key, but it would be a good starting point.

Cheers,

Keith

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