Ear Expansion: Chord Progressions
Learn all about what chord progressions are and why they’re important in music.
After completing this module: you will understand what chord progressions are and how learning to recognise the most common ones will help you to be more musical.
Chord progressions are the sequence of chords in music, one after another, which create the harmonic changes that keep music interesting.
With chord progression ear training you can learn to play chords by ear, knowing instinctively what chord will come next in a song.
Benefits
- Easily play chords by ear
- Use familiar patterns in your music creation
- Know which notes will sound right
- Understand why many songs sound similar
Module Preview
Introduction
Watch the introduction video for the module and learn how chord progressions ear training helps you play by ear and better enjoy and understand musical harmony.
You’ll also meet “the tonic” and get a quick primer on the special notation used for talking about chord progressions.
Why do Chord Progressions Ear Training
Discover how chord ear training can help you, whether you:
- Play chords on your instrument
- Don’t play chords yourself
- Play with other musicians
- … or just love listening to music!
How to do Chord Progressions Ear Training
If you try to learn chord progressions just by listening to all the songs out there, it’s far too much to take in.
Here the process of chord progression ear training is broken down into a simple starting point and a logical way to continue your training. So you can start recognising sequences of chords immediately, and expand your ability steadily from there.
Chord Progressions Ear Training Tips
Don’t make the same mistakes so many other musicians have made before you.
With these tips for chord ear training you’ll know exactly what you should and shouldn’t be doing to succeed with chord ear training.
Listen to Examples
You hear chord progressions in music all day every day – and some of them even sound familiar. But do you know what they are?
Listen to 3 of the most frequently used chord progressions. Each is played as a simple demonstration, then a more complex arrangement, then in a real song.
Try It!
Now it’s time to start testing your ability to recognise progressions by ear.
Use these simple exercises to test the listening skills you’ve acquired so far in the module.
Quiz
Test your chord progression knowledge with the interactive end-of-module quiz.
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