How do you know What chords go with what?

[mrhollywood]

Hello and goodmorning, currently I am a music producer. I have been teaching myself how to play piano with some success. I'm not really sure how chords work. My first question is how do you know which chords go with other chords? Also is there some type of pattern that I'm missing? Right now music as far as R&B and Pop are solely based on progressions. What I'm not understanding is If I'm playing in Ab how do I know what chords to use whether it be a dim, minor, Maj7 or what have you how do I find the right sounding chords?

Like for Instance why does this progession work? How does G#dim work in the key on C
7-3-6 progression (the note before the slash is the bass)

B / A-D-F (7)          B / A-D-F (7)           B / F-A-D (7)        
E / Ab-C-D-G (3)    E / Ab-B-D-F (3)       E / F-Ab-B-D (3)
A / G-C-E (6)         A / G-C-E (6)           A / E-A-C (6)
(repeat)                (repeat)                   (repeat)

[mad_max2024]

https://www.8notes.com/theory/

This is by far the best course on chords and progressions I found in the net
There's also a blues course on that site but I never went there
If you go through the theory one you will learn most things about scales, chords and common progressions

Not being a theory expert myself, I will wisely refrain from trying to explain more complex progressions and jazz and blues theory
I don't think there are many jazz, blues and pop musicians in this forum, we are all very classical oriented, but maybe some of the more theoretically cultivated people can offer you a hand...

[Bob]

I'm not quite understanding the chord progression notations you wrote out.


Short anwer... The chords can be built up from the major scale.  Stack thirds.  You get triads, then seventh chords.  Those chords work. 

There is a general heirarchy of how chords work.  They usually go back to I.  V goes to I.  V is a dominant chord -- Any type of dominant chord goes back to one, usually -- it could also go to vi as a deceptive cadence.

Generally goes follow these progression...

any      predominant (ii, IV)   dominant (V, viio)    tonic  (I)


And then there are "secondary" dominants -- Those just create a V I  or viio  I  to a chord other than I.   So in C Major, g#o   would be viio/vi -- a dominant function to the sixth step of the C Major scale   viio on the sixth step.


Generally chords form a progression and start somewhere, lead up to a domaninant chord, and that falls back to tonic -- which establishes the key or reinforces it.  You can go wherever you want, but that tonal center (key) will get blurred if you move away too much.

How do you know what chords to use?  That depends on the style.  If it's blues, then more seventh chords (or extended chords too).


If you take the major scale and make triads over each step -- just stack thirds, note    skip a note    note     skip a    note   note.

You end up with...

I Major triad
II minor triad
III minor triad
IV Major
V Major
VI minor
VII  diminished triad
I Major

And then another third for sevenths...
I Major seventh chord
II minor
III minor
IV Major
V Dominant seventh chord
VI minor
VII  half-diminished, or fully diminished (all minor 3rds)
I Major


Hope that helps.

Although you're not stuck with just those chords.  You can temporarily go into another key.  You can use chords that are outside of the key.  Whatever you want.  That's just a basic idea of how to explain these other chords that fit the key.

And then there's voicing -- how you arrange these notes.  You asked how you know the right chord to use.  If you use a chord in it's root position, it may sound better with a different voicing -- putting the third on the bottom, spreading the notes of the chord out instead of having them as close together.

[invictious]

This may perhaps be no use of you, but make you practice more.

to me, when you give me a piece with just a melody, no chords at all, to me it's all experience, EXPERIENCE helps me determine which chords fit. When I sit down and begin playing, my left hand just automatically does it for me, and all those notes just turn into color in my eyes and there, a beautiful melody.

Of course, if you are playing jazz/blues, then you'd use more 7th chords, etc.

[mrhollywood]

Thanks for you guys enlightening  me on these things. Bob you mentioned you can go into another key temporarily. I have a progression I would like for you to look over. Could you tell me why this progression works. The first Chord is Bb minor, the second chord is  B Major the third chord is Bb minor again and the last and 4th chord is F Major.

[overscore]

Hello and goodmorning, currently I am a music producer. I have been teaching myself how to play piano with some success. I'm not really sure how chords work. My first question is how do you know which chords go with other chords? Also is there some type of pattern that I'm missing? Right now music as far as R&B and Pop are solely based on progressions. What I'm not understanding is If I'm playing in Ab how do I know what chords to use whether it be a dim, minor, Maj7 or what have you how do I find the right sounding chords?

There are a set of basic chords for each key. Eg: in C major you have C, Dminor, E minor, F, G, Aminor. Then there's "borrowed chords" which for C are B flat, E flat and A flat (these add a very melodramatic momentary shifty in key). In ballads they often add sevenths to the minor chords (so, Dm7, Em7, Am7) or a suspended 2nd or 4th. Pop and rock rarely used diminished, augmented, sixths or other such fancy chords which are chiefly the province of jazz.

Also used frequently are major 7ths (Cmaj7 and F maj7) and dominant 7ths (C7, F7 and G7 - a dominant seventh is a flattened 7th).

So just transpose that lot, and that's a pretty comprehensive choice of chords.

How do you know which one to use? Well, the melody suggests the chords... you add them like a painter adds colour. Most people hear a chord progression in their head when they hear a naked melody anyway, although they may not always realise it!

[lenkaolenka]

You can't gain skills to pick right chords by learning theory about chords. It has to be practice, when first you have simple melodies and three basic chords, which can accompany it
Tonica Subdominant and Dominant
You have to learn how to play it in different keys and when you are capable to do it on the fly, you may start going to more advanced levels with alterations
Here is an example how I teach that in my studio:

 

[timothy42b]

I know this is probably wrong but here is what I've done when I had to put harmony to a simple melody without much time (like a last minute change in church.)

I look at the melody and figure out the scale.  It is pretty easy to tell which notes are the 1, 2, 3, etc. of the scale.

Then I play a I chord on 1, 3, 5, and 8; a IV chord on 4 and 6, and a V7 on 2 and 7. 

Okay, it's not elegant, but it works.  I know the close positions in all three inversions for those chords.  Eventually I'll get more sophisticated with this.