UkeForever
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| Joined: | Sat Nov 13th, 2004 |
| Location: | Moreno Valley, California USA |
| Posts: | 1092 |
| Instrument Interest: | Ukulele, Bluegrass Banjo, Guitar, Keyboards |
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Most pop & folk songs resolve somewhere in the key that they're in--usually the first or last chord (but not always). Listen to bass notes, and listen to that chord where you think the song could stop comfortably. That's usually the key it's in.
If you can find the bass note of the key the song is in, then you can start narrowing down your other chord choices--most pop & folk songs use fairly simple chord patterns, revolving around the I, IV, and V chord in whatever key you find.
If your root chord is a minor chord, you're in a minor key (like "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner" by Warren Zevon). The song "Werewolves of London" begins on the V chord, and resolves to the I chord. (The progression for that song is V, IV, I.) I don't know why I'm thinking about old Warren, but I am...
Many times, if you follow the bass note, you can figure out the name of the chord. The big "however" there is that sometimes the bass note is an inversion of some kind. That is, the bass player is playing one of the other notes in the triad. I would say that the most common inversion in pop is playing the third. That is, if the guitar player is strumming a G chord, the bass player may run up to the third (B) in anticipation of the IV chord (which is C). It sounds nice. You can play around with these things by isolating those notes on your guitar and then playing the chord. The second most common inversion is probably not really an inversion at all, but the bass player plays the second note of a chord to get a suspended feeling, like with C/D or G/A.
In any case, I don't know how helpful I've been. If you know your chords and basic scales, you can figure this stuff out. But the bass note is the big giveaway, in my opinion.
Online help abounds for chord progressions. Almost everything is up on the web.
Last edited on Sun Mar 1st, 2009 12:48 am by UkeForever
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