1. Try to understand the chords meaning from its context, basically in the flow of the progression and key of the song. When you're reading books if you come across a word you don't know you highlight them then get your dictionary and look them up so that you can UNDERSTAND their meaning. Same thing with chords!!
I'm glad that you used the word "context". So often people think of chords as discrete units with only one meaning. But, just like words that can have more than one meaning or more than one sound (or more than one spelling for the same sound) as well as shades of meaning depending how they are used in a sentence, a chord too can have multiple meanings depending on the context (sometimes at the same time).
A "C major chord" in isolation has no meaning -- is it the tonic (I), is it the sub-dominant (IV) or a dominant (V)? Is it "borrowed" temporarily from another key (V of V) or is it just there for color because it just happens to sound good. That C chord has 12 different key contexts (24 if we consider major and minor separate) as well as numerous shades within a given key. It's meaning can also change whether it is root position or in an inversion.
In language, if I were to say to pronounce "read" would you pronounce it like "reed" or like "red". And how do you pronounce "ough"? As in "rough", "through", or "though"?
And if I were to ask you to spell from the sound of "to/too/two" or "for/four/fore" would you know which one to spell without some context?
And consider the seemingly innocuous sentence (at least when written) "I'm going to the store." can be imbued with subtle meanings by how its said:
I'm going to the store. (Does anyone need anything?)
I'm going to the store. (You aren't)
I'm
going to the store. (Don't try to stop me)
I'm going to the
store. (not to the library)
I could even turn it into the very simplified form -- "I go store." and it would still be understood.
In music, chords are a part of our vocabulary. They make up the dictionary. We learn how to spell them. But, just learning how to build chords is a little like reading the dictionary and considering that one has actually read all of the books in the English Language.
Harmony is about how chords work and are used in different contexts. It is a part of the grammar of music.
First, there are the progression patterns. These are like the language phrase books. They are often used basic patterns to allow you to find the bathroom, or a restaurant. As children, we learn and internalize these basic patterns so that we can speak off the top of our heads without having to figure out how to form every sentence.
But, as we develop in our ability to use language, we learn how to modify those patterns and how to use our vocabulary in new ways and even to play with words.
The same with music. Once we have certain progression patterns down, we start using them and trying different combinations. We discover that we can add or remove chords from the pattern, or even reverse them. We discover that the affect changes depending on how long the chord is sounded (harmonic rhythm). We discover that some of the chords in the harmony are decoration which, while enhancing or heightening the meaning, doesn't substantially alter the meaning. We discover that with our chord "words" we can add subtle shades of meaning to them by adding 7ths, 9ths, 11ths, and 13ths and/or chromatically alter a note or two. We can even learn to make the equivalent of musical puns and musical satire -- just listen to P.D.Q. Bach.
One of my favorites is in Beethoven's 5th piano concerto ("Emperor"). There is the transition from the 2nd to the third movement where it sounds like the orchestra has lost their place and the conductor has left the podium. He keeps this up long enough for the listener to wonder what has happened and then breaks into the rousing finale. It takes an exceptional orchestra to actually pull it off.
Anyway, thanx again for talking about context. I think that it is important for musicians (particularly earlier level musicians) to begin to understand this.
