Hearing chord changes

[linfe18]

Hello everyone, I just started playing the piano for about a year and half.
I would like to know how to recognize chord changes(It's hard for me to know where a chord goes next).
Thanks in advance.

[musallio]

Hi Linfe,

I would advise that you spend time reading the theory sections on progression.
Most of the important stuff has been stickied by T-Block.

Amongst the things you will learn there is that most songs follow a structured pattern, eg, 7-3-6 or 2-5-1 or 1-5-4 or 1-4-5-1 or 3-6-2 or 1-6-4-5 etc.

But it's one thing to know this theory, it's another to train your ear to hear these progressions so that you can say, "that sounds like a 7-3-6!!!".

That's the starting point.

All the best.

[linfe18]

thank you very much for the help. God bless.

[floaded27]

try to work out hearing your intervals. 7-3-6-2-5-1 or any portion of that is moving in perfect 4ths which is usually easiest to identify. others would be moving a 5th, a 2nd or a 3rd. It sounds complicated but its easier than you think. You can identify when the chord moves, this is just getting used to hearing how FAR it moved in either direction.


once you do that, listen for the chord quality (major or minor or diminished first, then all the other stuff). for non-over-the-top-complicated songs, this helps you tell which interval it is.
For example all of these move in 4ths, but there is a difference in the combination of chord qualities
7-3-6 => dim - min - min
3-6-2 => min - min - min
6-2-5 => min - min - maj
2-5-1 => min - maj - maj
5-1-4 => maj - maj - maj

now when some folks wanna get tricky, they change chord quality, but  you should be able to figure that out at your instrument.

after that there's tricky stuff, like chords outside the diatonic scale that arent always diminished chords. you just have to be at your instrument, find the root note, then work out the chord quality. after a while your ear should be able to recognize them. its like being able to spot your friend in a crowd of people.

[musallio]

try to work out hearing your intervals. 7-3-6-2-5-1 or any portion of that is moving in perfect 4ths which is usually easiest to identify. others would be moving a 5th, a 2nd or a 3rd. It sounds complicated but its easier than you think. You can identify when the chord moves, this is just getting used to hearing how FAR it moved in either direction.


once you do that, listen for the chord quality (major or minor or diminished first, then all the other stuff). for non-over-the-top-complicated songs, this helps you tell which interval it is.
For example all of these move in 4ths, but there is a difference in the combination of chord qualities
7-3-6 => dim - min - min
3-6-2 => min - min - min
6-2-5 => min - min - maj
2-5-1 => min - maj - maj
5-1-4 => maj - maj - maj

now when some folks wanna get tricky, they change chord quality, but  you should be able to figure that out at your instrument.

after that there's tricky stuff, like chords outside the diatonic scale that arent always diminished chords. you just have to be at your instrument, find the root note, then work out the chord quality. after a while your ear should be able to recognize them. its like being able to spot your friend in a crowd of people.

I like...

[raegenius]

.........
..........................

once you do that, listen for the chord quality (major or minor or diminished first, then all the other stuff). for non-over-the-top-complicated songs, this helps you tell which interval it is.
For example all of these move in 4ths, but there is a difference in the combination of chord qualities
7-3-6 => dim - min - min
3-6-2 => min - min - min
6-2-5 => min - min - maj
2-5-1 => min - maj - maj
5-1-4 => maj - maj - maj

now when some folks wanna get tricky, they change chord quality, but  you should be able to figure that out at your instrument.

after that there's tricky stuff, like chords outside the diatonic scale that arent always diminished chords. you just have to be at your instrument, find the root note, then work out the chord quality. after a while your ear should be able to recognize them. its like being able to spot your friend in a crowd of people.

That's an interesting relationship!

[T-Block]

Floaded summed it up: intervals & chord qualities