How do I learn what chord to play next?

jaggy89trillion

New member
Hi Guys.

I've been studying music theory trying to learn certain things, and the main thing I wanted to ask is If anyone knew how to find the next chord to play?.

For example say I play a G# Major 7th, how would I determine what chord would suit next?. I've been trying to learn more neo soul / rnb chords and I know the major 7th chords are very popular in this music, but I'm just having trouble finding how to play the next chord?.

Is there anything specific I should search or?

Thanks,

Jag
 
Theres different common chord progressions. Take the famous I IV V progression for a G#. G# being your I then count up 4 including your root would be C# and 5 D#.(the 7th is just a added) I would google chord progression charts and just know how the roman numbers work. Uppercase maj (IV, II) lowercase minor (iv, ii) etc. Im not very good at theory myself but thats the way I've always done it.
 
Yes, studying standard progressions and song forms would be a good idea. Some things are standard because they "work" and we like to hear them. Other reasons are that certain chords work together theoretically. Study the Circle of Fifths (sometimes just playing around with moving through that will give you some good ideas to work with).

Your question as it stands, is pretty open-ended. Imagine someone starting a car, pulling out of the driveway, and then posting a query as to "Where to go next?" It depends. It depends on what you want to accomplish, where you want to go, how you want to get there, etc. Same thing with your musical question. "What is the correct next chord?" The answer (if you are composing and not trying to recreate another already existing song) is "The one that sounds right to you."
 
For basic learning of chords and/or progressions I suggest this:

For now lets stick to C major scale and learn the most used chords in that scale:

Major Chords: C, F, G
Minor chords: Dm, Em, Am

I further suggest a 4 chord progression throughout the song till you are familiar with these.

Some usable progressions are:
G - Am - Em - C
C - Am - F - G
Am - Em - C - G

There are off many more but this is just to get you or others started.

One of my favorite songwriters (Ryan Tedder) uses these progressions all the time from start to finish in many of his hit songs and the above progressions are used in Halo, Bleeding Love and Apologize.

Best of luck.
 
Its not so much about which chords suit following others. It's more about knowing what the musical effect of chord combinations is.

Every combination is valid. Just pick a bunch at random from a key and you have a chord sequence. A standard mode only has 7 options, there isn't much space to go wrong. It might sound out of place with reference to a particular genre (many genres are quite prescriptive about what chords to use and when). It only gets tricky when you deviate from standard modes (which some newbs do without realising, making it hard to write harmonies and progressions).

There's really no replacement for trial and error (which after years of practice becomes internalised into a more spontaneous seeming skill).

There are some things to think about though:

1) I have found that if the number of distinct notes in the chords changes it's noticable. So with a chord sequence of triads a seventh will stick out. You might want that or not. Similarly if you had one chord with a doubled note in it, which sounds like 2 notes rather than 3, that would stand out. It would sound kinda flat.

2) The chord sequence will sound more disjointed if the next chord shares no notes with the previous. For example going from C to Dm will sound less fluid that going from C to F (since both share a C).

3) Parallels sound different to non-parallels. The above example (C to Dm) is very parallel. Sequences of triads without inversions or suspensions sound almost childish.
 
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