Understanding Progressions.

[4hisglory]

For a while, I could not understand what a Progression was,  I knew, for example that: D, G, C was a 2 5 1 in the key of C but when I saw chords like:

Left Hand / Right Hand
D / F A C E
G / F A B E
C / E G B D

or especially (whcih is the same progressions)

D / FM7
G / FM7b5
C / Em7


Two things happened which really helped me to understand

1.  I stopped looking at the chords as a left hand right hand thing and started looking at the chords as a unit.

Before I use to just think:

C E G was a root chord
E G C was the first inversion
G C E was the 2nd inversion

This information is good to know, but was useless to me when I went to play the keyboard.

Finally I realized that (actually I think I read it somewhere):

C / C E G was a root
C / E G C was also root position
C / G C E was also root postition.

This really help me to realize that I have to think of the entire chord and not as a left hand right hand thingy.


2. Secondly, I took the time to start to learn my chords.  Once, I started to learn my chords, I really started to understand the progressions.  I could see that:

D / FM7 or D / F A C E

was actually a Dm9 (D minor 9) chord

G / FM7b5 or G / F A B E

was actually a G13 chord and

C / Em7 or C / E G B D

was a CM9 (C Major 9) chord.

[B3Wannabe]

Sweet!

[sjonathan02]

G / Fm7b5


Wouldn't this chord be written out as:

G/ F Ab B Eb


If not, I'm confused all over again.

Thanks for the clarity,
Jonathan

[4hisglory]

Oooppsss.....It was suppose to be FM7b5.  I have corrected it.

[sjonathan02]

Oooppsss.....It was suppose to be FM7b5.  I have corrected it.

Yahoo! I'm back in the land of the sane. Thanks, 4HG

[michaeln]

Please tell me, if you're using both hands together where/how do you chose the bass/left hand note?  I've been practicing what you wrote above and i love it, because i pray before every practice and more practice means more prayer and more prayer means more power.  God bless you and your teaching of song/music.

[T-Block]

michaeln wrote:

Please tell me, if you're using both hands together where/how do you chose the bass/left hand note?

I'll answer this one.  Usually the bass/left hand note is just the root of your chord.  If you play a G7, the bass note will usually be G.  If you play a Cm, the bass note will usually be C.  I say usually because there are always exceptions.  Those exceptions give us what we call inversions.  That means any member of the chord can be the bass note and you will still have that chord.  Here is an example:

G7 chord: G-B-D-F
G / G-B-D-F  or  G / B-D-F  or  G / D-F-B (root)
B / G-B-D-F  or  B / G-D-F  or  B / D-F-G (1st inversion)
D / G-B-D-F  or  D / G-B-F  or  D / B-F-G (2nd inversion)
F / G-B-D-F  or  F / G-B-D  or  F / B-D-G (3rd inversion)

All those chords up there are G7 chords.  Which note you choose to put in the bass gives you a different inversion, which gives you a different sound.  Does that make sense to you?

[4hisglory]

Nice explaination T-Block.

[michaeln]

Yes, I understand that.  I don't fully understand chording structure enough yet.  I using J Griggs play by ear coarse and just haven't gotten that far.  But I'm picking up quickly.  Thanks again