r/musictheory

Does anyone have good chord progressions that give the feel of yearning or longing. I want to put a poem I wrote about liking someone in a relationship to words but I don't know what chords to use.

I've been doing more ear training as I'm away from my instrument more regularly; I've been using tonedear. At first I wasbad at intervals, then I got good at it. Then I was bad at chord identification then I also became good at it, then I was bad at scale identification then I became good at it.
But no matter how hard I try, I can't seem to stop mixing up the IV and V in progressions. It should seem easy because they do have completely different feelings, or emotions, when used within a piece, but for some reason I always mix them up.

Do you guys have any trick or way of imagining it that helps? Or I just have to drill more?

It really messes up with my brain when I am learning music theory. Why can’t we just call things how they behave harmonically? Not just how they literally sound like? Like, then why don’t we call a part of a melody going from F to C in C major suddenly a switch to lydian mode for the five notes? But we still say it is C major?

Also, when analysing a piece harmonically, how do I know if like some sonorities is either some G major susaddomit13 chord or idk F minor susaddomit15 chord inverted on a note? If they are literally the same notes? (I know these chords are not, they aren’t even real, I am just trying to convey my idea)

Hi this is my first time analyzing something other than a bach choral or hymnal and I'm kinda confused by the movement of the voices and how that affects the harmony. I'm analyzing Haydns Bird Quartet and e.g. in Bar 20 (see picture) the voices seem to move so much that I can't quite tell what the chord in that bar is supposed to be or if there's multiple. So can someone explain how I should approach this?

https://preview.redd.it/kd38dtpwb32h1.png?width=1493&format=png&auto=webp&s=5c582bdaeef21cbf077134a421dae98ded48db0f

singing for a funeral next week. not familiar with the song but this seems to be the only key i can comfortably sing it in. i need to find the right backing track. thanks :))

I've been listening and playing around with a piano piece in the key of D major, and there's a moment that sounds incredibly "heaven" and I'd love to understand why.

The progression sits on Gmaj7 (IVmaj7) for a while, then resolves down to D (I). But right before returning to Gmaj7, it briefly passes through E7/D and that fleeting moment has this floating, almost otherworldly quality that I can't stop listening to. It gets even better when it resolves to a Gadd9

Why does this work so well, and is there a name for what's happening here?

Hi, I'm looking for an app for my Mac which will allow me to make written notes and include a staff which will playback what I've written on it. So basically, I'll end up with an interactive book.

It's to serve as an aide memoire.

I currently use Dorico for scoring.

Many thanks.

It just seems unnecessarily confusing. Why not just use Roman numerals instead? At least those are related to what's going on in the music. Number IV is the fourth note in the key, and you can then see that note as the base point of a scale set in that key. The scale of the iv in the key of G will start at C, and it'll have a sharp at F, I remember my FGCDAEB, I know what that looks like. It's simple, elegant, it makes sense.

What the fuck does C Lydian look like. What the hell does that tell me about the scale. It doesn't tell me the accidentals, it doesn't tell me about the consonance of the chords. Except maybe now I know this scale will make me feel like a citizen of the ancient Greek kingdom of Lydia?

And the thing is that a lot of teachers and online resources see them as different things? Like all of the charts online expect you to memorize the exact Roman Numerals of each chord for each mode, and then they expect you to memorize the whole step whole step half step shabangle for every mode. That's what my teacher had me do for CM; she had me memorize the exact whole step whole step half step thing for every single mode.

We just have so many things relating to the same thing, the position of the note in a scale. Roman Numerals, Modes, Degrees, and minor scales (Like why not just call the minor scale, the vi, the submediant, or the Aeolian, why is it fucking special). There is just so much redundancy and added complexity to something that really shouldn't be that complex.

I will concede that degrees are somewhat useful in a descriptive manner. The dominant resolves to the tonic, above the tonic is supertonic, and in the middle is the mediant, this all makes sense, and maybe it has some use. But I see no reason for the existence of modes. Or maybe I'm missing something.

Since i'm just starting with modal music, i'm looking for any example in the songs i like, and i love post punk.

If you don't know a modal post punk song, can you please give me any tip in order to find one myself, because everything is so new that i don't even know how to recognize it.

Why doesnt it work when i play neither D note nor Eb note over when there is a Eb chord (it should be Eb not D# right? ) https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/tom-odell/the-end-chords-5078149
The root note should be part of the chord for sure right? It sounds funky though. According to my estimations all chords fit Gminor scale.

Playing without capo transposed to 3

Is there something more about it that i need to know?

I’m trying to write my first piece and it’s supposed to be a Bossa nova but I just don’t know if it is one. I don’t know how it sounds like and, even though i’ve been sticking to everything I think I know about Bossa, I’m still bothered by the fact it might not even sound like one 😭

I’m not sure what to do at this point because I still haven’t properly learned how to read what I’m writing (I’ve had to repeat two years of class unfortunately) and it’s not like I can play two instruments at once

please help me :(