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Hi,

I want to learn the common chord progressions in all keys.

This is rather basic stuff so I thought I would easily find some software or website with some exercices (ie asking the 2-5-1 in B flat and I have to answer the chord names).

I know I can figure all this out by myself, but I always learn much faster doing some drills. It kind of motivates me to get better

Do you know of any software or website that offers this possibility.
If not, I think I'm going to make a program myself, but I'd rather save the time to practice piano

Don't know of anything, sorry. But if you decide to make the program, let me know. :-)

Links for piano studies
http://members.aol.com/chang8828/contents.htm

http://www.pianonanny.com/
http://aebersold.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?
http://www.musictheory.net/index.html
http://www.phildegreg.com/harmonytext.html
http://www.jazzcenter.org/
http://www.melbay.com/
http://www.apassion4jazz.net/keys.html

hope you can find something there to help. DPVJAZZ

The link "http://aebersold.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?
Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=JAZZ&Category_Code=_HANDBOOK" wasn't all "link" in your post".

Anyway, I can't wait to look into a few of those. Tomorrow, though, now I'm going to bed.

Learn Pachelbel's Canon in all keys first and just run through the roots/chords in your mind. It's pretty easy and all diatonic chords with a really formulaic root movement (fifth).

Then learn the first eight bars of Autumn Leaves. Again a very formulaic diatonic root movement (fourths). There is one chord that isn't diatonic however in the sixth bar (V7/vi).

Most tunes are going to revolve around root movement of fourth or fifth. You may run into a chord substitution once in while which can be derived back to its original chord.

Knowing your way around these progressions will do wonders for you!

I'm pretty sure Musition does this.

www.sibelius.com

On this topic, can anyone name a few "classic" songs that use the 2-5-1 progression?

Autumn Leaves
All the Things You Are
Cherokee
Four
How High The Moon
Just Friends


I'll leave it at that, as this is REAL hard to do while I'm listening to a Beethoven piano concerto at the moment, but there are ii-V-I progressions in here also!

Every classic song uses ii-V7-I somewhere!!

DenCato,

I like the Chord Wheel very much. The graphic at the lower left shows a clear plastic "wheel" which is rotated around the circle. Simple, but effective. I've been using one for four years and also have given it as a gift.

Any drill that you find in any key can easily be transposed, using the Chord Wheel.

DavidH

Learn the Circle of Fourths (aka the Circle of Fifths). If you go around the circle in the direction of the fourths, you'll have your 2-5-1 progression. The 1-chord is the chord you end up on.

The circle (in case you don't know it yet):

C# (7 #) = Db
F# (6 #) = Gb
B (5 #) = Cb
E (4 #)
A (3 #)
D (2 #)
G (1 #)
C
F (1 b)
Bb (2 b)
Eb (3 b)
Ab (4 b)
Db (5 b) = C#
Gb (6 b) = F#
Cb (7 b) = B

For example: 2-5-1 in C is D-G-C. Not surprisingly, that's exactly how the circle goes. Likewise, 2-5-1 in Bb is C-F-Bb. Almost too easy.

In fact, many other common chord progressions are simply a trip around the circle of fourths: 6-2-5-1, 7-3-6-2-5-1.

There are plenty of exercises for going around the circle. Here's one I like, using maj7 chords:

LH | RH
C | C E G B
F | C E F A
Bb | Bb D F A
Eb | Bb D Eb G
...

See the pattern? First you lower the top two notes. Then you lower the bottom two notes. Then the top two notes again. Repeat until you're through the circle.

Oh, before I forget: I have a set of audio drills for major scales that you can play on your computer or mp3 player.

I wrote a program that asks: "what is the 1st of C major, what is the 2nd of C major, what is the 3rd", etc, for all 12 major scales. Then I made the computer speak these questions into mp3 files.

To practice, I let my media player play these questions in a random order. Answers are provided after 1 second, so you have to answer quickly. I find it helps to train myself this way.

If anyone would like to have these audio drills, I can upload them somewhere. Let me know.

Thanks all!

I checked out Musition, but it didn't seem to have what I was looking for.

I like the idea of taking Canon in D and playing it in all keys, but at the moment it seems such a hard job for me (only been playing for 14 months).

I want to learn this stuff the 'baby steps' way, as I still have my classical peaces to finish and those little Bach preludes are killing me

The Chord Wheel looks very very interesting. I'll check it out.

Mahlzeit, please upload

I'll take all the help I can get and it seems a great idea to me.

Here it is: http://www.playzeit.com/theory-drills-mp3.zip

(About 1MB; 105 mp3 files inside the ZIP file.)

Hope it helps!

Thanks, ipgrunt. As a lover of blues/folk/rock and a former churchgoer, 1-4-5, 1-5-1, 4-1-5-1, etc, progressions are burned onto my brain, but any other progressions I have to work out by scanning chord charts. The "2-5-1" is frequently mentioned as being everywhere, but I have no sense of it in my mind's ear...

Thanks a lot!
Great robotic voice

You'll get it....if you have a fake book, learn a few new tunes each week. Look for the songs with familiar names (older songs, not current pop songs).

In these older songs (called standards), most of the V - I progressions ( C7 - F, G7 - C, etc.) you can substitute the ii-V for the V chord.

Last note: There's a great book by Luke Gillespie out of Indiana U. titled Stylistic ii-V-I Voicings for Keyboard. It contains basic voicings with alterations for just this progression, with examples of usage and applications in major, minor, modal situations with many examples....I've used this book for years to keep my playing fresh and recommend it highly.

Thanks for sharing! Nice job.

Pastafarian.

Sing this: Do Re Mi Fa Sol
Now sing this: Re-Sol-Do

This is 2-5-1.

Now listen to whatever jazz you have on at the moment and find the tonic pitch relative to the tune you are listening to. Now find Re-Sol-Do.

Now listen for this root movement in the tune.