Jaden Kim teaches musicians to predict chord changes by thinking of chords as scale degrees. Most pop songs use just four chords (1, 4, 5, 6), so after hearing a progression like 4-6-5, you can guess the next chord through elimination. Build a mental database of common patterns and the predictions become instinctive.
Yo, if chord changes are catching you off guard, and like, when stuff starts to change, you're just like, oh, where am I? I don't exactly know what to do. I'm kind of just skating. We're gonna help you fix that today. So we're gonna apply this to the concept of, like, some songs using, like, the 1, 4, 5, and 6 chords, which are, like, if you weren't aware, like, the most common chords in music. And so something that can really help you get into this is, first of all, if you're not already thinking about your chords as numbers, you're like on step minus one. And so first of all, just knowing, you know, instead of saying G, D, E minor, c to say 1, 5, 6 and 4. And as you start to study more songs with these combinations of the 1, 4, 5 and 6 chords, you start to realize that, like, there's only so many combinations that can happen. And that in the same way that you can tell that this is pentatonic and this is scalar, You start to develop this sense of, okay, something is only using these, like, basic 1, 4, 5, and 6 chords. Or maybe something's using something like jazzier chords. You know, if I were to go like, you know, this is. That's more than just 1, 4, you know, 1 5, you know, this cowboy open chord style. And so how does this relate to hearing chords before they happen? Well, let's say you're just listening to a song and it's kind of in your ear and you haven't been paying, like, too much attention, but you can kind of feel that it's. It seems like it's using these normal expected group of 1, 4, 5, and 6 chords. So if I play any progression and you can start to figure out three of those chords, oftentimes very easy to figure out the fourth one. Let's say I had a progression like this, 4, 6, and if it ends on this, in the third chord, it's this V chord, there's a very good chance that the next chord that's going to happen is going to be the chord that I haven't used, that which is my I chord. I'm just going to play that one more time, right? 4, 6, 5, 1. Right. And so just by, like, process of elimination, I could guess that it's like, okay, yeah, the next one's probably gonna be one. And so what if it's not one, though? That gives us some really great information too. Let's do the same thing, but let's go to a different chord. Let's go from four to six to five. And instead of going to our expected one, I go to, oh, it didn't go where I expected. I instead went to this, like, minor place. And so that's gonna be the sixth chord. Fortunately, if you're improvising the one and six chords share a lot of notes, so you'll be okay either way. But you can start to key into the fact that it's like, okay, that was a little unexpected. And then once you figure out what the progression is numerically, you just loop it. And why is this better than just like, okay, well, I get it. I know that the progression C, E minor, D, G. And I can tell that that's in the key of G. Like, why isn't it just enough for me to know that? Because that's not training your ear to hear the real story here. If I say that something, you know, C to E minor, that doesn't tell you the full story. C to E minor does not tell you where it lies in the scale, right? But if I say four to six, there's an implication there that with the IV chord, okay, I'm starting away from home here, and that the, the chord scale is not a C major scale, but instead it's, you know, derived from G. And that sixth chord is the same group of notes and this V chord and that we're gonna come back here to this home. And so the short answer to this is, is how do you start hearing the chords before they happen? Well, you have to build up a database, a bank of progressions that you know, and progression that you've analyzed numerically so you can start to see these patterns. Like, hey, what tends to happen after the V chord? Give you a hint. Oftentimes it's going to go to the one chord. And if it doesn't go to the one chord, what are some ways that my expectations are subverted? You know, like that second layer. It's like, let's say I go to, you know, four, five, and you're expecting, ah, right. How can we subvert that expectation? And what does it sound like? 4, 5. Oh, we're kind of like blue balling. You know, we're going just between a four and a five. Ultimate blue ball. Oh, it went to like this minor, darker feeling place. Oh, so that means that they went to six. And so your brain is constantly, after you've done analysis long enough, like, making these predictions about where things can logically go. And the great thing is, like, guys, there's like six chords that get Used in pop music, if you can get a mastery of like four of them, you have like 80% of the work done. And so if you. If every single song that you play is not mapped out to numbers, how they fit within the tunnel map, Analyze songs in minor based around 6, by the way. Like, you're not going to be able to start seeing the patterns. You're not going to really be able to speak this language. And so you're going to be caught off guard for the rest of your life. And so really quick, just to give you an example of this, I'm going to play you a progression now, and I'm only going to use, like those basic 1, 4, 5, and 6 chords. And I want to tell you what, I want you to tell me what, what you think the next chord is going to be. Okay, great. So let's say I go 1, 6, 4. What could the next chord possibly be? It's quite obvious. It's going to be five, it's going to be five, and we go back to one. Like that's like the expected place for it to go. I used up my three out of my four chords. Let's do another one. Okay, I'm gonna go 4, 1, 5. Where is it gonna go? What's the only one we didn't use yet? 6. Now, I'm not saying it has to go there, but when you start to train your brain to hear these patterns of, like, what, what's expected when it becomes unexpected, you can make a better educated guess. And then eventually it's not even guessing. You just know what it is. It's like you don't guess that this is red, you just know that it's red. That's really what it feels like to understand chords by ear. Once you actually get this, there's no guessing involved. You just know what it is because you know what it is. You know how it makes you feel. Yes. If you want to get more into this in a structured, methodical way, check the link in my bio. I got something special for you guys. It's totally free. It'll get you started on how to develop this way. This lens of seeing used numerically and relative to the tonal octave. So you can actually integrate this into your practice and what you're doing. Cool. If you have any other video requests or questions, leave them in the comments. Bye.
