Step 4: Our second chord is a passing B major at the end of the bar, so we copy the A major chord we just made and paste it into position at 1.3.4.1, then shift the whole thing up two semitones.

When you use a scale, say, C major, you are playing ‘in the key of C’. The word ‘diatonic’ simply means ‘within a key’, so a diatonic chord progression is a set of chords made up of notes from within ...

This bright but unusual sounding mode became popular among shredders after Joe Satriani and Steve Vai used it in the 80s. Here, Stuart Ryan explains what gives the Lydian mode its signature sound ...

Bars 1-4 We kick things off with an arpeggio figure based around the chords of A minor and F Major, extended to highlight the scale’s stronger intervals, giving the progression a rich mood and ...

You may have seen one of the various online videos in which a musician will demonstrate ‘100 songs in 4 minutes’ or ‘play 50 songs with only these 4 chords’ and so on. There is a slight ...

The chord progression in “Denial Is A River” is especially peculiar because it’s so ... but it’s centered on A. Think of an A Major scale with a G♮ replacing the usual G# as the 7th ...

Pop music might come off as formulaic sometimes, and, to some extent, that’s probably true. Hook Theory is a song database, and after analyzing 1,300 popular songs, looking at the chord ...