This changed how I write Chord Progressions

Everybody writes chords progressions, but not many folks seem to do this anymore. Today we'll take a look at a different approach to harmony that's time-tested.
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[@JamesonNathanJones]

I made a new eBook specifically about the harmony concepts I use every day. You can grab it here if you'd like. It's free :) bit.ly/FreeHarmonyGuide

[@ryan.noakes]

"Rick Beato made me say it." Omg I laughed so hard at that!

[@Drotz]

Me too 🤣

[@edwinbrown9951]

lol

[@NoahHornberger]

I started out composing parts with one line at a time because I couldn't play the piano but I could sing. So I would just play the line I was singing and stack them. it worked to help me produce clear ideas but then I learned about chords and everything got more complicated. Chords are about color, not melody or harmony . . .It took me 10 years of that to go back to writing how I started. In my mind chords are the important results of writing good lines . . . but starting with them before you really understand harmonic leading can be a problem. Nice reminders here! Also it helps to work with an instrument with rich overtones because then a single note is already thick like a chord but more simple. Regarding part doubling as weakness: I think of it as a special effect, like a delay or a phaser, use doubled notes to draw attention to a reality in the music, like a pause that says "this". Or someone being very obvious to explain something. Thinking of doubled notes as 'weak' feels like missing all the good things they can do for your music.

[@unclemick-synths]

I think in his example the problem with the doubling is it's at transitory point and sounds unintentional.

[@JamesonNathanJones]

There's nothing inherently wrong with doubling. You're right, it can be a useful tool if used intentionally. In this case I only had two parts and didn't want to sacrifice one of them by doubling. The harmony gets very "skinny" in that moment, and it wasn't my intent, so it was a weakness to me.

[@102wingnut]

Chords are just the lines and harmony all played together. Or broken up into arpeggios or broken chords.

[@VenusTheory]

Oky but pls sned midi chord pack for 8 ez payment of $99.95

[@JamesonNathanJones]

I was told the pros didn't want any of us to know about that.....

[@robthequiet]

😂😂😂😂😂

[@darrenjharris9907]

Chords and chord progressions are free on the internet

[@ELLIOT8209]

​@@darrenjharris9907he's kidding. He shared a link to chord progressions on github

[@FASTFASTmusic]

Voice leading is EVERYTHING. That's the beauty of the keyboard. And also the beatuyof DAWs by selecting the "Toppest notes" and dropping an octave then raising the "bottomest" notes up an octave, repeat until everything sits within one octave - insta voice leading.

[@LindseyKyle]

I love how the simple example becomes the melody in the outro music starting at 9:52! Awesome!

[@karl.weaver]

Thanks

[@JamesonNathanJones]

Thanks Karl!

[@cybercassette]

Nice video! One way that works for me to come up with chord progressions: Use a drone note in the chord progression and stick to it (make sure the rest of the notes you built around it stay in key). Then the experimental stage begins, and sometimes it can take quite a while to get it right. When experimenting, do weird stuff! You might accidentally come across something cool you didn't know existed. Just follow your ears and gut when something sounds right. If it sounds right, leave it at that, and move on to the next set of chords. It's not a sin to re-use notes from a previous chord if it makes sense in the whole progression. You can always go back and change them later to make them make sense or improve them in the whole sequence. It's like modeling clay; you're working towards an end result with small iterations and victories. As for being 'stuck in the loop': Look up the "2 loop rule". Listen to the loop you have and go over it with your mind as if it were a full track; think about how you want it to progress beyond the loop you have already made. I often use humming and beatboxing to come up with a next phrase, no joke! Another way I do this is to pick a melodic part of the loop and cut it up/change it and paste it behind the loop that I already have. For parts with a kick drum for example I usually shorten them up and use a small section which includes the root note and use it in the next loop, to be consistent with the key of the track. After that, the iterative part starts again; making the transition fit smoothly between the two loops by changing stuff around, adding/deleting parts and/or coming up with completely new parts that fit the track etc., while keeping the progression of the track itself in mind. Rinse and repeat the above process and you'll notice it will go easier every time you do it. Also, don't be afraid to re-use loops in a track when it makes sense; familiarity can be a satisfying thing when it comes to music. Otherwise you can also use the familiar 'Intro', 'Verse', 'Chorus', 'Break' and 'Outro' segenments to structure your track. For pop tracks the structure is "I-V-C-V-C-B-C-C-O" I believe which works well in some cases, but is by no means a structure you must abide to. Hope this helps out some people! Send me a message if you have any questions!

[@davidasher22]

One benefit of being self-taught is developing alternative ways of thinking about music. I was surprised when I started music theory in high school. Until then, my system was simply recognizing where the half-steps were and anticipating what notes not to play. When they introduced concepts like tonic, dominant, and subdominant, it seemed confusing and overcomplicated. Over the years, I’ve become well-versed in Western music theory, but I’m definitely most creative when I return to that simplistic mindset I developed as a kid.

[@EversonBernardes]

One big issue is that (western) music theory is often taught in a way that seems prescriptive, when in reality it is descriptive: it's not a set of rules, it's a set of explanations. It's a toolset to analyze things and that's about it.

[@davidasher22]

@@EversonBernardes I agree!

[@francistomalik]

Awesome, harmony is essential. Even simple stacking of harmonic content throughout a track I found does wonders. Thanks for the freebie too. You give out a lot, appreciated.

[@MNolanMillar]

The way I've begun conceptualising the reversal in my composition process is from bottom up, to top down. I used to think about chord progressions first, then build melodies around them. This led me to producing boring, clunky, repetitive sequences of short progressions and I often got stuck in loops. Now, I'm thinking in terms of emotion, texture, and melody, before worrying about structure. Naturally, it's often necessary to let the harmony lead the melody, but my process is moving towards an interplay between or oscillation from one direction to the other, like repeatedly zooming in and back out. On the other hand, adding limitations such as chord progressions and structures can aid the composition process as it pushes you to find creative solutions to conceal the fact you're using a stock standard foundation. This also provides good exercise when learning, whether that be as a beginner learning to write simple progressions, or even moving from simple to intermediate. I wouldn't call myself an advanced composer, but I find the new approach much more satisfying.

[@michaelkonomos]

I like the "start with two parts" tip.

[@peterhaerens3014]

Tyvm for all your insights. If you had been my teacher 40 years ago, I could have been a good composer...

[@TenorCantusFirmus]

That's why they teach you counterpoint - Voice-leading is perhaps even more important than "raw" chord succession.

[@oliverdenyer]

Really simple but powerful advice! Can’t believe no one’s explained it like this before. thanks

[@WillRoan]

JNJ. I loved the ending. Hear how the progression turned into a track!

[@chouettesuper]

I love your videos, one of the best musical channel on youtube! Thank you for your work and generosity. I discovered you on a random sponsorised insta post. A brand using your music without crediting you.. After a quick Shazam if discovered Signals, love this album. I didn't realized immediately it was also you here on youtube, it's so cool to see the pertinence and the value of your theories/advices on your music. Sorry on the bad english, not my native language. Lot of love!

[@edwinbrown9951]

Another great video. Thanks again Jameson.

[@jeffreygower7937]

I liked how the example he used and demoed near the end was incorporated (for the most part) into the video's final background music. Cleverly done!

[@distantsea]

Why make two songs when can make one? It's pretty smart

[@ackzz]

Great info thanks 👍👍👍

[@slimyelow]

2:40 - a chord can also overstay and extend its welcome and there while become the superstar of the show.

[@slimyelow]

After many years of writing vertical and linear, I found that vertical sounds great when employed explicitly over time or extended harmonic rhythm. This approach of course goes past the typical 8 bar loop. Vertical can be like a ladder, where you escalate your composition over time and space in both directions. I have truly grown fond of massive vertical structures that hit exactly when they are supposed to in a composition. It provides great drama, which is so satisfactory.

[@docjoesweeney]

Very interesting and practical discussion. The idea of starting with only two notes is useful.

[@joegrant413]

hanging on every word here! Trying to resist the temptation to just crank chords out through scaler 2 :-)

[@RooftopKoreansMusic]

You'd be better off doing that because he doesn't say a fucking thing in this whole video... or rather he could just be telling you to use scaler... "you used scaler? Those chords are linear!" whatever the fuck that means.

[@Sultingas]

This looks like the basis of four part harmony, it makes chords feel a lot more natural and integrated.

[@invisiblejay7573]

Beautiful lesson. Thanks Jameson.

[@amado7760]

Thanks Jameson. I appreciate the shared wisdom.

[@fewunderstandthis7355]

I watch a lot of different YT channels - often casually in the background. Your channel is consistently high signal, great content and well executed! Other than “liking and subscribing”, please let viewers know how we can help. Pura Vida 🤙

[@Marklar3]

Good video, but the doubling point at 8:09 might be misleading. What he has there is a direct octave, where the octave is a approached (edit: or followed) in the same direction by both voices. Octaves can sound great in 2 part counterpoint if you move the voices in contrary motion. I'm sure Jameson is aware that counterpoint uses octaves all the time, and avoiding all doubling can be a good exercise, and sometimes a problem solver, but I wouldn't want beginners to take it the wrong way and think you can never double.

[@JamesonNathanJones]

Certainly nothing inherently wrong with doubling. The fewer parts there are the more it feels like sacrificing a part, even if only for a moment. Especially true when we leave functional harmony. Contrary motion allows us to maintain a sense of linear independence between voices, but it just wasn't my intent in this case and the harmony gets noticeably thin in that moment.

[@Marklar3]

@@JamesonNathanJones I bet you could make a great video about siuations where doubling/octaves are good.

[@cornishwavesmusic]

Always get a lot from your material mate, thanks so much

[@hyperborea1062]

Cool video ! Helps to understand musical harmony. Don't you have any ideas to create a video on working with musical image ? Hello from the Urals

[@audiolego]

Depeche Mode's first song from the new album called "my cosmos is mine". I felt was like this chord change. It really was a confusing on the chorus but somehow Depeche made it work.. Some ppl might like that.

[@chambre466]

thank you for this lesson

[@Chalisque]

Rather than thinking about block chords, think about melodic lines and counterpoint. A while back I read the classic book by Fux. Basically you want to avoid parallel 4ths and 5ths, and a few other things that I can't remember.

[@robthequiet]

Parallel octaves.

[@Chalisque]

@@robthequiet Yep, that was one of the 'few other things'.

[@TheTimeshadows]

Ooh, effing good one, Mr. Jones. I really got something out of this one.

[@paulhazel]

Thank you. Great advice.

[@smd1uk]

Thanks very much, this is really useful.

[@lfakroll]

Playing walking bass lines gave me a lot of tools for writing melodies. It helps by having a chord progression to begin with tho. Chord tones will feel at rest compared to chromatic notes or diatonic extensions. I like using the unique extensions on diatonic chords between the chord tones, chord tones go on the strong beats of each bar, #11 on the IV chord, b9 on the iii chord for example. #11 can be cool on all major chords too

[@lfakroll]

It can also be cool to remove the chords after writing lines. Several songs have a funky bassline without chords

[@FlashStallone]

I think you've touched on this concept before, but it didn't click for me. Now I'm picking up what you're putting down. P.s. Turning is a killer track. I'm going to jam it now.

[@aspirativemusicproduction2135]

The highest notes of a chord progression have to work as a melody. That's what people hear the most. That's something I noticed when I had to learn Bach. Maybe Bach didn't have modern concepts of chords but there is something to learn from him. So what do I do? I write the highest notes of the chords first. Than I write the notes below. It could be thirths, fourths, fifths.... Whatever works. At than once you have the skeleton of a chord progression you start improvising melodies. After you have a melody and basic chords you can figure out the scale. The rest becomes just arangement. Everyone can write music just fallowing these steps. It's good to have basic knowledge of what chord is and what interval is. In the software I use the notes played on piano roll are highlighted. If you just have a melody you can use the highlighted notes to figure out what notes to use for your chords and melodies. You don't have to strictly follow music theory but it helps. That's for the people in comment section. I hope someone find use of it.

[@Mopsie]

That soundtrack is dope

[@JonathanClark99]

very cool! Thanks for this!

[@wearetemporary]

Contrary motion are the bellows of musical breath.

[@MotoMarios]

Very interesting. It proves that my feeling stifled at thinking in chord terms is justified. I play the bass predominantly and the way I produce interesting compositions is to write a bass line, having a particular emotion or "story" to tell, just with the bass notes alone. I don't think in chord or even scale terms. Just tell the story. Then, I overlay an improvised guitar part on top of it. I try to expand the story of the bass and add context and phrases. I think in terms of emotional impact and the whole fretboard can be used. I keep what sounds interesting and throw away the rest. It's essentially counterpointing, creating the chords along the way. I've written some very nice stuff this way, far away from the conventional chord-centric songwriting.

[@InsidesAndOutsides]

"Rick Beato made me say that." - instant tee shirt design.

[@winknotes]

Brilliant!

[@waltersir7306]

Great video good sir

[@JamesonNathanJones]

Thank you sir

[@lovv731]

love u bro i was wondering if you could do a track breakdown of one of ur songs on ur latest album. thanks!!

[@karl.weaver]

Invaluable information.

[@Clasam09]

Hello, thank you for explaining such an interesting concept to me. Could you please explain what you mean how you changed the cadence between the 2 examples at 8:23 and 8:46? Thx

[@LouisSerieusement]

4:11 "Et passer au Français, à la moitié de la phrase."

[@itswinterandrews]

Another great lesson!! Unrelated q - how are you getting those glitchy percussion sounds in the outro?

[@yoryoryoryor]

Super cool and useful to someone with just about basic music theory knowledge. So, after you have these two notes do you go back and start to add even more in? I suppose you would do that for sections that require more energy or colour?

[@ChunterInfo]

RE: The same harmonic language I've never had someone mention this to me because I think they didn't know how to say it. I like to work in simpler pop song harmonies but drop in more complicated ideas from jazz for quick turnarounds or connecting bridges, and if I go a little too far with it people will tell me it sounds too weird, now I think I know why and how far an exploration like that should go.

[@stevhard]

Checking my understanding: I've written two lines. They stand on their own. When listened to together, the lower part becomes the roots of my chords and the higher part is my... melody? Or is the higher part just the upper notes of my chords (melody to be added later)? What would be the plan of attack for the third line? And the fourth? The third line would give me a triad. Does it need to work as a stand alone line too? Is its purpose to determine whether the triad is major or minor or is it a free agent determining its own voice leading destiny? And then how to get it to play nice with the other two lines through the entirety of their lines? Should the third line operate above or below the melody/upper chord note? Then what if I want a fourth line. Etc? Then when viewed horizontally again, how do I give them a name so I can communicate them to someone who doesn't read music? I'm assuming once I have four lines voice leading independently, the chord name isn't going to be a standard "CMaj7" or something like that.

[@EversonBernardes]

Traditionally, you add as many lines as you have parts (or you feel like it) and make it sound good, each one working well as their own thing. There are no rules as to what it should be and where it should be, if it sounds good, it is good. Later you can figure out what role they play within chords. You can "linearize" the chords by taking all the "vertical" notes of each chord and stack them in thirds. Sometimes you'll be missing a third (as in major/minor) - that can be derived from the scale you're using, usually - sometimes you'll be missing a fifth - almost always a perfect fifth does the job. Sometimes you won't have a third but you'll have a 9th or an 11th and you can call it a sus2 or a sus4. That will allow you to figure out the chords you're working with. Most likely you'll have some upper extensions, 9ths, 11ths, maybe 13ths.

[@robthequiet]

Maybe you only need two lines. Imagine them sung by two singers as a duet.

[@aspirativemusicproduction2135]

If you know the notes of the scale you play you know all the chords without knowing all the chords. Especially when using software. I find software as valuable tool to get things going.

[@arowbolt1263]

I often start with synth bass when i try to make some dark progression, just because it has this style you know, I wouldn't get the same results using piano. Also when you see some soundtracks they get the vibe by using just 2 notes, for example jeremy soule. I just think sometimes using 3 notes in start get to classic and prevents from thinking creatively. Just my thoughts :D

[@slimyelow]

7:57 - Modest Mussorgsky

[@chambre466]

yes

[@krudler406]

personally i have found that actually trying to learn how to play keys mitigates this problem, because playing "vertical" chords gets old pretty fast. of course, then youd have to actually learn something so.... clearly not for everyone.

[@Streck0_909]

Guess it's true what they say. You can take the man out of the organ, but you can't take the organ out of the man. 😉The counterpoint is strong with this channel.

[@JustMikeH]

Wow, I had evolved into this on my own. Glad to know I'm not totally insane (about this, at least). - Also still laughing about "Rick Beatto make me say..."

[@rasheedlewis1]

Someone should make a DAW plugin that can allow you to write on a grand staff (or whatever staff) on your iPad and it converts it to MIDI on your computer DAW. There you go. That’s your music technology grad school project. You’re welcome.

[@georgH]

About changing from tertian to quartal harmony, but what if we understand it as a suspension or an appogiatura? It would create the quartal chord until its resolution. Example, FAC, FGC, EGC. In this case in addition of the tertian to quartal, there are 2 shared notes between each of the chords. What do you think about this?

[@JamesonNathanJones]

Absolutely. Completely depends on the context.

[@KarlRKaiser]

The traditional term for this point of view is "voice leading".

[@Fiveash-Art]

Dude .. your background music is F'ing brilliant .. I wanna steal it... You can't steal chords .. you can't steal progressions? Man of Steel could if he wasn't wearing a stupid suit like James gunn Ok'ed. When you spoke about the chord that spoiled the next .. reminds me of every Jeff Lynne ELO song I've ever heard .. but I love ELO .. WHY? am I stupid?

[@RooftopKoreansMusic]

Dude, wtf are you even TRYING to say? "think of it vertically not linearly, then the vertical will complement the vertical.." WHAT ARE YOU EVEN SAYING? Do you even know??????

[@RinkyDink-7]

💯🔥🖖🏼😁🙃

[@Fiveash-Art]

Sounds like Reznor 👍🏻

[@robthequiet]

My 2 cents as a guy who took college music composition about 50 years ago. So, a lot of great ideas here, but I think there's a certain structural confusion. I say this with appropriate modesty, but the video seems to zoom in on the problem of contextual values between two chords in a sequence. I hear the point being made, to reduce your number of notes, but my approach would be to go back and watch a previous video on melody, then counterpoint, then harmony, then orchestration. There's a difference between constructing music as s technician vs. writing music that moves a listener emotionally, soulfuly, even while impressing the technician with the novel twists in architecture, and cheeky little "cheats" against accepted rules, otherwise called harmonic surprise. Without a basic understanding of the fundamentals, making music is like building a Rubik's Cube with Legos. In theater we have the script, actor, costume, set design, lighting, directing, stage managing, etc. long before you open the box office. A musical composition (unlike a beat or groove) does all of this, but only through the ears, and the listener's brain is the stage. Instead of Bach, I would choose Chopin or Haydn, for the balance between the soloist and the orchestra. I would choose Rachmaninov or Ravel for exploration of the harmonic motion that implies a melodic shape as much as it frames a solo violin or piano. I like the ideas here but I would suggest listening to a Brandenberg concerto or two, then maybe some Coltrane, Gershwin, and Carlos Jobim for textural ideas, then a long walk in the woods and capture a few melodic ideas when they pop into your head. Sing them into your phone. The missing link here is I N S P I R A T I O N. "I cried when I wrote this song, Sue me if I play too long." -- Steely Dan, Deacon Blue, Aja PS - Get off the grid until you actually have a musical idea.

[@MatthewSwasta]

form of thinking = rut

[@mitchelstephen7536]

You don't have to write chord professions to make cool music. You can write a modulated baseline with lots of shifting/weaving monophonic lines on top that imply chords. I never took music lessons and that's how I've always done it. However I did work a with a guitarist (who played lots of chords) when I had my first rock band and got on the radio. kzbin.info/www/bejne/pX7PZKqGnpKIfa8

[@LesSand75]

This interview is yet another piece of evidence of why I trust Peter B, and distrust the NYC. It’s truly unfortunate that they decided that bothsidesism and the appearance of balance is their role in the world. Not listening another one.

[@NotEnoughPrana]

"It's kind of like me starting this sentence in English and switching to French halfway through" - clearly, someone hasn't read "War and Peace". Tsk, tsk. Kids these days...

[@88keyz]

🫡👍🏾🫡

[@coreylapinas1000]

3:58 there is literally nothing wrong with that change bro.

[@MuzixMaker]

Just use the Unison MIDI Harmony Pack.

[@DerekPower]

Take your music to Pro-Levels

[@berserker2551]

If you don't want to understand and learn how music works, simply use Uníson Midi Harmony Pack

[@notnoaintno5134]

PRO LEVEL HARMOO

[@JoshuaLuellen-rg8xp]

A massive rip-off. I didn't get it but there's plenty of vids on it. DAWs often come with chord devices for free anyway. Then you can buy chord sequencer plugins that are much much better than that crap midi pack. No inversions, no open chords, no non functional harmony, etc etc

[@tonyrapa-tonyrapa]

Hang on - I thought you used Ableton? You changed to Cubase? Also, @kzbin.info/www/bejne/m5mVgGCqmcumeac - that's me - by design 😉

[@googleyahoo-l9g]

Igaf

[@sirtom3011]

People need to stay away from the technical side of music as much as possible. Just feel the flow. I can out Horner James Horner. Completely self taught. You don’t need to learn. You need to PLAY.

[@JamesonNathanJones]

I usually just ignore these, but this is complete nonsense. Intuition can only take one so far, though it varies from person to person depending on their talent level. The vast majority of history's great composers studied music rather intensely. And if you can "out Horner James Horner" as you so ineloquently put it, why aren't you out there doing that instead of leaving poorly thought-out comments on KZbin videos? "Just feel the flow" means nothing and helps no one.

[@ZahrDalsk]

tl;dw you should learn traditional harmony & counterpoint, not learning it is like trying to build a house without a foundation

[@christiangutfleisch]

study jsb

[@AFRoSHEENT3ARCMICHAEL69]

Is this just a talking channel?

[@kimlodrodawa123]

You talk too much bro, just blabbering. Make some music!. A famous drummer from old school said this: "It is not about beat per minute, but FEEL per minute"!!! Stay tuned bro 😎🙏

[@JamesonNathanJones]

I've made quite a lot of music. I talked about some of it in this video. I've found talking to be an effective means for conveying information I've learned while making a lot of music, so maybe it can help other people.

[@kimlodrodawa123]

@@JamesonNathanJones - How often have you sat through an entire video of yourself and listened? I found few of your videos interesting, even signed up for free pdf thingy you give. That was in the start when not having a clue yet, trying to get some good advices. As I got to know more about electronic music via many different sources and some friends also, and l listened to you again, I suddenly could hear, how much nothing you say. Maybe its a trend, not sure. I see many do the same. Is it a sales gimmick or something?. I have tried listen through some videos, as you do really have some good ideas and thoughts, but in general, you can blabber a whole video, while saying absolutely nothing. It not to be negative, but maybe think about it...... at least for few second before you trash it 😂🤣 Take care bro 😎🙏

[@kimlodrodawa123]

@@JamesonNathanJones - Forgot to mention. I am a writer and do poets and stuff. I write articles on different subjects, all kind of stuff. It is a habit to read through what I write. I even was reading something one day, thinking wow man, this is good, and as I reached the bottom line, I saw my own name there.....gosh it was myself.....I tell you my face blushed.... 😂🤣 but seriously.....the music you make, should be music you can listen to again and again, same with your videos. You are much better than you do, IMHO. Cheers mate 🙏

[@wiseoldfool]

If you are looking for a musical "Paint by numbers", this is not where you are going to find it.

[@notnoaintno5134]

​@@kimlodrodawa123.bro its utube, people talk about stuff on youtube. Wtf

[@prodbyKamikaZ]

Of course Rick beating will become cynical with age, trying to change the whole way you think about music is challenging when it’s all you think about. -You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.🦮