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I am confused. Is "Start" always a 1? Then how can the first chord change also be a 1?

by protonfish 12y ago

stephen_g 12y ago
Nope. 1 is the root (or tonic) of the key, not necessarily the first chord.
- unseraphim 12y ago
  Yes, of course, but why isn't the first chord in the progression labeled in the diagram? All the others are. There's just a big wall labeled "Start". Things like this make me feel like I am disconnected from the rest of the world. How can anyone look at that diagram for one second and not see this glaring and confusing omission?
- protonfish 12y ago
  Then what is the first chord? The beginning is labelled "Start" What does this mean? Either less than 25% of songs start on the 1 (no way this is possible) or the second chord is mislabeled as a chord change when it stays the same or those with a 1 in the second column started on a chord other than the root and instead of listing that chord, the data is thrown away. Something is messed up here.
  - drostie 12y ago
    Why is there "no way this is possible"? The 1 is the key, which is to say, the lowest note played in the progression. If it's less than 25% then that means that 4-chord progressions frequently do not choose their minimum as the first note.
    - protonfish 12y ago
      If you were a musician you'd know that in popular music the vast majority start on the 1 chord. Classical music probably does this less frequently, but it's nowhere around 1/5 of the time.
  - baddox 12y ago
    "Start" is nothing. I'm not sure why they even put it there. The first chord of the songs are represented by the second column.
  - a1k0n 12y ago
    > Very lazily, I just normalized all probabilities across each transition so that each transition “mega bar” is kind-of the same height. I’m sure there’s a better way to do it, the community is invited to improve! The size of the bars is normalized, not necessarily indicative of probabilities. That's why I isn't any bigger than the rest.
jayrhynas 12y ago
The way I interpreted it, the first chord starts at the second column. The "start" state is necessary so you can see the distribution of songs among the first chords.
- protonfish 12y ago
  This would mean that less than 25% of songs start on the root chord. That can't be true. I would expect a distribution of about 90% 1 chord with a smattering of others taking up the rest.
pmh 12y ago
Someone asked this on reddit[1]. The answer the author gave was: "the "start" is whatever the api gave for each song, which in turn is the first chord that was entered by the user that uploaded that song, which is of course, not standardized. So it's for sure not the start of songs, or the bridge or whatever... it's this and that." [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/32ol86/chord_progressions_of_25_000_songs_oc/cqdo2bk?context=1 https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/32ol86/cho...

I am confused. Is "Start" always a 1? Then how can the first chord change also be a 1?

stephen_g 12y ago

Nope. 1 is the root (or tonic) of the key, not necessarily the first chord.

unseraphim 12y ago
Yes, of course, but why isn't the first chord in the progression labeled in the diagram? All the others are. There's just a big wall labeled "Start". Things like this make me feel like I am disconnected from the rest of the world. How can anyone look at that diagram for one second and not see this glaring and confusing omission?
protonfish 12y ago
Then what is the first chord? The beginning is labelled "Start" What does this mean? Either less than 25% of songs start on the 1 (no way this is possible) or the second chord is mislabeled as a chord change when it stays the same or those with a 1 in the second column started on a chord other than the root and instead of listing that chord, the data is thrown away. Something is messed up here.
- drostie 12y ago
  Why is there "no way this is possible"? The 1 is the key, which is to say, the lowest note played in the progression. If it's less than 25% then that means that 4-chord progressions frequently do not choose their minimum as the first note.
  - protonfish 12y ago
    If you were a musician you'd know that in popular music the vast majority start on the 1 chord. Classical music probably does this less frequently, but it's nowhere around 1/5 of the time.
- baddox 12y ago
  "Start" is nothing. I'm not sure why they even put it there. The first chord of the songs are represented by the second column.
- a1k0n 12y ago
  > Very lazily, I just normalized all probabilities across each transition so that each transition “mega bar” is kind-of the same height. I’m sure there’s a better way to do it, the community is invited to improve! The size of the bars is normalized, not necessarily indicative of probabilities. That's why I isn't any bigger than the rest.

jayrhynas 12y ago

The way I interpreted it, the first chord starts at the second column. The "start" state is necessary so you can see the distribution of songs among the first chords.

protonfish 12y ago
This would mean that less than 25% of songs start on the root chord. That can't be true. I would expect a distribution of about 90% 1 chord with a smattering of others taking up the rest.

pmh 12y ago

Someone asked this on reddit[1]. The answer the author gave was: "the "start" is whatever the api gave for each song, which in turn is the first chord that was entered by the user that uploaded that song, which is of course, not standardized. So it's for sure not the start of songs, or the bridge or whatever... it's this and that." [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/32ol86/chord_progressions_of_25_000_songs_oc/cqdo2bk?context=1 https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/32ol86/cho...