4 ms·
Do you really listen to the chords that closely? For a lot of music, the chords are either largely hinted at (bass notes, the lead guitar or rhythm guitar lick,
by ssharp 11y ago
Do you really listen to the chords that closely? For a lot of music, the chords are either largely hinted at (bass notes, the lead guitar or rhythm guitar lick, and how the melody move) and if there is an instrument banging out the exact chord progression, it's usually buried under the stuff or at least the vocal.
If I'm writing a song, I'm spending almost all of my time doing things tangential to the chord progressions, but rarely any time on the chord progressions themselves. So usually I'll start with a guitar lick or vocal melody, put a chord progression behind it, and then figure out the rest of the arrangement.
If there's a song that's memorable to me, it's almost always because of the main melody or guitar, not the underlying chords.
I'm only talking about pop-based music here, so rock, pop, country, etc.
- cjslep 11y ago> Do you really listen to the chords that closely? > I'm only talking about pop-based music here, so rock, pop, country, etc. I rarely willingly listen to pop-based music. I don't consciously focus on the chords that closely, but then again I haven't really thought that maybe how I hear songs is different than another person (like the "do you see a duck or rabbit" visual illusion, but with sounds). For the really curious, the first album I really remember getting into as a kid was Paul Van Dyk's Seven Ways album, which is a pretty minimal trance album (compared to today's "edm") with very few vocals. At the same time, I was getting into guitar with my cousins and playing instrumentals such as Metallica's Orion or Call of Cthulhu. Also around that time my stepfather entered my life. He played violin for a symphony and exposed me to the world of classical music. So while I've realized my musical tastes are strange (trance, heavy metal, classical are still my go-to genres), I haven't really payed attention to how I listen to music.
- twerquie 11y agoOP mentioned the pop/country genre, which is typically very heavy-handed with the chord progressions.