Studying Chords, Chord Progression, And Analysis

Hi there.

Been reading this forum for about a year now and I'd like to send my appreciation as it has been really key for me. This site's existence really gives me hope that I can one day compose some half-decent pieces, so I finally decided to sign up!

A quick bit about me: At the moment I only have beginner-to-moderate theory knowledge. I can read music well enough but cannot yet analyze it. I'm a singer with a good ear, but I'm learning to play piano in order to aid my theory learning. I write and record my own music, but it's written mostly by ear and not theory.

So currently I can adequately play my major and minor scales, and I've started memorizing all the chords for C.

I'm not quite sure what's best from here though. My plan is to learn all the chord positions I possibly can, then move on to scale degrees, chord substitutions, etc...but I'm not sure what the most productive sequence would be.

Should I learn all the C-chords and their inversions, then move on to C# and learn all those, then to D, etc..? Or, for simplicity, should I ignore inversions for now, and just learn root position for each key?

I'm also wondering if at first I should worry about 6ths, 9ths, 11ths, etc... It's easy enough learning those for C, but things may get cluttered in my head if I'm on that for 12 keys. I've bookmarked and downloaded some nice chord-chart type references, though it seems approaching it the wrong way will end with a headache.

Is there perhaps a more intuitive way to study chords, or is it really just play them until they're ingrained?

And of course the subsequent question relates to chord progression and musical analysis. There are quite a few discussions around the web on this, I often hear "study jazz progressions" or "just play around and see what you like".

I personally don't know much about jazz progressions, but it seems to start with jazz would be somewhat difficult. The latter statement makes sense, but certainly seems inefficient.

I'm slowly memorizing the circle of fifths/chord functions/scale degrees, but it feels like undisciplined learning. Would someone know any good books or web resources with a more organized approach for someone in my position?

And I might as well include a similar question for musical analysis - surely these two must go hand-in-hand during learning..?

thanks so much!

Or read a good theory text ....

1. Schoenberg's Theory of Harmony

2. Structual functions of Harmony, Schoenberg

Both of the above will be a great help to you.

Thanks for your replies.

Funny enough, I did actually buy Theory of Harmony in a charity shop about 6-7 months ago but it wasn't an easy read and sadly I didn't get very far. I can tell it will prove useful once I've gained a bit more knowledge though and I will revisit it perhaps once I've jumped a few theory grades. I'm currently reading Harmony (Piston) which is going much better.

Thankfully, I will be taking classes, but unfortunately, that's over a whole year from now, and I'm desperate not to sit on my hands until then!

Since my original post, I've realized that what I've asked is essentially the equivalent of "how do you memorize the alphabet" & "what is grammar". Probably not the most interesting questions to answer.

I'm still not 100% sure of my plan yet, but after further research, I've decided to begin with intervals rather than jumping straight into chords. I'm ear training intervals, practicing naming their quality, and memorizing them from each key on the piano so I can build the chords rather than just memorize their position. Hopefully that's a more reasonable approach.

I'd still love to hear stories of the methods some of you came to feel comfortable on the piano and with chord progressions in general, especially if they're quirky methods.

I just want to stay as far away from chord progression generators as possible, haha! (unless I run out of coffee)