The Secret Life of Chords: A Guide to Chord Progressions and Composition

This book presents a complete methodology for learning how chord progressions work and how to apply these principles to your own creative endeavours.

Any chord progression can be seen as a combination of tonic, dominant and subdominant chords.

We employ 12 frequently used combinations which we call the core progressions. The first chapter demonstrates the core progressions in their simplest form using three major chords. Chapters 2-7 show which chords can be used as substitutes for the three majors to widen the range of expressive possibilities. This is similar to the way a painter uses a wider palette of colours beyond the primary colours of red, yellow and blue to achieve visual effects. Chapters 8 and 9 are about cyclic progressions and Chapter 10 details how to change keys.

Each chapter starts with a theory section followed by a song examples section which shows how the core progressions are used in the context of many popular songs. You can follow up what you have learned by working through the composition exercises for each chapter. There is also a revision section for each chapter to enable the reader to review the learning material.

There are two indexes, one for the song examples and one for the composition exercises. By using the links between these indexes and the contents page you can navigate the document to find what interests you. This will help you to develop a personalised approach to the learning material.

There are four additional learning modules on blues progressions, song forms, the AABA format and its many variations, and 36 chord theory which shows how any chord will function in any key.

The Secret Life of Chords is completely different to any other book on the market and is an invaluable resource for musicians of all levels.