How to translate your emotions into chord progressions
Once you know the basics of where the major and minor chords are in a key signature, you’re ready to start experimenting at your piano and finding sequences or chord progressions that you like. But it can be difficult to get started at first because the possibilities for your music seem so endless. How do you know which chords to use and which ones will work best for your song?
It can help to have a few organizing principles to bring a bit of structure to your planning. I’ve already discussed this a bit in my post where I introduced the chords within a major key signature. For example, we discussed that if you want to write a song that sounds predominantly happy, you’ll want to predominantly use the three major chords.
Today I’d like to expand on this and share my three favourite principles of music theory that I use to guide my songwriting students in translating their emotions into chord progressions. I hope that these principles give you some inspiration and direction while you’re experimenting at your piano.
Principle #1: The concept of home base
In any major key, your I chord is really special because it’s the starting point for the key signature. This means that when you return to it after exploring other chords, it provides the listener a powerful feeling of rest. As songwriters, we can use this quality of music to our advantage in two key ways.
First, how far we stray from home base gives your listener different feelings of movement, and you can use your chord selection to craft the emotional journey you want your listeners to take. Compare the difference in sound between chords I-ii and I-V. There isn’t much of a feeling of movement between chords I and ii. Emotionally, the feeling is one of stepping out, but not too far, before returning to the safety of home. Compare that with the sound of the I-V stretch. The I-V stretch is bigger sonically and thus it feels like a bigger step emotionally to your listener. I don’t think it’s any coincidence that the start of the 2001: A Space Odyssey theme song uses the notes I-V-I. This leap is a great musical distance, and feels like an adventure.
Another way you can use the concept of home base to your advantage is to decide how long you want to stray from home. Do you know the phrase “There and back again” from The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings? That’s how I think about music. Music is journey “out there,” away from your one chord, and then “back again.” How long you linger from home base, or how many of these chords you fit into your progression before you return to your I chord, determines your listener’s journey. You can stretch out that journey and include a lot of chords in the middle if you want to make your listeners feel a little restless or you can return home very often if you want them to feel safe. But it is very considerate to not let your listeners linger out there too long, or else they’ll forget where home base is (e.g., they won’t be able to tell which key they’re in anymore). At the very least, it’s very considerate to end your song on the I chord to give your listeners a feeling of completion.
Principle #2: Directionality matters!
If you’ve experimented on a piano before, you’ll know that there are high keys and low keys. You probably also know that if you move up the piano the notes will sound higher and if you move down the piano the notes will sound lower. This feature of the piano gives us an extra detail we can add to our choices when we create our chord progressions.
Going from a I chord up to the V chord above it sounds different than going from a I chord down to the V chord below it. These different directions also have a different emotional impact on your listener. Moving up the piano sounds optimistic and exploratory, and moving down the piano provides a sense of gravity or grounding.
You can use these feelings to different effects when you’re developing your chord progressions. You probably already know that using major or minor chords communicates basic feelings of happiness and sadness. Playing around with directionality can add some really interesting nuances to your writing.
Moving up to a major chord is almost like adding double brightness to your song! Moving down to a minor chord can add double gravity. You can also experiment with blend somewhere in the middle. For example, what feeling would be conveyed if you moved up to a minor chord? To me, the upward direction would express optimism but landing on a minor chord would convey sadness. Put together, this chord progression could the represent an optimistic sadness, or perhaps a disappointed hope. To use another example, what might it feel like to move down to a major chord? To me, the weight of the downward direction would feel like gravity, but ending on a major chord would make me feel supported, so perhaps that could convey a feeling of being securely grounded. These are the feelings that come up for me, but they may be different for you. If your interpretations are different, that’s okay! That’s the beauty of music — someone out there is likely to agree with you and they would be very happy to hear your unique use of music!
Of course we have limits on how high and how low we can go on piano. We can’t keep progressing higher all the time, for infinite positivity. We have to practice finding the right place and time for balance. Also, the ability to use directionality in our songwriting is a feature that’s more predominant in piano than it is in other instruments like guitar, where the most common chord progressions are all located pretty centrally. The use of directionality is a special feature that I really like about piano! ☺️
Principle #3: The stability of fours
Musicians over the ages have noticed that our sense of rhythm works well when things are grouped in fours. Whether your rhythm pattern uses a beat of 2, 3, or 4, it very naturally lends itself to being repeated four times. Here’s what that might look like:
1 2 / 1 2 / 1 2 / 1 2
1 2 3 / 1 2 3 / 1 2 3 / 1 2 3
1 2 3 4 / 1 2 3 4 / 1 2 3 4 / 1 2 3 4
And if you really want to get meta, each of these groups or phrases of music themselves work well when they are grouped in fours! Here’s what that might look like:
1 2 3 4 / 1 2 3 4 / 1 2 3 4 / 1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4 / 1 2 3 4 / 1 2 3 4 / 1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4 / 1 2 3 4 / 1 2 3 4 / 1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4 / 1 2 3 4 / 1 2 3 4 / 1 2 3 4
If you’re wondering how this applies to real music, find one of your favourite rock or pop songs that uses a beat of four (hint: it’s easy to clap along with) and try to map the beats of the song with the groups I just listed above. You’ll find that the verse is probably aligns with this whole block of four lines, and that the chorus is also arranged as its own block of four lines.
Groupings of four feel more satisfying for performers and listeners because it offers a balance and predictability that allows you to settle into the music. This can help you as a songwriter by helping set up some parameters: rather than feeling like you have to choose a million unique chord combinations, you can narrow your focus to just four groups of four beats at a time.
Any questions? Let me know!
So there you have it! Those are my top three principles of music theory that I use to guide my students in translating their emotions into chord progressions. I hope this gave you some fun ideas to explore while you’re experimenting at your piano. As always, I’m open to your questions so if you need more clarification, just leave me a comment on this video.
In my next post, I want to talk about some of the common ways that musicians break the rules of music theory to create even more interesting feelings. Have fun with your writing!