I have had many people call or write me and ask me
something like this:

“I play by ear, or by chords, but lots of music doesn’t
have chord symbols written in — how do I know what chord
to play when?”

“Our hymn book doesn’t tell which chords to use — how can
I know what to play?”

“I read music but don’t have a clue what chords are being
used. How can I know what they are?”

If you want to play a song using chords instead of the
written sheet music notes, but the song doesn’t have any
chord symbols printed (such as Cm7, G13, B , D dim7, etc.)
then learn this important skill.

There’s a logic behind every note written in music, &
you can learn to understand that logic, and therefore
understand music.

If you can read music to some degree but don’t “see
through” the written music — don’t understand what you are
seeing — now you can put on your “chord glasses” that good
chord detectives wear to see through all that mass of black
printed notes on a white page of sheet music to quickly
understand what chords are being used and the “family
logic” behind it all.

The “family logic” is this: In every key there are
certain chords which are organic to that key — “family
members”, so to speak. For example, in the key of F the 3
most used chords are F, Bb and C. In the key of G the most
used chords are G, C, and D. In the key of Eb the most used
chords are Eb, Ab, and Bb. Do you see a pattern here?

Chords are based on scales, and the chords which are
used the most in any key are built on the 1st degree of the
scale, the 4th degree of the scale, and the 5th degree of
the scale. They are identified by using the Roman numerals
I, IV, and V.

So the most used chords in any key are the I chord,
the IV chord, and the V chord. They are the primary chords,
and they are all major. They occur way more than other
chords. The next most used chords are the ii chord, the vi
chord, and the iii chord — all minor chords.

Just knowing these simple facts gives a musician a
giant advantage when learning or playing a song. If he or
she knows the most likely chords that are going to occur in
a song, based on the key of the song, then they can scrape
together other evidence quickly to build an air-tight case
that they know the chords of that song.

For example, let’s take two musicians about to play
from a piece of sheet music. Both read music, but only one
knows chords and music theory. The first musician looks at
the notes and sees a Bb in the bass clef as the first note,
a Eb in the bass clef in the second measure, a Bb in the 3rd
measure, an F in the fourth measure, and so on. He can play
what he sees, but nothing else, because he doesn’t grasp
the fact that the first few measure have given away the
fact that the primary chords have been outlined.

The second musician looks at the same music, but with
“X-ray eyes”. He sees through the same notes into the chord
structure behind the scenes.

The first musician is tied to the written music and
limited to the notes printed on the sheet music, while the
second musician has the best of both worlds: he can read
the music and play it as it is written, but he can also add
chords and fills and come out with a much bigger, more
interesting arrangement than the first musician.

The benefits of becoming a chord detective are many:

It allows a musician to immediately identify what key a
song is in…

It allows a musician to know POSITIVELY which chords are
most likely to occur in each song…

It allows a musician to look at the first measure and the
last measure and immediately know the harmonic form of any
song…

Plus:

It works in any key — major or minor…
It works with any kind of hymn or gospel song…
It works by releasing a musician from being “tied to the
written music”…
It works by allowing a musician to add chords of his or her
own…

The bottom line is this: knowing chords and music
theory allows a “chord detective” to develop “see through
eyes” that immediately perceive the structure of a song and
then allow that musician to use both the written score and
any fillers or improvisations he or she desires to add to a
song.

You’ll learn to “read” music like a map, by using
clues to figure out what chords are being used, then
playing by chords instead of the printed score.

Please go to “How To Become a Chord Detective”