Share Hearing the Changes
on:
Bluesky
•
facebook
•
twitter (X)
Hearing the Changes
Hearing The Changes is knowing what the chords of a song or chord progression are and when they change. This lesson gets you on the road to developing this ability.
This involves knowing the Chords of the Major & Minor Keys and the Scales that are used for common progressions and songs. And the ability to recognize the sound of intervals—the distance between intervals that make up the chord. The major, minor, diminished, and augmented triads—the foundation of just about every chord—each have a distinct sound that you can learn to recognize.
Learning a bit or a lot of the Principles of Music can go a long way in understanding how these chords and chord progressions move and interact together. There is actually A LOT more in common between songs than one might guess.
Some Tips for Learning to Hear the Changes
Hearing and figuring out the chords to a song takes the same skills as transcribing a song and is limited to the chords of the song. You might be doing it in real-time as you are playing the song or listening to the song.
Without, in the least, some skills mentioned above, it's often a hit-or-miss, hunt-and-peck method of figuring out what the chord changes are for a song. This is fine if your NOT trying to do this in real time as you play.
Here are a few tips for figuring out the chords:
- First find where the chord changes are.
- Locate the bass or root of the first chord.
- Is the chord major or minor?
- Major chords, the most common, are passive and sound resolved and peaceful, happy, relaxed, sometimes a bit bold. The majority of songs are in Major Keys and the I chord of the key/scale, the Tonic is typically the home chord and at the end of a verse or chorus. Might even be the first chord of the song, i.e. chord progression.
- Minor chords have a sad and mysterious quality.
- Diminished and Augmented chords are a bit of an unnerving quality. Very suspenseful. I, (Curt) call the diminished and augmented chords one of the movie chords. The augmented chord is great in horror movies used for when you know someone is not making it out of that scene.
Root Voicings
At the heart of the overwhelming majority of chords are the basic traditional triads, the major, minor, diminished, and augmented triads that form the foundation of ALL chords traditionally built in thirds.
If the song is simple, then start checking to see if the chord is a traditional major, minor, 7th or power 5 chord. Or, maybe a contemporary sus4, sus2 or add 2, add 9 chords.
If it is a more sophisticated rich harmony, a.k.a. chords. Then try 4-part chords maj7, m7, 7, dim7, aug7, etc… These are often called Jazz
chords, which are just 4-part chords.
With each success, on to the next chord.
NOTE: Sometimes it is easier to figure this out on piano then the ukulele or guitar. You don't need piano technique, you just need to know how to make Simple Chords on the Piano and knowing the names of the piano keys — pretty easy on piano.
Bass Voicings
If the chord not quite right, but seems like the right chord but not the 100% the right root. It might be a chord inversion or Slash Chord .
If it sounds like a C major chord but now exactly the C chord you are playing, the lowest note might not be the root C. Try C/D, C/E, Cm/F, C/G, Cm/G, C/Bb, C/B, with the notes after the slash the lowest note in the chord voicing. If this fails, it could be any bass note with C as the name of the chord.
Checkout Classic Endings for Ukulele lesson for a common use of slash chords to create a descending bass line. The root movement of a descending bass lines is a great harmonic clue when trying to figure out, "Hear" the chord changes.
Cliché and Common Progressions with Distinct Bass Lines
Here are some examples of this type of chord progressions.
- Cm Cm/maj7 Cm7 Cm6 ( Cm Cm/B Cm/Bb Cm/A) — This progression is typically notated wrong. You'll hear it after you become more familiar with the correct notation.
- C Cm7+5 Cm6 Cm7+5 — I call this the Secret Agent sound and it is typically supporting the melody. Witchcraft is a jazz standard that has this movement.
- C Cmaj7 C6 Cmaj7 — A common substitution for two measures or 8 beats of C
- Cmaj7 Caug C6 Cmaj7 or C Caug C6 Caug C
Repeat this process until you have determined each chord. Overtime, this gets quicker, to the point you can do it on the fly.
Check out Jim D'Ville's Play Ukulele by Ear • Three Chord Club for many examples of simple songs, we already know that you can learn by ear.
First Steps
After being able to hear when a chord actually changes to a new chord, an easy first step. And figuring out that first chord. A few tips for guessing the next chord:
What is the Key that First Chord Came From?
This is finding the tonality of the first chord and chances if the progression, i.e. song's chords seem to all get together is the find the key.
I always start with a major key, as that is the overwhelming majority of keys that songs are in. Then the diatonic chords of the major scale/key and the Key of C , and progress through the chords of the key in this order: C, G, G7, F, Am, Em, Dm . I'll also simply improvise over the chords using the C Major Pentatonic scale: C D E G A C' and see if it sounds OK. I'll then introduce the F note to the scale and see if it still sounds OK. All in the effort to eliminate what it is not. If the F doesn't work on to F# and the the next, the Key of G and so on. It' s a proccess of elimination.
Lets say it is the Key of C . I'll then start to listen to see if the chords have a quality of bold, happy, mysterious, sad. A feeling of being home and restful (consonance quality) or A feeling of being restless and creating tension (dissonance quality) and wanting to go home. Now it's starting to get narrowed down. And simply trying chords that are acting as a Tonic I or acting as a Dominant V . I'll eliminate the possibilities.
Chords do have a propensity to harmonically move to other chords. These what you are listening for — these common harmonic moves.
A Few Chord Propensities
V to I
- The BIG one in Tonic-Dominant Harmony and the most common harmonic sequence of chords, is the Dominant to Tonic. e.g.,in the Key of C the G7 goes to C. That is a really good guess in the Key of C . So memorizing this move in ALL 15 keys is a great harmonic investment. Hear IT, Learn It, Internalize It, and get it under our fingers.
LINK: Checkout out page 42 of Harmonic Analysis for Scale Selection and Chord Substitution for chord's most common harmonic function.
Secondary Dominants
- Turns out there is such a thing as a Secondary Dominant — not the main Dominant chord in a key. These Secondary Dominant chords also function just as a dominant chord functions and wants to resolve to its Tonic. A good example in the Key of C is a C to C7 resolving to F (there is that memorize the V to I in all major and minor keys). So much so that if I see this in much I rarely look at the next chord, I know it has a 99% chance of resolving to F. Our ear actually want that. This move is actually somewhat easy to ear. It is a V to I, just not in the main key/tonality.
Hearing the Changes is transcribing the a chord progression as it is being played.
I once asked Chuck Anderson my mentor/teacher/kumu how do get through a song (on the bandstand) that you don't know. His reply was You lay back, learn it through the first verse and chorus.
. Not in the On the Bandstand
scenario, you most likely be given the key, tempo, etc. So your choices are narrowed down a bit.
Song Style Clues
Pop, Rock, Folk, Country, Bluegrass, etc..
Pop, Rock, Folk, Blues, Country, Bluegrass, etc, for the most part, harmonically uses Triads (3 note chords), and 7th chords and scale wise Pentatonic scales. And also stays in one key for the most part.
Jazz
Jazz is harmonically richer uses 4-part chords and scale wise Diatonic scales. Jazz often modulates to other keys.
Blues
The Blues can be a simple I IV V using Triads all the way to a Jazz Blues using 4-part .
A Blues is one of the first song forms that one will recognize harmonically. What you are hearing is the I to IV and I to V harmonic movements.
For examples of the harmonic possibilities see my book A Guide to Blues Chord Progressions for Ukulele A to Z .
Ear Training Links
Although Ear Training is actually the wrong term, it's more training either you voice or fingers to duplication what we already can here. We just need to names of what we hear and get either our voice and/or finger to replicate this.
- www.good-ear.com • The Online, Free Ear Training on the Net
- Clarion • Improve your musical ear training by Daniel Jalkut founded Red Sweater after working as a Software Engineer at Apple.
- reddit: t/musictheory - Ear Training Apps and Websites
- tonedear.com • The three links below of the many from the tonedear.com site are a great place to start. There are also apps: GooglePlay and Apple iOS apps available.
Using a daily ear training resource is one of the best ways to make that connection between you mid and ear. And ultimately getting it out using you voice and or ear. Start slow and don't move on too fast.
Sign-IN — it's FREE — to view, un-blur any additional content for this lesson.
End of Lesson - Thanks, Hope You Enjoyed It!
Related Lessons, Videos, Lesson Series, Songs, Books & Reference Charts, Resources & Assets, Workshops are below.
Related Lessons
Related Lessons for Hearing the Changes
.

Basic `Ukulele Chord Fingering
The art and science of chord fingering. Learning your basic open position chords in common keys. We have four fingers and there're all not equal. Some shorter then others and some stronger that others. Everybody's hand is a little different. This does play a role in fingering chords.

Key Signatures - Introduction
A key signature is a summary of the sharps or flats in a Major or its relative Natural Minor scale. Key signatures are generally written immediately after the clef at the beginning of a line of standard musical notation. Each major and minor key has an associated key signature that sharpens or flattens the notes which are used in its scale.

Understanding Diatonic Intervals
An interval is the distance between two notes. An interval has a name and a type. Intervals can be played one note (melodic) or two notes (harmonic) at a time, ascending or descending. Simple and Compound Intervals are taken from a major scale. Chromatic Intervals are NOT taken from a major scale. They are derived from the diatonic intervals.
Related Lesson Series
Related Lessons Series for Hearing the Changes
.
Common Chord Progressions and Remembering Songs
Updated: 17 Mar 2025
Understanding the similarities between chord progressions and songs can greatly enhance your ability to remember and play a wide variety of songs. It's fascinating how much common ground (chord harmony) exists among different musical compositions.
Playing by Ear
Updated: 10 Jul 2023
Mastering the art of playing music by ear represents the pinnacle of achievement for any aspiring musician. The objective of this lesson series is to guide you towards attaining this goal. Whether it entails mastering melodies or chords, rest assured that it is within your reach.
Related Songs
Related Songs for Hearing the Changes
.
Related Books & Charts
Related Books for Hearing the Changes
.

Harmonic Analysis for Scale Selection and Chord Substitution
Updated: 08 Jun 2024
Harmonic Analysis is the understanding of the functional sequence of chords. It is the process used to analyze the harmonic structure of a progression, song or composition. This analysis is then used to make scale selections for improvisation and chord substitution.

Modular Phonetic Rhythm, The Foundation and Workbook 1
Updated: 08 Dec 2021
Modular Phonetic Rhythm represents a significant advance in the teaching and application of rhythm. Eliminating many inefficient aspects of rhythm education, Modular Phonetic Rhythm streamlines the traditional educational approach, resulting in a reflexive reaction to rhythm.

A Guide to Blues Chord Progression for Ukulele A to Z - C Tuning
Updated: 22 May 2024
The Blues are at the heart of all American music. It has influenced Country, Rock, Folk, Jazz, Bluegrass and just about every form of American music we listen to today. 26 blues progression in C and G tuning, progressing from basic to advanced jazz progression, with chord grids and substitutions explained.

A Guide to Blues Chord Progressions for Ukulele A to Z - G Tuning
Updated: 22 May 2024
The Blues are at the heart of all American music. It has influenced Country, Rock, Folk, Jazz, Bluegrass and just about every form of American music we listen to today. 26 blues progression in C and G tuning, progressing from basic to advanced jazz progression, with chord grids and substitutions explained.
A Selection of Books & Reference Charts that are recommended for creating a solid foundation with your chosen instrument and music in general.





Checkout the Books for additional Handy, Dandy Reference Charts.
Reference Charts



Key Signatures — Circle of Fourths and Fifths – ANSI A & A4 sizes
A handy reference chart of all 15 major and relative minor key signatures. US Letter 8.5 x 11 sized (ANSI-A), A4
Checkout the Books for additional Handy, Dandy Reference Charts.
Related Lesson Files, Resources and Assets
Related Assets for Hearing the Changes
.