Learning music theory

This is not really a tech post, but it’s related because music theory is kind of a technical language. Not quite programming language technical but maybe math technical.

I’m doing a series of exercises I call 5-minute song drills. I pick a key and chords and write a song. Picking a key consists of me naming the note and scale, then writing out the names in the scale. For example

Key of C major

C D E F G A B – I ii iii IV V vi vii*

lowercase Roman numerals are minor chords. Asterisk is a diminished chord. I use lowercase numerals here because a diminished chord is really a minor triad with a flat 5th. So take a minor chord and drop the 5th degree down one-half step.

With the chords in hand we need a progression. The most common progression would be I IV V. That’s a Blues progression. We could do ii V, which is a Jazz progression. That’s all I know off of the top of my head, so let’s pick the Blues progression. Then the chords are:

C F G

Then we do a rhythm or we can mix things up for the different song sections like chorus and bridge.

The intervals are easy to remember on the guitar because the strings are tuned in fourths. So if the I chord is on the first string, the IV is one string up on the same fret. The 5 is one step up from the IV.

So my final chord progression was

I used Dm in the bridge since it was in the scale but not in the other parts.