Spell’s ears are on point. I know lots of gospel musicians like this. The idea is, you listen hard to songs and try to figure out what the chords are. You develop a vocabulary over time. There’s shortcuts, like learning about harmony. The Sean Wilson page will get you there fast.
This has been my biggest struggle. Ik how to MAKE all the chords because I've been reading about them for years but it's just not instantaneous at all like this. I guess I should've been playing instead of reading. Watching this is like some kind of X-Men ability.
Ear training will cover all of that up to. The more you ear train the more you will know where intervals is at and the quick you will hit notes/chords. I see alot of people that doesn't ear train guessing around the keys trying to find the right note until they get it right
For anyone struggling with chords, I recommend considering the program DeCoda by zplane. They make the tech behind Abletons time stretching and Audio-Midi function, but DeCoda is made for instrument players who are learning songs by ear. You drop in a file, and it will tell you the chords as you play along. Can help you identify chords much faster. Eventually you'll get to where Spell is
Something that all aspiring creators need to understand is that you don't NEED to know theory to write cohesive music. I am studying music performance in university right now (concentration on horn) and literally the first thing my theory teacher told me is that theory stands as a set of tools to EXPAND your toolbox of music writing, to open that pandora's box of different possibilities in music. If you already have a general understanding on basic music writing techniques, then theory can help, but it's not a requirement. I choose to learn theory because I'm a nerd and I enjoy this stuff (and because I'm a classical musician and I need to know it anyways lol) but Spell here is a great example of how you can still create dope ass tunes without understanding HOW it's done.
Crazy how after your bass video i looked up father stretch my hands yesterday then tried what you taught there to make some chords and failed miserably. And now out of all the songs you chose. you hop on stream and figure out the chords with ease
watching this actually improved my music instantly. i went from struggling to make chords that make sense to making music that im impressing myself with. you're method of doing this is so much more fun and it makes a whole lot more sense.
I love the approach like he just 'did it'. Rather than fluffing up bullshit to seem more intelligent, no mention of 'inspirations', advanced theory or technique. Just trying shit until it works, that's how it should be the majority of the time.
What I think he is doing is knowing the feeling and emotion of each type of chords, so he listens to how the chord feel and he knows what to play without knowing why
yeah you gotta practice lol. Many music theory books aren't really "play-a-long-with" books. You'd be better off going to a music store, finding a REALLY simple basic keyboard/piano book (maybe even something for kids!). Working consistently on those basics, pick 5 songs you really like and ear hustling them every week.
This showcases what I think is the main advantages of being self taught which is that you are not initially confined to a rulebook like in classical music theory, you're encouraged to explore without having to understand, which leads you to play chords that just ''make sense'' and then eventually adding onto those chords to get inversions, and then adding those to get fuller chords, and than adding to those chords to get a bit more dissonance, and then you add weird chords that make no sense, just for the purpose of being weird. This is all jargon, but you're understanding music through listening, rather than reading. And as a dude who studied theory in college for less than a year and dropped out, its awesome to watch you make sense of it.
the biggest thing ive learned about music i think ever is just do something until you can do it. This goes for learning instrument techniques as well as theory stuff like building chord progressions. it sounds so counterintuitive but i think anyone who's taught themselves an instrument knows what i'm talking about; play around until you start to build a library and just like a video game your mind will figure out how to make things work together i make the least progress when i go out and try to learn the why for certain music things. I find it's best to just get a basic idea of what to do and let trial and error carry me to success
How the fuck does this guy not know music theory... His melodies and basslines sound so rich and full... My brain doesn't comprehend. I don't know music theory but my melodies and basslines always sound the same 😂
