Logic Pro 11 // 3 Chord Track Workflow Tricks! (bonus rant about AI in music) 

The Chord Track new to Logic Pro 11 is an incredible tool for music composition and arrangement; and it's also a super helpful educational tool to learn about music theory and building chord progressions. In this video I demonstrate 3 workflow tricks for building chord progressions super fast in Logic Pro 11. Enjoy! Support the sponsor of this video! Boombox ➛ bit.ly/boomboxsponsor Download my 35-part Logic Course here! ➛ www.logicproguide.com For mixing/mastering work, contact me at my website ➛ carneymediagroup.com Follow MusicTechHelpGuy on Instagram ➛ instagram.com/musictechhelpguy Support the channel on Patreon ➛ patreon.com/musictechhelpguy Chapters: 0:00 Overview 1:08 Boombox Sponsor Segment 2:06 Old Method 3:16 Type & Tab Chords 4:28 Drag & Drop Chords 6:02 Region Chords & Key Change 7:39 Session Player Regions 9:45 Josh's Opinions on AI in Music

I am the quintessential noob! Three years now doing what I always wanted to do which is to learn music and I waited till I was 68 to start the journey. I mean from scratch! No clue about scales, chords, diawhatic? Tonics, etc. I have gone from that to GAS, 4 daws, 5 synths, a bunch of Amazon returns, and countless hours learning from one of the the best resources for info on Music and gear and how to do anything related, with RU-vid! And Your channel is always a huge help! Your perspective regarding AI was just so insightful and honest. I understand Mozart would be aghast at what AI could do these days but it still takes a soul to make something worthwhile to listen and enjoy! I appreciated your insight also as encouragement for any tool that teaches is not a crutch but a resource. No different than RU-vid, or a friend or a teacher. When you have less frustration and more inspiration things can get pretty sweet and fun to do.

Good day! Firstly, another good video. Commenting on your final thoughts regarding the use of 'AI', I totally agree with you. This is my take on the new features. I am a guitarist and I have a degree in Sound Recording and Music production. I know my music theory intimately. When I have worked with other musicians, the general workflow would be the keyboardist comes with a nice chord sequence and lovely harmonies/melodies. The conversation that follows would be, "What key are you in? What is the chord sequence?" I'd write them down and play the generic chords on the guitar to get a basic feel. Then we would put ourselves into repeat mode, applying theory and natural response. We would find our groove, try different ideas before we hit on something that really worked. We would bring it to the drummer and the bass player. We would go into loop mode and play, listening, stopping and chatting, having a brew, come back to playing, and eventually, we would have a song. The same principle applies when using the session players. To find my workflow with the new players, I have set about writing some music. As I was listening back to the piano part in the intro, it was missing a note, but I could hear it in my head. The easy solution was to convert it to MIDI and write the note in. It is easy to get lazy with technology, but if you were working with humans, you would have a conversation. You would say, "I'm liking the groove, but it's missing something. Try this or there are some notes that are missing. It needs to lead in this direction." So, have the conversation with your 'Session Players'. Blessings - Carl

Absolutely love your soap box statement. Let’s use Logic to its maximum potential and make awesome tracks. Great video and keep them going you are an inspiration to me. ❤

I welcome the A. I. help especially after my spinal cord injury which has put limits on my former playing ability. I am still the heart behind the creative process.

“A MIDI loop generator” 100% this. It’s a midi loop generator that gives you a huge amount of control over the parameters of how the loops are generated. You actually could write a whole song using these tools, and get extremely granular with tweaking and modifying parameters on a bar by bar basis to create something that sounds unique and creative. Personally I’ve already been using this for two days to “workshop” chord progressions and keys. But I make metal stuff, so I’m using these tools just to find a vibe I like and progressions that can form a sort of “roadmap” for writing riffs. And I can do it on a MacBook while at work lol. Game changer!

As someone who creates music... The chord track is an amazing feature that helps me with chord progressions. Literally within an hours of using it, I was able to revoice my entire song without spending a day trying to sort out what the chords were going to be when I changed the key of the song. GAME CHANGER. ABSOLUTELY. Great video as always. THANK YOU.

Yep. Agree 100% with your "rant'... it's another tool to create stuff. I can play Bass, i can play a bit of guitar, but my keyboard skills are woefully lacking. These chord tracks with the Session keys enable me to create songs with the chord progressions i know and hear, but cannot play well enough to record without tedious hours of editing on a piano roll editor. When i have my song fleshed out, i can then call upon the talents of my piano playing friends to interpret the chords into a fully fledged keyboard part. I look upon these tools as a useful way to structure and compose music, and then use as the backbone for a fully realised track.

Wow, you have no idea what a gem this video is to me. Learning about tabbing throug the chords and literally typing them in seriously opens this feature up now. I'm a blind Logic user, and it seemed as if Chordtrack was simply not accessible, but thanks to your tipps this has changed quite a bit now. Not perfect yet, so Apple has some homework to do. :) Thanks so much.

you can also click on the (midi input) button and play the chord if you don't want to type it Thank you so much for your effort Bro !

Thanks for the insight! I personally LOVE the new session players! I'm a guitar player and only a guitar player - so they come in super handy for me. Yes - it's a starting point - not an end point - and super useful!

I'm enjoying the new chord feature. I've been using it to make backing tracks for live performance. Using the Tab key to create the next chord...😳 Life saver. The possibilities are endless. Best Logic channel, IMO.

Always my go to Logic Pro channel. Appreciate all your content🤘🏻

i'm a multi instrumentalist but i cannot play drums and cannot afford a drummer, so i use drummer or ez drummer. i may also use loops to get a vision of my music laid down and then swap out a part for my guitar, or bass or keyboard. it's inspiration! i agree that it is similar to a midi loop generator. i've used logic's pedalboard with my guitar, bypassing my tube amp, to get a great rhythm guitar track down. then i can add my tube amp/guitar part. it's whatever works and sounds good to you! i'm not going to make any $ but i hope that someone likes and enjoys my music. that's all i'm doing this for. great video and thanks for the soapbox josh!

Best part of your vid, Josh: effortlessly moving voices around up and down an octave in the progression to give it a different feel. (For those who might wonder, that was Shift-Option plus up and down arrow keys to move selected note(s) up or down an octave. So useful, in both Piano Roll and Score Editor.)

The update to drummer to define your own pattern is exactly what I was hoping for. I am a guitar player and composer, but when I enter drums as MIDI, they remain fake. With loops, I never find the groove I imagined. This approach mixes the two: I control the core pattern, but the virtual drummer adds fills, ghost notes, accents etc… much better than I could. With our band, we have a fantastic drummer. When I suggest songs for our set, this will help in conveying a suggested drum groove. He will still make it his own. But for my own compositions, I can imagine to keep the session drummer from Logic in.

Well said 👍 i totally agree with your opinion on the amazing tools provided by Logic Pro 11. Thanks a ton !!

I love this feature. I graduated at the top of my class and this is so helpful with workflow and writers block. People get ideas from others all the time. You, whoever is talking ish, got your inspiration from someone, somewhere or from something. Embrace the tools!

Great video as always! I come from Studio One and the chord track implementation has been so advanced and developed to the point it can extract chords from audio parts and work hand in hand with Melodyne through ARA to improve on its detection algorithm. I can't wait for the future of the chord track in Logic Pro

This is a breath of fresh air. It opens up so many possibilities for Logic sessions and chord tracks. Thank you very much. AI becomes just another tool for MY ideas.

Dude you NAILED the AI argument. Totally agree and it's the same argument I have been trying to tell people. Awesome video.

I 100% agree with your rant. My music has gotten SO much better since Drummer was introduced. I don't play drums, and don't regularly know any nearby drummers. I used to laboriously program parts that were way too simplistic, but now I can use the skills that I do possess in more creative efforts.

Thanks for this. I especially appreciate your perspective. Good work.

I’m here for the rant! Only! As always, I love what you do🫶🏾

Banger!!! Hope to see more 11 Features on here 🤘🏼🔥🤘🏼

Thank you for all you do for us. Your tutorials are THE go-to for me, and I believe these fabulous new tools are there to be used as such, and will help me create and realise more of the musical ideas in my head. Best regards.

You hit the spot! "Just another way to compose loops."👏🎬

I've gotta say, I had very low expectations for both the chords feature and the new session players but I'm extremely pleasantly surprised at how helpful they've ended up being so far. I'm 100% with everything you said at the end, these are just more tools to get the job done, and new ways of tackling old problems will always be good for creativity.

Well said man ! & Great video as always !

First let me say I speak French … and still appreciate how you explain everything with a thorough and respectful approach. Even though I’ve studied, played, taught music and literature most of my life, I’m just beginning to work with a DAW (I’m so old). So I don’t need this tool per se and I share concerns about well or not so well crafted meaningless music because people who are making it are getting heard ! A lot ! Personally, I think one should work Bill Evans’ transcripts to learn harmony and articulation. But don’t blame a tool unless it has to work better ! You are the CEO : don’t blame the mail delivery clerk his cart wheels are squeaking. It is your cart rolling in the Amazon ! Man I should write lyrics.

Thank you for everything you do! Love your videos!

Great tutorial. Lots of possibilities with this new tool box. 🙂

Wholeheartedly agree with the sentiments of your rant … it’s on the money. I received a life-changing medical diagnosis 20 years ago that forced my early retirement from the workforce. I was a mediocre keyboard and guitar player before the diagnosis, the medical issue compromised my ability to play instruments, I had to adapt and accept I could not play as well. In looking for a new life purpose, I decided I would make and release a CD-worth of music, which I have done with the help of all the tools available in Logic Pro. Without ‘smart tools’ my musical journey would have been very difficult and far less professional…

Definitely agree with your TED talk! I do a lot of music notation work, (and teach music notation as well), and one thing I always say is that whether you're using Finale, Sibelius, or Dorico, you have to realize that they are just tools that need human intervention in order to make the music notation look professional. As I like to say, "owning a hammer doesn't make you a carpenter", likewise, owning Finale doesn't make you a copyist, and... owning Logic doesn't make you a composer. You gotta know how to swing the hammer no matter how good the hammer is!

Always come away from your videos with great info and solid musical wisdom. Well said.

I wish it worked the other way around - that you could drag midi region to the chord track and it would write the chords for you. Hopefully they get this feature added in next update!

Your videos are the best. I’m a newbie and you’re a great help.

You can also write slash chords like D/F# into the Chord track. Works fine here. 👍

100% agree! These new features are just new tools in the belt for people who already create music and make music making more accessible for beginners, win win

I am super stoked to see the new functionalities that Logic 11 brings. As a guitar player, I now can have decent keyboard tracks to play along in my compositions. At the end of the day, it boils down to the choices musicians make, regardless of how they were played.

Thank you for so much Logic tuition so well presented. Your comments re the AI components are well put. I was sceptical at first but have now played with Logic 11 I am a real convert. The long overdue return of the Chord Track is manna from heaven!😀

Excellent point at the end.. my take away is we are the source, logic and the tools within are resources. Use them.. integrate.. this is a beautiful time to be making music. It’s about reframing our mindset regarding our resources.

First of all, love you, music tech help guy!😊 I agree with your take on AI in this form. First, as someone who has been writing songs and playing guitar for 40 years, I still think it takes a lot of skill, sometimes I think it’s beyond me, to make these tools work. If you’re just gonna track everything into a grid and ask this thing to play along, fine but if you’re gonna get into anything organic, where the timing is imperfect, these tools fall apart. What scares me are some of these AI models that create whole performances. Some of them are quite good and there’s nothing stopping someone from adapting it and presenting it as their own work. As long as human skill, ingenuity and creativity are necessary to bring these tools to bear, I’m good with it.

Thank you. Love Chord track feature. I agree helpful tool wise

Real Talk Blessin 🙏🏽

I agree with your take on the AI additions to Logic. I’m using the ability to create a trio, build a progression and a groove and improvise on keys or guitar to come up with my own melodies, fills, etc. It’s a launchpad for developing my own ideas, not for making instant music. It’s also great for practice sessions. I can create a progression and a groove, loop it and shred. Obviously, I can also transpose and work on technique, modes, turnarounds, etc. in whatever keys I want. Very useful! You’re right, they’re just tools.

100% concur. You rocked it when you said “tools”- AI is just a tool. Gotta admit, I use “tools” for lyrics sometimes- “ohhhh, I just need a final couplet in my last two lines on last chorus to end my new song, so “try, in the style of Nirvana, a rhyming couplet in that last chorus in my song about closing in on desperation”… say. Thanks- I subscribed! 15:24 15:24

Yes! Appreciate your “soap box” I’m glad someone with a platform like you has said this. 🙌🏽✊🏼🙌🏽

Such a great video!

YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES!!!! I know people who were happy to use Drummer but now they're complaining about the bass player or keyboard player. I 100% agree that these are tools. As a keyboard player, this AI tool makes me understand what I need to do in order to up my game. It's playing the same kind of decent keyboard parts that I'd play if I felt a little lazy. I have no issue with someone using these tools - as you said, it's similar to loops.

i've been using mixed in key products along with drummer tracks for years to help me finish my songs faster. the new session players imo are incredible and the inclusion of the new features in LP for iPad is also huge. I can use LP for ipad for ideas when I'm away from my studio without using/needing any 3rd party plugins

Ha, these are some great extra features. Thanks man!

I love having the ability to take advantage of the Session Player Editor while using a 3rd-party instrument like Kontakt. That's a really powerful thing 🙂

Soap box rant was bang on. This is the future, and it’s a tool to use as you wish. Thanks for all you do.

Your "AI rant" is really a very rational, yet sophisticated point of view, which I think is mostly "spot on". Because of your in depth musical / educational background, you have a unique, lengthy perspective about how transitional technologies can and do, change things beyond the overtly obvious. Of course this is always a two way street, some Ai use will be done maliciously, such as when music is crafted to fool the public ala Drake voice imposters,etc.... but generally speaking Chord Track Ai seems to offer up a myriad of flexible usability and compositional time saving features...Great Explanation / Content! Thanks Josh 👍

Totally agree with your soapbox! Thank you!

This is a real boon to my work flow. That's good the heads up. Subd.

My first use for Chord Track is to create backing tracks for my students to practice with on songs we are learning in lessons and ensembles. I own Band in a Box, iReal Pro and all the Session Band apps for iOS and each one provides unique features that help with all the different styles. I also see the benefit of using AI generated tracks for inspiration to create my own stuff. I love your channel and how you continually show me features with Logic Pro that I didn’t know existed. Thank you for the time and effort you put into these videos!

Thanks to you I've got a great session guitar player now. Excellent tips..

I came for the practical tips and I stayed for the discussion on the place of generative AI in a musicians workflow 🙏

My go-to Logic Pro RU-vidr - I learn something from every video (and this video was no excpetion - love being able to drag and drop from the Chord track!)

Your tutorials are among the best ever.

Years ago, I had a Windows software called Band in the Box. It was midi based and is similar to Logic's session players in the sense that it enabled you to add to your songs musicians playing instruments you can’t play. It wasn’t called AI back then. As a bass guitar player, I used to practice 12-bar blues and other music styles. I would type in my chords and select the music style, and then Band in the Box would generate a song. I would go in and shut off the bass guitar part and use this software to practice fills and my meter. It was great for jamming with a software keyboard player, drummer, rhythm guitar, etc. all playing the chords to my songs. I'm looking forward to when we see more musicians added in Logic Pro to jam with. I'm pleased with this update. Thanks for the wonderful videos! I especially recently enjoyed your videos on helping with song-idea creation, and the tools available to us in Logic for generating ideas. Please keep them coming.

Yes region tracks to chord changes generation is definitely something needed to make the logic’s chord track even more powerfull 😊

Well said. People were sceptical about MIDI when it was introduced but it’s allowed so many of us to scratch the itch of composition whether we play an instrument well or not. I really get annoyed when people say you should learn this or that instrument. I play guitar but I can’t play bass well enough to get down the ideas that I want so I use EZBass. I also can’t play drums or the trumpet or the violin or Mongolian nose flute! If I had to learn every instrument to record every part of my songs , I’d never finish anything! 😊

great video. i think a lot of people would like some content on pratcal applications of music theory using logic tools. i think you could really revolutionise the way music theory is taught using logic it seems you are the perfect person to do it!

Your “soap box” ranting … LOVE IT ! Yep, 100%

Love the way you view these new tools. I work for Lotus cars in the UK and being in the automotive industry which is a little further down the line of automated tools to create our product, the biggest impact of these kind of tools won't be the quality, it'll likely be a thinning of the highly skilled people involved in the processes. You can still make a bad car with all of the new fangled tools, and you still need skilled people who understand exactly what the tool is supposed to be doing to make a good car, you just don't need as many people involved in the process. As time goes on and we move further from the days of skilled fettlers assembling cars they become harder to find as the opportunity to be paid to hone their craft reduces. For the person in charge of creating the end product more capable tools lower the barrier to creating a good car, but don't eliminate the need for skill and understanding. For the skilled people involved in delivering the process it reduces the demand for those skills, which is the scariest and saddest part about the implementation of the new tools. Whether it's good or bad depends on which of those camps you're tied closest to, but it absolutely does not render the process easy or cookie cutter.

100% totally agree excellent video

the session players feature is of great benefit and very helpful indeed; as you say , mix things , take these parts , then reproduce them with other musicians etc ... the possibilities are endless. very inspiring.

I agree. I see AI as yet just another tool to help generate ideas and be inspired. I love the new chord tool in this new version. It would be cool if you could audition chords without hitting the play. You simply click the Cell at the top where you see the name of the chord and it would play the chord. This way you could audition and try different sequences of chords. Great video as always. Thanks for all your videos on RU-vid.

Your push back is 100% spot on. I too know music theory well and find AI tools useful and welcome. My dear friend and master Musician Sun Ra used forms of AI 60 years ago. The idea of supplementing creativity with technology is not new and it is here to stay. In addition, music is not exclusive, it belongs to to universe. Anyone has the right to access and enjoy its creation and presentation. Well done Josh. I'm a big fan.

100% agreed with Josh here. These AI tools are such a great resource to generate fresh ideas and to take your songs to places you wouldn't otherwise go to. Speaking personally, I'm a guitar player and so i really struggle to write authentic sounding piano and bass parts - these tools are a great way to kickstart writing those parts, elevate your songwriting and broaden your horizons (...and stop you writing bass parts like a guitarist haha!)

Thanks for all your videos on logic and I agree with what you said about still being creative whilst using Ai tools. God Bless Ya Bro

SUPER!!!!Thank you so mmuch!!!!

12:18 i can vouch for josh, i actually learned alot from his courses at my school

@MusicTechHelpGuy - Love your stuff, Josh - but this rant about the pushback against AI is absolutely spot on! It's no different from autofocus on a camera, or as you said, MIDI loop generators. It's a tool - nothing more, nothing less. People have been misusing tools for centuries, and sometimes it works, other times it doesn't. Now it would be good if Logic 11 were to be updated to generate a chord track from played-in MIDI (it recognises the chords already, up in the top display if you have that option turned on), or to have the ability to import entire chord sequences eg from Band-In-A-Box or other MIDI program generators (another example would be Cthulu). Now I'm just trying to work out how to type in chords that are less than one bar long. In your example, every TAB took you to the next bar/measure. By lucky accident, the chord sequence I'm working on at the moment seems to have somehow gone into half-bar mode - which is mostly what I want. But I don't know how it got there, and I don't know how to make it do that. Or even get 4 changes in a bar (think gypsy jazz, for example). How do I make it do that deliberately?

Good tips, thanks!

Awesome you nip it in the bud.. luv it!!

Fully agree with your comments. Thanks as usual.

Nice rant. Addresses the Luddite fear perfectly!

Your points about creating music with AI and using it as a starting point are completely true! I do wonder though whether someone with little or no music training who uses these tools would be unmotivated to learn what’s happening in music and expand their musical knowledge because they can create great music without this understanding? I can see this going both ways. I can see someone being enthused and wanting to learn more after using these tools, and I can also see someone move in the opposite direction to where they don’t feel the need to learn more.

I love the addition of Session Players. I'm a bass player and always play my own bass parts but I intend to add a session bass player to my songs and see whether it comes up with riffs that complement my original ideas. If so, I will incorporate them into my bass part and rerecord. Session keys are just the opposite. I'm not a keyboard player and I don't have keys in my recording setup but there are lots of my songs where I hear a keys track (or maybe just an occasional riff) and I can now add a session keys player and see if it's what I want. Final thought - if you think Session Players are the work of the devil - don't use them! But don't think you should make decisions for me or anyone else. Just make the music that's right for you.

I relate this back to a tradesmen, the tools they use to do their work is only as good as the person using it. However the better the tools the better the quality of work is then produced….it still needs the creativity of the tradesmen to make use of these great tools. By the way session player options were available in garage band for iPad long before this😊

That chord progression is so nice!

Thanks for this awesome tutorial. On the rant - Logic drummer has been around forever and could also be described as "AI", and hasn't put drummers out of work. Same for the session players. However it does give people that don't have the budget to hire a full band, some more tools to get a little bit closer - nothing wrong with that. There's plenty of plugins that have offered midi chord stuff for a long time too. It's great that all this is included in the new Logic

I love the Ted talk at the end. I’m not a professional musician so there’s that. I do think you’re right about how AI can be a tool. At the end of the day, if I don’t like the way a song that I’m writing sounds I’ll stop working on it. If I hear an AI song that’s crap I won’t listen too it again. It’s a brave new world😊

Good rant.🙏👍😎

Totally agree with your thinking about using AI TOOLS. And thanks again. You are a real gem 💎

Great points the AI topic and awesome job the entire Logic XI launch/features.

Love the new features in Logic Pro 11 and especially Chord Track and session players.. (Cubase has had Chord Track for years.. so it's very pleasing Logic has now bought it back...)

I love it!

I do agree with you. Love you.

Love You Bro

Loved how you said it’s a loop generator. That’s what’s it is our own loop operator lol🎉😂 love your vids by the way

I totally agree on the musical ideas side of things, if you have a musical mind this an awesome tool

your soapbox is 110% spot on. we're probably in totally different camps musically. I'm a guitar player and like to write and record at home because it's fun and it lets me be a teenager again, though that 40 years ago. anyways, I am into writing modern metal, like deathcore, symphonic death, etc., music with ambient strings and keys. and that's such a hard part because I know a little self taught mostly music theory and cannot play keys beyond chopsticks. but I can program chord progressions to follow the guitar riffs and chords and add layers. the music is all in the creator. for me, this is awesome. I just got the upgrade last night and have been playing with it. thanks for showing how you can drop it into a midi instrument, because logic has some really cool ambient instruments and this will make it much easier and quicker. i can get the guitar, drums (ezdrummer), and bass(ezbass), now I can do the keys fairly easily.

🙏🙏🙏 I totally agree to your thoughts.

Great Comment! Thank You!

I’m a composer, pianist and musician but I’m also a huge aviation enthusiast. I see parallels between your thoughts on using automation in music and airline flying. Autopilots have been in airplanes since the 1930’s. Modern autopilots can perform an automatic landing when the airport and airplane are configured properly for when visibility is zero. Pilots are trained to on the uses and limitations of these tools, and taught to use an appropriate level of automation for the given situation. Some argue that the tools themselves pose additional risks to aviation safety, but I feel, like you say here, that the human is ultimately responsible for how the tool is used-from engineers to end users (pilots, in the case of aviation). New pilots learn to fly manually and learn the principles of what their airplane is doing long before they start using automation!