My first chord progression: Em7 F Gsus4 G

I said that I tried to write something different in the key that I normally use, A minor, by utilizing the things I learned from the music lessons and from Hooktheory. In particular, I used suspension chords which we had talked about previously.

To evolve this chord progression into other chords, my music teacher suggested that I could think about what relationship G has to other chords. For example:

• G is the VII of Amin, so it can be resolved to Amin
• G is the V of Cmaj, so it can be resolved to C

I mentioned that I sometimes have a hard time finding a chord that i think sounds good. He suggested that I write down things that I think sound bad to examine why they’re not good. If I can’t figure it out, I can bring it to him to find out more.

My second chord progression: F#m7 B7 G#m7 C#m

I said that I found this by looking up other popular jazz chord progressions similar to the 215 chord progression and learned about how one method that is used is to just to play the fifth chord of the note that was just played. My music teacher said that this was also called travelling by the secondary dominant.

He mentioned that it was common to do the first half of the progression again but then resolve to I ex. F#m7 B7 Emaj

I also asked him how he would describe the emotional qualities of the chord progression, since I had a hard time describing it, and he said that it would be thought of as motivating and determined.

The assignment for next week is to do this again, but with less attention to the music theory I’ve been taught and writing whatever I think sounds good.