Last week was the map. This week you learned to move chords like a pro — and we started training the one skill the whole goal rests on: hearing.
C and F reviewed, B♭ added — with a metronome at 90.
We filled in the 2 and 3. Now you have I–ii–iii–IV–V–vi.
Move your right hand the shortest distance — inversions do the work.
"Let It Be" again — now voiced properly. A peek at "Get Lucky."
Intervals, single notes, and chord progressions by ear.
Same scale shape, every key. The black keys just change where your thumb crosses.
Last lesson we did the 1, 4, 5 and 6. Today we filled in the 2 and the 3 — so now you have every chord that lives in the key. In a major key the 2, 3 and 6 are minor; the 1, 4 and 5 are major.
Move the chords the shortest distance possible. Pick the inversion closest to where your hand already is.
It's called voice leading because centuries ago music was sung — three or four voices. To change chords, each singer moved as little as possible: one note might stay, the others step over. Your right hand does the same. The left hand plays the root (it can leap — it's the bass), while the right hand stays put, just changing inversion.
Hear the difference. Same four chords, two ways to play them.
A four-chord loop — Bm · D · F#m · E. Greg reads it in A major as 2 – 4 – 6 – 5, but it's centered on that 2-chord (Bm) and the parent key's "home" (A, the 1) never actually sounds — which is why it floats. Building on the 2nd degree like this is the Dorian sound. It also uses minor-7 chords (replace the 1 with the 7: a 7-3-5 voicing).
Optional this week — fun to mess with, but the foundation comes first.
This is where you'll spend your practice ears. Greg's five steps: hear a note → hear a chord → hear a series → build chords under notes → hear a whole song and play it. Three games to start.
The distance between two notes. Train your ear to name them.
Hear "1–6–4–5" before you even touch a key.
Hear a note, find it on the keyboard.
Press play, hear the two notes, and click the interval you heard. Each one has its own color.
Hear a four-chord progression in C, then pick which one it was. This is exactly how you'll figure out a song.
Press play, close your eyes, hear the note — then click it on the keyboard. White keys only, one octave.
Your toolkit was 1-3-5. You can add the 7 on top: 1-3-5-7. And because the root is already in your left hand, you can drop the 1 and play 7-3-5 in the right — same chord, richer color. Don't double the 7; it's a weak note. This is what gives "Get Lucky" its sound.
Thirty minutes to an hour a day. Check each off — it saves in your browser. No pressure on pace; consistency is what makes it click.
Hear a melody and play it back — the note-by-note version of the games above.
Greg plays a melody; you build a chord progression underneath it that works. The real goal.
Lock the intervals, deepen the 7ths, and keep "Let It Be" and scales moving through every key.
If a different instructor runs Lesson 3, everything they need is written up here — exactly where you are and what to cover.