Hello,
I’m new new to the music theory and I’m learning it with a hookpad. It’s a greate product! Thank you for you work.
Few days ago I was messing with Progression Builder and I found there are no III, II and VI chords there. First, I thought that progresssion builder is working only with major scale. But then I’ve found v chords sitting next to V chord.
Right now it’s extremly confusing for me… Could you please explain why III, II and VI chords are missing in Progression Builder ?
Thank you!
They aren’t missing. You just click the gray “More” circle and you get all the chords. You’ll just have to do some searching for it.
Here’s a screenshot for the first chord in a progression:
I might be blind. But I don’t see III chord. I can see iii (and bIII) but it’s not the same as III.
The progression builder uses the data from the TheoryTab database to give you options for that. It’s possible that no one has submitted your specific chord progression.
Also “III” would often be written as V/vi since that is often how it functions.
At Hooktheory we focus on writing music functionally, understanding the purpose of chords in a progression (this, ultimately, is why we bother using Roman numerals in the first place). The function of major chords with roots on scale degrees 2, 3, and 6 (normally minor chords, and thus are not natural to the scale) is typically to cadence to other chords. These chords are known as “applied” or “secondary” chords, and tend toward V, vi, and ii respectively. For this reason they are notated as V/V, V/vi, and V/ii, which you should be able to find in the trends chords. In Hookpad, secondary chords can be entered using the “V/x” checkbox.
For more information on secondary chords, you can check out Hooktheory II, our second book on music theory for songwriting, or some other nice resources.
Thank you for the answer!
Now I’m confused even more. Do these roman numbers corresponding to the hookpad? If I switch to minor mode I would have III chord available:
That was my original assumption: Progression Builder is only applicable for major mode, right?
yeah right now this is true. All songs are transposed into their relative major for the purposes of the progression builder. Minor mode songs will show up as songs that use the vi chord as their home base (this is a concept we cover in our second book).
Hope that helps!
Dave
Thank you for explanation! That helped me a lot. I’m considering to buy hooktheory 2 to understand better chords like 42, 65 and some other you find in hookpad songs
