Two questions explainalmost every chord you hear.
Where is the music going — and why did the chord change. That’s the whole framework. Everything below is organized around those two questions: the same two I run in my head every time I sit down and figure something out without a tutorial.
Families
Categories
Anchors
Breakdowns
Three things, in this order.
You don’t have to read the whole framework today. You have to use one piece of it tonight.
Watch the walkthrough
I show you how the system is built, where you are inside it, and what to focus on at your level. Watch it once before you open anything else.
Open Horizontal Harmony
One question — where is the music going? — organizes every progression you have ever played. Start there, not with the chord lists.
Run one song through it
Take a song you already know how to play. Find the chord where you can breathe. That is your Target — and that is tonight’s work.
How to use this framework
I explain each section, play the examples at the piano, and show you how to find your starting point in the system.
Open a section. Everything drops down.
Two free sections and one that lives inside the membership. Start with 01 — it’s the layer everything else sits on top of.
Where is the music going?
Every chord in every song you love is doing one of three jobs. Once you can name the job, you stop memorising progressions and start hearing them.
Music is motion. It moves you somewhere — like a story told through time.
Tension is gravity — it’s the pull toward something. Target is resolution — the moment you’re at rest, able to breathe and keep walking. These are not a fixed three-chord formula. They describe what’s happening in the moment, in any order, for as long as the music needs.
A few of the paths a song can actually take
How to run a song through Horizontal Harmony
- 1 Find the rest. Play the progression and stop where it feels like you could breathe and walk away. That chord is the Target. Don’t name it yet — just feel where the weight drops.
- 2 Back up one chord. The chord immediately before the rest is almost always the Tension — the one that made you want to land. In gospel and R&B it will be some form of dominant.
- 3 Label whatever set that up. Anything pointing at the tension is Approach. Sus chords, half-diminished chords, secondary dominants, passing minors — they are all just setup.
Approach chords create forward motion. They set up harmonic expectation without yet demanding resolution. These chords signal “we’re going somewhere” — they point toward the tension that follows.
Sus Approaches
Suspended sounds whose inner motion releases into tension.
The core idea
The 4 delays the 3rd — that delay is the entire energy of the chord. When the 4 finally moves to the 3, the sound turns from Approach into Tension. C9sus4 → C9.
Beginner version
Play a sus chord. Hold it. Then move the 4 down to the 3. That single note movement is what releases the suspended energy into a dominant sound.
Why the bass matters here
Sus and 13sus voicings are so common in gospel that the bass note becomes critical. The upper structure sounds open and ambiguous on its own — the bass is what tells the ear what the chord is doing. In many gospel contexts C13sus substitutes directly for C7, C9, or C13.
Half-Diminished Approaches
Dark, searching setup sounds that point forward.
Use 1 — classic ii–V–I
Dmin7b5 → G7 → Cmaj. The half-diminished sets up the dominant, which resolves to the target. Approach → Tension → Target.
Use 2 — straight to a slash target
Dmin7b5 → C/G. Resolves directly to a slash target, skipping the dominant entirely. Approach → Target.
Use 3 — chromatic passing
Walk half-diminished shapes up in half steps over a steady bass root — C# half-dim up to F# half-dim over a D root, resolving to G. Moving shapes, stable foundation.
To improvise over it
Locrian is the go-to. Locrian natural 2 softens the b2 for a slightly more open sound.
The dual identity worth knowing
The same notes can be heard as a rootless dominant 9 — F#–C–E–A is also D9 played rootless. But D9 belongs in Tension. Same notes, different job. The role depends on context and where the chord sits, not on the notes.
Dominant-Based Approaches
Dominant sounds used as setup energy rather than as the main pull.
Secondary dominant — the formula
Find the V7 of any chord in the key and put it immediately before that chord. A7 → D in the key of G. E7 → Am. Each one is a mini Approach–Tension inside the bigger progression.
Tritone sub — the beginner version
Find the dominant that normally goes before your target. Count up six half steps. Build a dominant 7th there. Play it instead, and resolve to the same target. Db7 → C instead of G7 → C.
Why the ear accepts the tritone sub
Two dominants a tritone apart share the same 3rd and 7th — just inverted. Those two notes are what the ear actually listens for. The resolution still lands; the path there was simply more interesting. The bass moves by half step instead of a 4th.
Minor Approaches
Minor-colour approach movement. Passing Minor is the worked example.
Beginner version
Find the major chord you want to land on. Back up one half step and play that same shape as a minor chord. That’s your passing minor.
Gospel examples
Cmaj7 → Cm7 → Bbmaj7 · Fmaj7 → Fm7 → Eb. A brief shadow of colour before the arrival — it never stops the forward motion.
Tension chords demand resolution. They have gravitational pull — the more altered the chord, the stronger the pull toward the target. In gospel and R&B, almost all tension chords are some form of dominant.
F7 as the example root, so F stays at the bottom in all of them. They are grouped by what to learn first — not alphabetically, and not by difficulty of the name.The one thing to take from this whole card
Play A + Eb in your left hand. That tritone is the 3rd and 7th of F7 — the two notes that define a dominant chord. The ear hears “dominant” from those two notes alone. If your right hand is playing a scale or melody, this is the go-to left-hand voicing. A full F-A-C-Eb is rarely what actually gets played.
Why this unlocks the other seventeen
Every dominant on this ladder contains A and Eb. F9, F7#9, F7b9, F13(no5) — all of them. The tritone is the identity. The extensions are the personality. You are not learning eighteen chords; you are learning one chord with eighteen coats of paint.
A bare V7 sounds thin in gospel. These are the extended and lightly-altered dominants that do the actual work in most progressions — the sounds you have been hearing on records and could not name.
The more alterations you stack, the harder the chord pulls. These are colour and urgency — not prerequisites. Nothing here works until the tritone is automatic under your hand.
Target chords are the point of arrival. They receive the release of the tension that came before. This is the primary site of reharmonization — almost all vertical substitution lives here, because the ear has already been satisfied by the release and can accept a surprising voicing.
Target chord types
From the plainest arrival to the fully gospel one.
Key principles
- The formula works in both directions — you can omit Approach entirely and still have a strong cadence, or stack several Approach chords before you resolve.
- Tension chords typically do not receive vertical substitutions. Their functional pull is too strong to mess with.
- Vertical harmony — reharmonization — lives almost exclusively in the Target zone.
- Backwards caveat: if a chord can be voiced as a Major Target, add a ♭7 to make it Dominant — and that Dominant can then be played as a Major/♭7 slash. Forward-compatible in both directions.
- Deceptive movement happens when the Tension chord resolves somewhere other than the expected Target. Surprise, with the emotional logic still intact.
- 4–3 suspension is why sus chords belong in Approach. The 4th resolves down to the 3rd, turning the suspended sound into a dominant tension chord:
C9sus4 → C9is Approach → Tension. The inner movement is F → E over C. - 9–8 suspension operates inside any horizontal role. The 9th resolves down to the root while the bass holds steady — motion inside a chord rather than between chords.
Why did the chord change?
Tab 01 told you where the music was going. This one explains why you are allowed to put a different chord there — and why the ear says yes instead of flinching.
Reharm Methods
Explains why the chord changed. Five categories. This is the main classification.
Sound Shapes
Describes the voicing used to express it — quartal, upper structure, rootless, altered. Never the cause.
Movement Devices
Explains the inner note motion — what moves inside the chord rather than between chords.
Expectation Anchors
Explains why the ear accepts it. Something stayed clear while everything else moved.
How do I classify this?
Ask one question. Find the category. Some moves use more than one — choose by what the listener hears first. Tap a row to jump to it.
The actual song melody tells you what chord to play. The melody note stays clear — the chord is chosen because of that note.
Plain English
Look at the melody note first. Find a chord that makes that note sound interesting — as a 9th, #5, 13th, or #11. The melody demanded the chord.
Why the ear accepts it
The listener hears the top note first. The chord change beneath it reads as colour and texture, not disruption.
Beginner version
Keep the triadic shell of the original chord. Only move the bass note. The top note stays — only what’s under it shifts.
Deeper version
Build a new chord entirely around the top note. Ask: what is this melody note as an extension? 9th? #5? 13th? Then build a chord where that note is the highest tension interval.
The gospel example — Bb7#5
In “When You Wish Upon a Star” the melody note is F# over the Bb7 moment. Instead of a plain Bb7, play Bb7#5 — because F# is the #5 of Bb. LH: F-D-Ab. RH: D-F#. The melody demanded the chord; nobody chose it out of a book.
Sound Shape
Altered Dominant · Upper Structure Triad · 13 No 5 · Quartal · Half-Diminished. The melody note determines which alteration to use — the Sound Shape expresses what the melody demanded, it did not cause the reharm.
Plain English
You create or hear a melodic line and harmonize each note of it. Each note gets its own chord colour.
Why the ear accepts it
The countermelody carries its own tension-release arc. The ear tracks two stories at once — the main melody and the line beneath it.
The rule that governs it
The stronger and more singable the countermelody, the more dramatic the harmony can be. A weak melody cannot carry strong harmony. Common intervals: parallel 3rds, parallel 6ths, Barry Harris-style contrary motion, independent inner voice movement.
The bass note tells you what the chord can become. This is not just putting the same chord over a different bass note — the chord quality itself may change. The bass note is the starting point; the quality above it can become major, minor, dominant, altered, or half-diminished.
Plain English
Keep your attention on the bass note. Ask: “what kinds of chords can this bass note become?” The bass note is the doorway — the quality above it is your choice.
Why the ear accepts it
Grounded but surprising. The ear stays connected because the bass is clear, even when the quality above it changes completely.
The worked example — what can an F bass become?
One F in the bass supports F7#9#5, Fmin9, and Fmin7b5. The shared idea is not that the quality stays the same — it is that the F bass is the starting point for new options. Hear F as a root, not a passing inversion note, and a whole range of qualities becomes logical.
Advanced
Eb minor / C — an Eb minor triad over a C bass reads as a C-rooted sound with Eb minor colour on top. Eb minor / B gives you a half-step bass approach.
Backwards caveat
If a Major chord can be voiced as a Dominant (add ♭7), that Dominant can be played as Major/♭7. C major → C7 → C/Bb. Works forward and backwards.
Plain English
The bass note changes while the upper chord shape stays close to where it was. The new bass reframes what the whole thing sounds like.
Diatonic movement
If the movement is diatonic, move the bass to the 3rd, 5th, or 6th of the chord for colour and direction.
Emotional result
Creates movement inside what would otherwise be a static chord. The ear follows the bass line as the real story.
The listener thought you were landing in one place, but you landed somewhere else in a way that still sounded intentional. The expected destination changes — the listener is redirected, and it works.
Plain English
The ear expected one landing. You use a 5–1 motion to redirect it somewhere else. The move still sounds right because the dominant-to-tonic pull is always recognisable — even when the “tonic” is a surprise.
Core example
Expected: Bbmin9. Instead: G7#5 → Cmin9. The 5–1 motion makes the surprise feel musically justified.
Beginner version
Instead of resolving to the expected I chord, land on the VI (relative minor) or the II. Those “wrong” arrivals still sound intentional because they share notes with the expected target.
Emotional result
Delightful wrongness. The kind of surprise that makes a listener say “wait — but yes.” High impact at resolution moments.
Plain English
The tension chord resolves to an unexpected target instead of the predicted one. V7 → VIm instead of V7 → I is the classic form.
Why the ear accepts it
The unexpected target shares notes with the expected resolution, or sits in a functional neighbour position. The alternative landing is familiar enough.
Gospel application
Used at the end of a verse to delay final resolution, or at a worship moment to extend tension. Interrupting the expected I chord prolongs the feeling of seeking. Longing extended, resolution withheld.
Plain English
A non-diatonic chord is inserted immediately before the target — usually a half step above or below it. It creates a micro-tension that makes the landing feel earned.
Examples
Ebm9 → Dm9 from above · C#m9 → Dm9 from below · Gm7b5 → F#m7 → Gmaj7 as a double passing approach.
Why the ear accepts it
The chromatic movement is so brief that the ear reads it as approach motion rather than disruption. The target feels arrived at — not stumbled onto.
You create, hold, or choose a note or line — then build harmony around it. This is different from Melody-Based Changes, where the original song melody forces the chord. Here you are inventing something new.
Plain English
You invent a melodic line — not the original song melody — and harmonize each note of it. The created line becomes the reason for the chord choices.
Why the ear accepts it
The created line carries its own tension-release arc. The ear follows it as its own story, running alongside the original melody.
The distinction that trips everyone up
Harmonize an invented countermelody with quartal chords and the method is Color Note Changes. Harmonize the actual melody notes with the same quartal chords and the method is Melody-Based Changes. Same Sound Shape. Different cause. The cause is what you name.
Plain English
Choose a top note to hold or emphasise — not necessarily the current melody note — and move different chord shapes underneath it.
Why the ear accepts it
The stationary top note acts as a pedal point from above. The ear hears a through-line while the harmony changes freely below.
Where you have heard it
Gospel intros and transitions where a high note sustains while the left hand walks through changes. Continuity and suspense at the same time. The held note can also be an inner voice — a common tone that stays put while everything moves around it.
Quartal voicing
Notes stacked in 4ths instead of 3rds. Open, ambiguous, spacious — a question without a clear answer. Signals awe or vastness.
Upper structure triad
LH plays a shell (root + 7). RH plays a separate triad on top. Together they make one rich named dominant colour — LH F-D-Ab, RH D-F# gives you Bb7#5.
Remember what a Sound Shape is
A Sound Shape is never the reason the chord changed. It is how you voiced the reason. If you can only name the shape and not the cause, you have not classified the reharm yet.
The harmony briefly sounds like it has entered another key area before returning home. The listener is transported for a moment, then brought back. The ear accepts it because the temporary key has its own internal logic — and the path home is clear.
Plain English
A 5–1 motion lands on an unexpected chord. When that chord is a major chord far from home, the moment feels like a brief visit to a new key — not just a surprising chord, but a temporary new home.
Example in Db
Expected Fmin7. Instead: G7#5 → Cmin9. The ear briefly centres on C minor, then the next phrase returns to Db.
Why the ear accepts it
The 5–1 motion is universally recognisable. Even in a foreign key it feels intentional and purposeful — the Direction Anchor keeps the ear from getting lost.
Plain English
Visit another key using a clear 5–1 motion into it. Keep one melody note the same — that note bridges both keys. Return home quickly through a ii–V–I. The listener is surprised, then satisfied.
The full move
Expected Fmin7. Instead: B13sus → Emaj9 → Ebmin7 → Ab7 → Db. Briefly enters E major, then comes home through a ii–V–I in Db.
The common-tone bridge — this is the whole trick
The melody note Ab is reinterpreted as G# during the E major moment. That single common tone carries the ear across the harmonic gap without confusion. Choose your new key so the melody note is enharmonically common to both centres, and the modulation stops being a leap.
Horizontal role, spelled out
B13sus = Approach → Emaj9 = displaced Target in a new centre → Ebmin7 → Ab7 = Tension, the ii–V return → Db = home Target restored. Both systems describing the same four seconds of music.
The most powerful anchor. When the melody note remains intact — or when the harmony is chosen because of it — the ear is satisfied even if the chord underneath changes completely. The listener hears the melody first.
The bass carries enormous harmonic identity. When it stays in a logical, directional position, the ear follows the bass line and accepts whatever happens above it. Slash chords are the primary vehicle.
Even if every note changes, if the chord’s function stays the same the ear accepts it. G7, G7#5b9, and Db7#11 all still point at Cmin. The ear listens for role, not notes.
When inner voices move by small logical steps, the ear follows even if the destination is surprising. The smoothness of the pathway overrides the strangeness of the destination.
The most subjective and often the most powerful. A floating quartal voicing signals reverence. A sharp #5 dominant signals reaching upward. A lush 6/9 signals settled resolution. These identities are so embedded in the gospel vernacular that the ear responds to the feeling even when the theory is unusual. Ask what emotion the moment needs — the justification can come later.
What moves inside the chord
These are classified separately from the five categories, because the thing creating the sound is motion rather than replacement. They can support any of the five.
9–8 Suspension
The 9th resolves down to the root while the bass holds steady. Over Emaj9: hold E in the bass, play A#–F#, resolve to G#–E. The critical movement is F# → E. Tension and release inside one chord instead of between two.
4–3 Suspension
The 4th leans down into the 3rd. C9sus4 → C9 — the motion is F → E over C. This is why sus chords live in Approach: the 4 delays the dominant, the 3 reveals it. Also works straight into C7b9.
Compound Suspension — and the lesson hiding inside it
Two notes lean and resolve at once: Ab → G and Eb → Db together. Here is the part worth memorising: suspension names depend on which root the ear hears. If the ear hears Eb as the centre, Ab → G is 4→3. If it hears Db as the centre, Eb → Db is 9→8. The same motion carries two labels. Don’t force one rigid name.
C9sus4 → C9 is Approach → Tension horizontally, a 4–3 suspension internally, anchored by voice-leading and bass. That single sentence describes the big-picture direction and the inner motion at the same time — and that is what it sounds like to actually understand a chord.How does it actually work in a real song?
Tabs 01 and 02 gave you the system. This is me sitting down with two real songs and running every single chord through it — 27 analysed moments across “When You Wish Upon a Star” and Revelation 19:1. Every chord gets its horizontal role, its reharm options, what anchors the change, and the emotional result.
Chord 02 — Bb7 → Bb7#5
“When You Wish Upon a Star” · key of Db major · this is exactly what all 27 entries look like inside.
Horizontal role
Tension — V7/VI, pulling toward Ebmin.
Main method
Melody-Based Changes (top note) + Upper Structure Triad.
Melody-driven alteration
Bb7#5
The melody note here is F#. The chord becomes Bb7#5 because F# is the #5 of Bb. The melody created this chord — it was not a theoretical choice.
Hand position
F-D-Ab / D-F#
LH plays the Bb7 shell. RH plays D–F# on top. The upper triad over the shell creates the #5 sound, with the F# melody note placed highest.
What anchors the change
Melody Anchor + Function Anchor. The altered quality is justified by the melody note. The function — dominant tension pulling to Ebmin — is completely preserved despite the alteration.
Emotional result
Bright, reaching, upward tension. The #5 adds a shimmering, yearning quality to the dominant pull.
I already figured out every chord in both songs — so you don’t have to.
Not the chord symbols. The reasoning. Why that chord and not the obvious one, what the ear was holding onto while it changed, and what to play instead if you want a different feeling in that exact bar.
Be honest with yourself for a second. How long would it take you to break down one of these songs on your own?
Not to play it — to explain why every chord is where it is. Days. Probably weeks. And most people never get there at all, because they are still waiting for someone to hand them the notes.
That is the thing this fixes. Not the two songs. The habit of needing someone else to tell you what you just heard.
Then $29/month. Cancel anytime, in two clicks.
Seven days is long enough to work through both songs completely. If it is not for you, cancel before day 7 and you have paid a dollar.
You are not trying to learn songs. You are trying to stop needing someone to hand you the notes.
Chord vocabulary, theory, voicings — those are the tools. Independence is the thing you actually want. Work through Tabs 01 and 02 on one song this week and you will already be doing something most musicians never learn to do: hearing what is happening instead of waiting to be told.
