How to recognise chord progressions by ear

This video looks like a drop everything I'm doing situation

I love the whole "and the world lives as 1" thing, that was too perfect!

Note for viewers, it took me a few years to go from recognizing IV and V reliably to all the chromatics here. You can absolutely do it, but you've gotta learn and play songs and get those chords in your fingers and associated with the Roman numeral in your head while playing them. Great overview of the common major/minor here!

DBP tries not to reference Radiohead challenge (impossible)

Hello David. As a musician who never really properly learned about music in the formal sense, I've been following many YouTube teachers, and you're way out in front and my absolute favourite. I have to compliment you on your relaxed style of presenting music theory in a way that keeps me engaged. I've learned so much already and will continue to follow you, so please keep it going, keep it relaxed and thank you for taking the time to assist oldies like myself who never had the music education we should have had. Although I was theoretically a professional musician, I really only played at a very basic level and watching your videos has made me realise how much better I would have been had I taken the music classes at school that were available. But now through your easy-to-understand and step-by-step approach, I'm gradually catching up. Thank you and I'll see you in the next one!!!

i love how you tailor almost every video on beginners. i admire you. it's so humble and wise. and generous, really.

Other songs that use the VII chord like Karma Police are: "Sexy Sadie" by The Beatles "Mr Sandman" by The Chordettes" "Dream A Little Dream Of Me" by the Mamas and the Papas And minor version of the vii is found in the Beatles' "Yesterday", the second chord right after the tonic!

I earned a music degree in college. This video reminded me of my music theory classes. I graduated 50 years ago! You are a great teacher!

I've been waiting for this video since I was 13, now I'm 27. So thanks a lot. Best teacher ever.

Strangely did a lot better on the harder levels of the quiz haha! Stuff like the IV iv I or bVI bVII I have such distinctive sounds it's hard to confuse them for anything else. I always have issues with distinguishing IV I, because it feels like a strong resolution to me so I always think it must be V

Playing the chords on the piano as they came up in the songs was such a nice touch! As a piano player, identifying the chords where there is no piano or keyboard accompaniment is always an added challenge, so it was nice not having to worry about them in this instance. It gets even more difficult when the song does not start on tonic (it usually doesn't I think) and chords are never explicitly played but implied or just played in an unusual or complex way. One thing I'd add is that for most genres, identifying the bass helps immensely, as it's almost always the root if there is a bass player. Even for inversions and slash chords it helps to figure out the rest, I'd say. Otherwise I guess it mostly comes down to familiarity or if that doesn't work, fiddling on your main instrument. Either way, this video is a very good play to start.👍

David there is something incredibly soothing about the way your videos make so many abstract concepts concrete enough to where I feel I can finally make good use of them in my songwriting!! Many thanks!

I loved a little quiz at the end. it definitely encouraged me to be a more active participant. Often times I find myself just listening, but never applying.

Man so grateful to stumble upon your channel. How clear your explanations are, the way you play while you talking about the chord and how you play the chord over the example song really helps to a novice like me. Thank you sir!

This is awesome! Working out chords by ear is a skill I've been trying to develop lately and this will help a lot. Think you could do a similar video focused on minor keys?

Before I even finished watching this video I already learned a ton from it and already used one of the ideas on a piece of music I'm writing that I was stuck on. This video really got me thinking differently about chord progressions and I thank you immensely.

You keep outdoing yourself! This is one of the best easily-accessable music theory resources out in the world now. Very excited for your overview of minor progressions.

I'm currently teaching on of my students how to recognize chord progressions by ear so this video couldn't have come out at a better time! Very well put together. I will have to send this to them as another thing to learn from!

Excellent tutorials David, thank you. I remember having a light bulb moment with music theory when I went to a particular tutor in my 30’s when suddenly everything just made sense. He taught in a similar way to you and I’d imagine many people out there are now having this light bulb moment too. Good work!

Wow thank you so much, as a sec taught piano player trying to dip into songwriting I have watched DOZENS of videos to try and piece together this information. Supremely helpful