Playing music and understanding the science behind what you play are 2 different ball parks. Whilst theory isn’t essential to play, even the basics will expand your playing by miles.

Music theory is a big and scary beast. It’s the understanding of music and how it works, and why, as far as we can possibly know.

It’s not for everyone but every piece of theory you know bolsters your musical knowledge with a powerful package. Lets take a look at understanding how different chords work together and how, very simply, you can expand your songwriting with a knowledge of how chords work.

Chord Wheels

Chord wheels align chord theory in an easy-to-look-at form so you can simply see what chords work together and how they combine in a key.

It works by defining the key and showing you what else works with it. This helps you write songs as you know what chords will sound natural with your root chord and also helps you to understand what scales to use.

Roman Numerals can then be used to assign the position and function of each chord within a key.

Here’s an example:
Why not get started and use a chord wheel right now. 
Here is a basic chord wheel which you can use to learn the structures 
of keys and maybe even find inspiration for a new song: 

For a next level experience click here to head to Web Semantic’s interactive Chord Wheel allowing you to navigate the great tool with ease.