I am currently practicing the 50 Songs Challenge. It is great for fingers and rhythm, but I also want to understand the music theory behind the tracks.
Is there already a thread or document on the forum with harmonic analysis for these 50 songs?
I would like to understand things like:
Key and chord progressions
Notes used in the bassline (roots, 3rds, 5ths, passing notes)
Scales or modes behind the riffs
Why the line works so well with the chords
If we don’t have this yet, maybe we can start analyzing them together here, song by song?
You’ll learn these concepts better analyzing them for yourself, rather than reading someone else’s analysis. This is less daunting than you’re imagining it to be.
You can probably figure out the home root pretty easily. From there, these will be overwhelmingly in Minor or Major key. Once you have that, you can figure out the chord changes.
“Why does this line work well,” is a REALLY big question.
And sometimes, it’s not worth overthinking. I was working on “Pump It Up” by Elvis Costello and tried to analyze why it was so good. Asked my (very knowledgeable) teachers, and he basically said, “Sometimes it just sounds cool.”