I’m way past that point. I was using those basic progressions just as examples. I can pick out a 1-4-5 in E. I just can’t listen to, say, Hey Bulldog and go “Oh yeah, Bm7-F#m-A-F#m-E-E7!”
Can you hear the roots at least?
Sometimes.
That will get better. If you haven’t tried it, it might help to turn the bass all the way up on your stereo and the treble all the way down. It’ll help you to hear the roots (and the bass line is often a pretty good guide to the roots as well). Once you get the roots you’re like two thirds of the way there. Even if you just play roots and fifths, you can pretty much fake your way through a lot of songs.
Close. It’s B(7)-F#m-B(7)-F#m, A- F#m-E(7), A-F#m-B(7) 
I don’t think in terms of actual keys, since I don’t have perfect pitch. Just try to figure out the chords in relation to the tonic. When I hear this, I hear the following I(7), v, I(7), v, bVII, v, IV(7), bVII, v, I. Normally, when figuring these sorts of things out, I listen to the bass line (unless it’s obviously not playing the root), and then figure out the major/minor tonality of the chord on top of it. If you can recognize intervals pretty well, you can tune your ear to hear the chord progressions with a little bit of practice.
Does anybody know the chord progression for the “It seems like there’s a hole in my dreams” part of Elephant Stone by the Stone Roses?
I thought it was G-A-D, but I saw a tab that said it was D-A-G.
If even I can figure that out better than whoever posted the tab, online tabs really are bad!
Something I’ve found helpful is if there’s a site that has tabs for just one band. Sometimes fans create those.
Try googling “Bandname guitar archive” or “Bandname chord archive” or something like that and you might find something good.
The song is actually capoed up one fret (that should help a bit)
Se(Cadd9)ems like there’s a hol(D)e in my d(G)reams…(Cadd9)…
In my D(G)reams…(Cadd9)in my d(G)reams.
Cadd9=x30030
D=xx0232
G= xxx433
Slight hijack, but can anyone tell me the name (if there is one) of this chord:
xx3233
when you play:
xx3233
x32o33
32oo33
back to back to back with some funky strums it sounds pretty cool, but I have tried to see what that chord is and I just can’t figure it out, nor does any chording software recognize it.
F6 add 9.
xx3233=Fadd9/6
Here’s a free guitar chord identifier.
Ha! Beat ya!
Wow. That was fast!
I now know the name for my new favourite chord
Thanks!
If you want to play an instrument, any instrument at all, learning to read music is a really, really good idea.
May I suggest Guitar Pro? I love that damn program. It has more feature than you can shake a stick at. It priced, in my opinion, very well and they have a trial version you can try out.
There is a sister web site at My Songbook that has thousands and thousands of song to use in the program. The songs on the site are arranged by artist and by genre.
Check them out. It will be worth it.
It certainly is, but learning to hear is better idea, in my opinion. I think a bit problem with traditional music education (mine included) is that it doesn’t place enough emphasis on aural skills. Sure, I know many skilled pianists who can read fine, but when it comes to improvisation or picking up simple chord progressions, they just plain falter. Of course, the best musicians are adept at both. But if I had of choice of either reading and playing well or picking up songs by ear and playing well, I would choose the latter every single time. To me, it’s a bit like learning to read before you can talk.
I found this tab amusing:
I suppose it’s helpful if you keep your guitar tuned a step down, but even if it’s not, it wouldn’t be difficult to figure out.
Not complaining about the tabs/chords out there as I find them really helpful.
IMO, there’s a certain timbre in how a guitar is tuned that can lend different results. Take Joni Mitchell’s song “Chelsea Morning”. IIRC, the guitar is tuned to DADF#AD and then capoed on the second fret. The guitar sounds different if it’s tuned to EBEG#BE and not capoed at all. Both have the exact same fingerings from the nut/capo, but the feeling is just… different. Also with tuning down, you can use heavier strings on the guitar without putting an extra strain on the neck, this also changes the timbre (consult a guitar doctor before doing that, of course).
Thanks, everyone for the tips and shared frustrations. I can generally figure out chords for myself, especially if I have the CD…but sometimes I hear a song on the radio I want to learn and go online to get the info, hence my frustration.
You don’t need any magical talent. All you have to do is keep trying chords in the same key, and you’ll figure them out pretty quick. It’s not like there are a lot of different chords they could be.
There really could be a lot of different chords, and they don’t have to be in the same key. A chord could be a modulating bridge, and then all the other chords in some other key. The entire song could be chromatic. And even within a given key, there are a lot of chord variations — added dominant sevenths, dropped thirds, augmented fourths, and so on. You can approximate most songs using the tonic, relative minor, dominant, subdominant, and maybe the second and third minors, but a lot of songs have more complexity than that — secondary dominants, tertiary dominants, diminished sevenths, and so on. (And nevermind inversions.) Songs won’t sound really “right” until the proper harmonics are used.