In a recent post I passed along information about Hooktheory, a website dedicated to one of my favorite pastimes, tearing apart songs and dissecting the chord progressions.  With the editor feature on the Hooktheory website you can input the chord progression data to any song you wish, add the melody, and then, play it back in any key.  You can even a link song to its corresponding YouTube video.

But you don’t always have to have a song in mind to benefit from using the editor.  As in the example below, I input the chord progression for a standard 12 Bar Blues in the key of C.  I can now play the progression back, in any key, to hear how it sounds and log that progression in my memory banks.  I could even try soloing over the progress with a basic blues scale.

They are many creative uses for the Hooktheory editor, not to mention being able to print out your songs or progressions in standard notation or guitar tab.  Give the editor a try and let me know of ways you’ve benefited from using it. (Note: In the 4th measure the editor writes the I7 or C7 chord as a V7/IV chord which is referred to as the V7 of IV chord or the fifth of F which is C7).