🧠control emotion with 1 question

Hey music maker!

Still can't control the emotion your progressions create?

I used to add chords by trial and error.

Sometimes I'd hit gold.

But most times, I'd spend twenty minutes cycling through options with no real direction or control over the emotion I was creating.

Worse — I'd get stuck in two-chord loops that felt good, but I had no idea how to resolve them.

Luckily, while reading one of my music books I learned a concept that made my progression writing process a bit less random.

There's a question pro songwriters, instinctively, ask before they add a chord. And once you start asking it, you stop guessing.

Before you add another chord, ask yourself this:

"Is this chord taking my listener home or away from home?"

It’s a powerful question.

And if you can answer it, you’ll reduce your chord choices, which gets you closer to the best options for your goal.

Here's why this question matters.

Your brain releases dopamine when it expects a resolution. Then again when the resolution arrives.

McGill researchers proved this with brain scans. Music activates the same reward circuits as food and drugs.

The space before the I chord lands is where dopamine spikes hardest.

That's why the V chord in "Maneater" works. It creates desire for home. Hall & Oates make you wait for it.

The waiting is the hook.

Chords move in three directions.

Jack Perricone breaks this down in Great Songwriting Techniques. He calls it functional harmony: grouping chords by how they move your listener emotionally.

Tonic (I, vi, iii) — Home. It provides stability or rest.

Subdominant (IV, ii) — Departure. Movement away from home.

Dominant (V, vii°) — Tension. The pull back toward home.

When you know which direction a chord is moving, you have more control over the emotion of your song or performance.

💿 "Maneater" by Hall and Oates

Key: D Major

Intro Progression: Bm - A - G - A

Nashville Numbers: 6mi - 5 - 4 - 5

What makes this work:

This record has an amazing rhythm created by an awesome drumbeat and bass line that hooks you as soon as the record begins, but harmonically speaking…

The intro loops on vi - V - IV - V. Never lands on I.

That V chord pushed you forward into the next phrase. It creates tension that demands resolution.

I talked about this in my analysis of Daisies by Justin Bieber (YouTube).

When the verse begins…you get the I chord for the first time, and you can literally feel the sense of arrival. Perfect choice to say, “Alright, we’re moving from the instrumental groove and beginning the story.”

Listen to the difference between the intro progression and that moment when the verse begins…

In that brief moment, you feel home.

The V chord gave you a clue about what key. It pushed you toward I the entire intro.

Hall & Oates withheld home to make you crave it.

Pick a progression you're working on.

For each chord ask: Is this chord taking my listener home or away?

Or try this:

The tension that you feel is the lever.