When someone calls a song at a jam I’ve never heard before, it would be enormously helpful to know if it shares the same chord progression with a song I already know. I was hoping to use Strum Machine to help me identify such songs. For example, East Virginia and I Don’t Want Your Rambling Letters are, as far as I can tell, exactly the same in terms of their chords. Is there an easy way I can identify all songs in Strum Machine that share their chord progressions with other songs? I can do it manually, of course, but that chore will take a long time.
There’s no automated way to do this in Strum Machine at this time. Maybe I’ll explore supporting this exercise someday. Could be an interesting study.
Then again, East Virginia and I Don’t Want Your Rambling Letters also sound so familiar because they have the same phrasing and the same melody. Contrast that with Lonesome Road Blues, which shares the same chord progression but feels quite different as a song. Or think of a song like Banjo Picking Girl, which feels closer to East Virginia to me than Lonesome Road Blues, even though the chord progression is slightly different (quick 5’s in lines 1 and 4).
You may find this interesting. I stumbled on this website for a beginner jam in Idaho a few years ago, and they provide a list of songs for their jam along with a list of standard chord progressions, and each song is linked to one of those chord progressions. For example, the two songs you referenced both have what they call the “W4” progression. Check it out:
Thanks Luke! Very helpful!
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