How to learn chord progressions so fast it feels like cheating
Hey there, music makers!
Have you ever wondered if there's a faster way to learn chord progressions?
For years, I struggled with memorizing even basic progressions until I hit a breaking point and almost gave up music entirely. That's when I started researching memory techniques from outside the music world to solve this problem.
Today I'm sharing the CARS system - a simple 4-step method I developed that helped me learn chord progressions 4.3x faster, and works whether you're a complete beginner or an experienced musician.
The CARS System
Step 1: Copy (The Hustle)
Sam Parr started a newsletter called The Hustle and sold it for $27 Million. When Sam started, he wasn't a great writer. He had no published books, no prior experience as a journalist, not even a popular blog.
His secret? A technique called copywork. He would hand-copy the best sales letters of all time. Not to plagiarize but to identify patterns, internalize them, and develop his own style.
Musicians do something similar - we play other people's songs - but there's one simple step we often skip: writing it down.
For this step:
Pick a chord progression from a song you love
Write out that chord progression by hand
Do what Bart Simpson does at the chalkboard - write it over and over to fill up one page.
Yes, it's tedious, but writing it repeatedly helps your brain encode the information.
Step 2: Associate
The Copy exercise warms up your brain, but this next step is where you start building real connections. This technique is similar to the Suzuki method used by classical musicians - surrounding yourself with sound before attempting to reproduce it.
For this step:
Take your chord progression and listen to the original song multiple times
While listening, look at the chord progression you wrote down
Focus on connecting the sound with what you see on paper
This simple process helps your brain create strong associations between the written notation and the actual sound. With enough repetition, you'll start to hear exactly when each chord changes without even thinking about it.
The power of this technique is that it engages multiple senses simultaneously - you're seeing the progression while hearing it, creating stronger neural pathways than either method alone.
Step 3: Recall
This is where the magic really happens - where learning begins to accelerate so rapidly that it feels like cheating.
Think about it like this: using sheet music or chord charts is like always relying on GPS navigation.
Sure, you'll get to your destination, but you're not building your mental map. The person who always uses GPS to navigate their city will never truly learn it, while someone who navigates without assistance develops a stronger mental model of the streets and landmarks.
The same principle applies to music. When you constantly refer to written chord progressions, you're using a "musical GPS" that prevents your brain from building strong memory pathways. Studies show that musicians who practice recall learn up to 4 times faster than those who always rely on written music.
For this step:
Try playing or writing the progression from memory, without looking at your notes
Do this twice a day—morning and evening
Embrace the struggle - it's making your musical memory stronger
The more you force yourself to recall progressions from memory, the faster your brain adapts and strengthens those neural connections. This is the science of active recall, and it's a game-changer for musicians.
Step 4: Spacing
The final step might seem counterintuitive but it's backed by solid science: after you learn the chord progression, deliberately walk away from it.
This technique is based on the "spacing effect," discovered by psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus. His research proved that we remember information better when we spread out our practice over time rather than cramming it all at once.
For this step:
Learn the progression thoroughly using the previous steps
Set it aside for a day or two
Return and test your recall without looking at notes
Repeat with increasing time intervals (1 day, 3 days, 1 week)
This spaced repetition approach is used by everyone from language learners to chess grandmasters. The brief forgetting period strengthens your memory when you return to the material, making it stick for the long-term.
🎯 Challenge for the Week
Pick one chord progression from a song you love and apply the CARS system:
Copy it by hand 10 times
Associate by listening to the song while looking at your notation
Recall it from memory twice a day
Space your practice over the week
By next week, you'll be shocked at how deeply that progression is embedded in your musical vocabulary.
🧠 Quote of the week
"Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young" — Henry Ford.
Are you a visual learner?
If you prefer watching over reading, I've covered this exact same CARS method in a YouTube video. It's the same concept explained in this newsletter, just in video format for those who learn better visually.
👉 Check out the video here if you'd rather see and hear this approach explained!
