ChatGPT cannot play sounds, but since it is trained on vast amounts of text from the internet, it also scraped numerous pieces with information about music chords. Here is a little exploration of that possibility.

Obtaining chord information

For accompanying musicians, it is common to look for chords for tunes. I began by asking for some well-known tunes:

Q: What are the music chords for the song Yesterday?

A: The chord progression for the song “Yesterday” by The Beatles is as follows:
Verse: G Em C D7 G Em C D7 Em B7 Em B7 C Am D7 G
Bridge: Bm Em Bm Em C Am D D7 G Em C D7 G
And it repeats throughout the song.

That seems quite right, and it also confirmed that it is the song by The Beatles it refers to. What about another song:

Q: And for Let it be?

A: The chord progression for the song “Let It Be” by The Beatles is as follows:
Verse: C G Am F C G F C
Chorus: C G Am F C G F C
Bridge: Am G F C G F C Em Am F C G F C
And it repeats throughout the song.

That, too, looks fine. I haven’t tried many other songs, but it should be able to come up with the chords to many well-known and older songs.

Transposition

Transposing from one key to another is a common task, but how does ChatGPT handle that?

Q: Can you transpose Let it Be to F Major?

A: Yes, here is the chord progression for “Let It Be” transposed to F major:
Verse: F C Dm Bb F C Bb F
Chorus: F C Dm Bb F C Bb F
Bridge: Dm C Bb F C Bb F Dm Gm Bb F C Bb F
And it repeats throughout the song.

That was easy, and this feature can be helpful in many contexts.

Composition

How good is ChatGPT at “composing” new songs? I tried by asking it to combine the two songs it had already provided chords for:

Q: Can you make a combination of the two songs?

A: Sure! Here’s a suggestion for a medley that combines the chord progressions of “Let It Be” and “Yesterday”:
Verse 1: C G Am F C G F C G Em C D7 G Em C D7
Chorus 1: F C G F C G Am G F C G F C
Verse 2: C G Am F C G F C Em B7 Em B7 C Am D7 G
Bridge: Bm Em Bm Em C Am D D7 G Em C D7 G
Chorus 2: F C G F C G Am G F C G F C
Outro: C G Am F C G F C

I am not sure how useful this is, but it certainly has managed to combine the chords in a way that works musically.