Originally Posted by: faith83

I know, of course, that the chord prior influences the sound of the next chord. But what I didn't realize is that a chord several or even many measures prior can also influence the current chord.

[p]A lot of this depends on the melody & voice leading of the chord progression. But in general what you are describing is analogous to foreshadowing in literature.

Baroque & classical composers developed the technique of using repeated & varied motifs (a musical phrase, fragment of a full melody, or a way of voice leading a chord change, for example) throughout a piece. This provides a sense of integrated cohesion through familiarity of something that repeats or keeps happen, or is alluded to throughout a piece. And it also provides a sense of variety to keep things interesting when the motif is altered (slightly, completely, or anywhere in between).

Exactly how this technique is handled is very much part of the individual composer's style.

Modern era songwriters picked this up & it is usually seen in the form of melodies or chord progressions that contain, or are built from, smaller phrases that are repeated but with slight variation. Many songwriters learn this by imitation. They learn songs they admire, then play & write from that experience. They rarely put the technique or process into these types of precise terms & concepts. They just know what seems to work without worrying much about why.

But the reason why is that they are creating integrated patterns of musical phases that have different amounts of similarity & variety according to their personal tastes & styles.

See my discussion on the melody of 'Over The Rainbow' here for concrete examples. Look at reply #14.

https://www.guitartricks.com/forum/thread.php?f=36&t=55996&pg=2

Note that William was probably just playing chords & listening for how they sound. And of course without any wider context, every C chord sounds similar.

But Faith is writing a song, so she likely has the potential song form, structure, the chord progression & vocal melody in some form in mind when she is playing & hearing those chords. So, she is working with a much more detailed context & is trying to decide how any given chord works in that structure.