Common Chord Progressions
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Chord progressions are easy to learn once you have a basic understanding of how the major scales work.
Acquiring this knowledge will enable you to see how every degree of the major scale can be used to create a guitar chord.
Each of the guitar chords created from a particular scale will also have a unique relationship to the Key.
Today, I want to show you how to put a chord progression together using any given Key. So, with that in mind lets continue...
I'll use the letters of the C Major Scale: C D E F G A B C to help you understand some basic music principles. For instance, these letters can be used to represent either notes or chords.
Remember:
Because of this, the numbers: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 are commonly used to represent each note, or degree of the scale...
And the Roman Numerals: I II III IV V VI VII VIII are use to represent each of the chords in a given Key.
The chords will correspond with, and have the same letter name as, the degrees of the major scale that they are associated with.
Lets look at how a chord progression is made when using the C Major Scale above:
Notice how the I chord has the same letter name as the 1st degree of the scale, the IV chord has the same letter name as the 4th degree and the V chord has the same letter name as the 5th degree. This is called a I IV V chord progression. The progression ends by returning again to the I chord.
G A B C D E F# G
- C = 1 = I
- D = 2 = II
- E = 3 = III
- F = 4 = IV
- G = 5 = V
- A = 6 = VI
- B = 7 = VII
- C = 8 = VIII (same as I)
I IV V chord progressions are used for the 12 bar blues, plus many rock, blue-grass, folk and other popular tunes. The V chord (G) is commonly played as a dominant 7th in order to create more tension or pull back toward the I chord (C).
In other words, the G7 chord can be used as a substitute for the G Major chord and vice-versa.
Now, if you are new to the guitar, this chord progression might be a little hard to play in the Key of C. In that case, we can simply transpose it into another Key!
For example, the next Key in order of sharps is G. The scale degrees are:
So, our I IV V I chord progression for the Key of G is: G C D G
If we convert the V chord to a dominant 7th chord we have:
*Notice how each chord gets it's name from the specific degree of the scale it is derived from.
Here are the remaining I IV V7 I chord progressions for the Keys of D A and E. This completes the first five Keys (in order of sharps).
LESSON OBJECTIVE:
To become familiar with using I IV V chord progressions in various keys.
PRACTICE:
1. Play the I IV V7 I chords in each key. Start with the Key of A as it is the easiest.
2. Once you feel comfortable with the chords in the Key of A try the same chord progression in the Key of D.
3. Continue on in this way until you are able to play the I IV V7 I chord progressions in all five Keys above.
*Remember "ECONOMY OF MOTION" as you move from chord to chord. If a finger plays the same string, but not the same fret on two different chords, DON'T PICK IT UP! Instead, SLIDE your finger along the string when moving to another fret.
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