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- F, B♭ and C. Example: Brad Paisley’s “All I Wanted Was a Car” - Key of F. This catchy riff is broken up into an arpeggiated pattern on one of Brad Paisley’s Telecasters, which sounds amazing.
- C♯m, E, B and A. Example: Hillsong’s “Lord of Lords” - Key of E. Hearing a C♯m in the key of E is a common occurrence in the world of contemporary worship music.
- F♯m, B and C♯ Example: Joe Satriani’s “House Full of Bullets” - Key of F♯ If you listen to “House Full of Bullets” (one of my favorites by Joe Satriani) you can hear that he’s uses a repetitive pattern made up of single notes played on the sixth and fifth strings that isn’t a chord progression as much as it is a 12-bar blues style riff that follows the three chords listed.
- E, A, and B. Example: Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues” - Key of E. Speaking of the 12 bar blues, “Folsom Prison Blues” by Johnny Cash is one of the more memorable uses of the E, A and B chord progression, though the likes of Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters would probably take precedence.
- C – G – Am – F Progression I – V – vi – IV. Imagine this: A chord progression that lets you play thousands of the catchiest records in the history of music.
- G – C – D Progression I – IV – V. As a beginner, you might have already learned the conventional way to play the G major, C major, and D major chords separately.
- C – Am – F – G Progression I – vi – IV – V. This chord progression is also known as the ‘50s progression for being widely used in the 1950s and the early 1960s.
- Am – F – C – G Progression i – VI – III – VII. Am-F-C-G is another chord progression that’s a must-learn to build a good chord progression vocabulary.
- Scales. Many people know about the "scale" do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do. Scales can be found in many different keys and modes, and across cultures scales can be very drastically different.
- Chords. What exactly is a chord? Generally, a chord is a group of three notes called a triad, consisting of the tonic, Mediant, and dominant of any scale (the first, third, and 5th scale degrees).
- Chord Progressions. Whew, finally, time to talk chord progressions! First, we take a look at the absolute most basic "phrase" The Basic Phrase = I - V7 - I. That is the basic phrase, the tonic chord, moving to the dominant chord, moving back to the tonic chord.
- Expanding The Basic Phrase. In most music, while a I - V7 - I progression is very common, using just three chords can get very boring, in which the topic of "expansion" is then introduced, in which you "expand" or add more chords to each area of the phrase.
Here are the chord shapes you’ll need to play this progression. G6 (320000) Cmaj7 (x32000) Dsus2 (xx0230) You can play “Midnight Special” and “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” in the key of G! “Midnight Special” goes Cmaj7 – G6 – Dsus2 – G6. “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” goes G6 – Cmaj7 – G6 – Dsus2. Making little changes to ...
- What Is A Guitar Chord Progression?
- 4 Common Progressions – The Ones to Practice First
- Using Power and Barre Chords to “Cheat” When Changing Keys
- 13 Common Chord Progressions Guitar Players Use
- Chord Progressions FAQ
- Crafting The Perfect Chord Progression
A chord progression is simply a collection of chordsin the same key. As you learn more songs, you may start to notice repeated patterns, even among vastly different styles. Even if songs are in different keys, they can use the same framework for their progressions.
You’ll often run into the exact same progressions in most styles of popular music. It’s strange to think that metal, pop, country, blues, and even jazz share such characteristics, but it’s true. As a cover musician, I use this to my advantage all the time by building unexpected mashups of songs that use the same progressions. With that in mind, let...
Barre chords are hard for beginners. But, if they’re something that you’ve already mastered, they can help you identify progression patterns easier. If you can’t play barres yet, you can use power chords, and it will sound close enough until your hands get a little stronger. Let’s look at the progression of C – G – Am – Fas an example. The root not...
Now that you understand a little more about how chord progressions work let’s take a gander at some more easy chord progressions for you to try. In each, we’ll give the degrees from the root note and an example of how that fits into a particular key. Again, you can experiment by moving the chords around the fretboard and finding the relative chords...
We’ve got you covered whether you’re still unsure about a few things or just skipped ahead to the FAQ to learn a little quicker.
We hope this article cleared a few things up for you regarding chord progressions and gave you a direction to send your practice. This stuff isn’t easy, which is why we always recommend taking guitar lessons. When making your own blues progression, or any other style in modern music, you can start with a popular progression and make a few changes t...
Chord Progression Songs. The follow list is just one very short example of the songs that can be played using the above G major scale chord progression pattern. “Brown Eyed Girl” by Van Morrison I-IV-I-V. “Sweet Home Alabama” by Lynyrd Skynyrd V-IV-I. “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” by Bob Dylan I-V-ii. “All She Wants to Do Is ...
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These genres took chord progressions to new heights, from the classic I-IV-V of blues to the sophisticated ii-V-I sequences in jazz, challenging traditional notions of tonality and expanding the musical vocabulary we know today. So, next time you strum a chord, remember the rich history behind it and how it connects us all! Related: How To Read ...
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