Understanding Chord Progressions
A common mistake beginner guitarists make is thinking that
songs are made of randomly chosen chords. Almost as is every song learnt is a completely
unique chord progression that has nothing in common with any other song.
When we understand that songs are made up from chords that
are in a key we begin to understand song construction and how to write songs
and how to work out songs by ear.
Understanding the circle of 5ths is a big help in
understanding song keys.
Circle or cycle of 5ths is a fancy way of telling us to
count up in 5’s. We’ll come back to that later.
Key of C the
notes in this key are C D E F G A B the chords made up from these notes are:
C Dm Em F G Am Bdim
(simple rule: I IV V are major rest
are minor except last which is diminished)
You Cant Always Get
What You Want C F
Dont Look Back In
Anger C G Am E F G C Am G (Em has been changed to E)
God Gave Rock N Roll
To You C G Am C F C
Common chord progressions are I IV V I
Vi IV V ii
V I
Not all songs begin with a major chord. In the key of C the
Am chord is the sixth chord. This is referred to as relative minor key.
So the key of C has the same chords and notes
as the key of A minor.
Take for example :
All Along the Watchtower
Am G F G
This song is in A minor and using the IV and V chords
Key of G
The next key in our circle of 5ths is the key of G.
Counting
5 places from C we get CDEF key of G.
The notes in this key are G A B C D E F#
Chords in this key G
Am Bm C D Em F#dim (again I IV V are major the rest minor and last diminished)
Take It Easy G D
C G
D C G again using I V and IV chords
Nine times out of ten the beginning chord tells us what key
the song is in. Take a look at the following two songs and see if you can work
out I IV and V chords.......confused?
Sweet Child of Mine
D C G D
Crazy Little Thing
Called Love D G Cadd9
These songs are actually in key of G and start on the V
chord. Many famous songs start on the V (fifth chord)
Key of D
Counting up 5 places from G we get to D
Chords in this key are D Em F#m G A Bm C#dim
Thorn In My Side D Dsus4 D Dsus2 D G A
although sus4 and sus2 chords are being used they are still a variant of D so
considered to be a I chord moving to G and A which are IV and IV chords.
Strong D G Em
A
Everybody Hurts D
G D G
With Or Without You D A Bm G
Tambourine Man D
Bm G D
I Want It All (relative
minor key of B minor) Bm A Bm G D G A G A Bm A
Hopefully this has been an introduction to understanding
chord progressions and keys.
For further progress check out the circle of fifths which
takes into account sharp keys and flat keys
