Hey there, we're gonna talk about common chord patterns especially in
relationship to guitarists. Now when I first learned about common chord
patterns, it gave me a huge boost in my ability to learn songs faster but also
in my song writing ability. Now I find this a great tool for students as well.
Common song patterns are short chord progressions basically 3 - 4, it could be
longer but most of the ones we'll be talking about are the short 3 and 4
chords that are used over and over in popular songs. And by identifying these
patterns getting used to hearing them, you'll be able to see them in songs and
learn songs faster. Also it's a great way to practice because by practicing short
chord patterns that are used over and over you're getting double bang for your
buck not only are you practicing the chords but you're practicing them in a
way that they're very often used and training your ear all in one shot. So to
start out, I want to give you just a little bit of music theory or I should
say a review of music theory hopefully because you've seen my other music
theory videos. I'll go from there to show you some examples of very common
chord patterns. I'll only hit the most common ones and
give you some demonstrations and some tips. Let's do it. Welcome to my music
theory studio. Let's start out by talking about a major scale. Now I've written
down the notes of the C major scale here. It starts with C and then goes up the
alphabet D E F G A B and then would start over C. We can number each of those
notes in relationship to the scale. The first one being 1, 2 is D, 3 is E, 4 is F, 5
is G, A is the 6 and B is 7. Now when we number like that we're usually talking
about notes but when we talk about chords we usually change that to Roman
Numerals that's a common thing in music so I've written the Roman Numerals up here.
This is a Roman I II III IV V VI and VII.
You know, Roman numerals don't all look alike that's because for the
chords that fall usually as major chord, I've written that big Roman
numeral or a capital Roman numeral, I guess you call it. And for the ones that
you use minor I've written a little Roman numeral or a baby Roman numeral?
Lowercase maybe. In any case, the one chord in a key if you take all the notes
out of the scale and make a one chord out of it or a chord base on C, it would
fall a C major. We also call a diatonic. Diatonic meaning that all the notes are
in the scale you haven't altered or borrowed from another scale so needless
to say you can do that too but a lot of the music written nowadays is
based on a diatonic scale. The D chord is going to naturally fall minor that's
because if you just take the notes out of the D scale it makes a minor chord
unless you were to alternate and make it major.
Again the E chord is going to naturally fall minor. The 4 chord or F chord in
this case is major. The V chord that's a V Roman numeral V is G is a major
chord. A would be a minor chord also. We're not going to worry about the
diminished chords right now because they're not used so much in popular
music and it's a little bit more advanced. We'll talk about that in a
later video. So the chords were gonna be dealing with are 1 through 6 and
in the case of C that's going to be three major chords and 3 minor
chords. Many many progressions are built with these 6 chords and if you pretty
much choose any three or four of these chords and play them together they're
gonna sound okay because they make sense to your ear you're used to hearing it. A
good rule of thumb is if you were making a progression if it ends on the 5
chord or the four chord it's gonna sound more normal because both of those chords
tend to wanna go back to the one and you want this sense of motion. So for an
example, if I were to play a 1 chord, a 3 chord, 2 chord and then finally
end with either a 4 or 5 I'll say a 5 chord that's gonna sound normal.
The 5 chord wants to pull you back to C and start the cycle over again. The G
chord or the 5 chord has a strong pull to the one. The four chord a softer
pull and I'm going to demonstrate these in just a minute so common progressions
are designated by the numbers of the chords.
So we're gonna use terminology like that's a I IV V progression. What
I'm saying is that say using the one chord in the key, a 4 chord and a 5
chord. For this purpose, it's easier to talk about numbers because that way when
you change keys the numbers stay the same even though the chords changed. I've
written down here the scale of G and I did this particularly to show you how it
applies to different scales. So for the G scale the one chord is going to be a G
chord, the 4 chord is going to be a C chord and the 5 chord is going to be
a D chord. The same concept applies to any other key. If I wrote the notes out
of here for another key and chose the 1 the 4 and the 5 now you'd have basically
that same song or same progression in a new key. The most common chords used for
popular music are the 1 chord, the 4 chord and the 5 chord and if you want to
extend that to a lot more songs at the 6th chord which is usually a minor chord
again we're talking diatonic out of the scale. So in the case of C, 4 chord F, G
and A minor you'd have many many popular songs built
on those four chords and in different orders. A very common order in the 50s
for a 50s style of music would be a 1, 6, 4, 5 and I'll demonstrate that in a
minute. A sound that we dissociate with tons and tons of popular music would be
the 1 chord going to a 5 chord then to the 6th chord and then to the 4 chord. Now it usually cycles around. Starts again 1 5 6 4 and so on. Okay, with that little bit
of a music theory is a foundation, let me go onto the guitar and show you what
some of these sound like.
That was a I IV V progression. One of the foundation progressions of
all time. Foundation common chord patterns I IV V in the key of G. G
chord is the one chord, C chord is the 4 chord, E is the 5 chord that
could be the chord progression for La Bamba.
In the key of G that could be The Car's My Best Friend's Girl. It's the pattern used for
Good Riddance by Green Day, Stir It Up by Bob Marley and many, many, many more.
Perhaps I'll put a list somewhere on the on the website. Anyway I IV V is
a great way to practice your chords because you're going to see this pattern
either for the whole song, parts of the song or sometimes just include it in
very small parts of a song. This progression is powerful because the five
chords in any key has this feeling of forward motion going back to the one
chord so it creates this kind of motion. Now building on that progression would
be the next one I IV V IV that would be songs like
about - - - that's 1, 4, 5
You make my heart sing
and again many, many songs go back to that for. Again, I'll built on this 1
4, 5, 1, 4, 5 , 4, 1, 4, 5 back to the 1, 1, 4, 5, 1
4, 5, 4, 5 and so on and so on. Now venturing into a whole other
billions of songs would be adding the sixth chord to that. So in the key of G
G is the one chord. The C is the 4 chord, D is the 5. We're gonna add
a sixth chord to it. The key of G that's E minor, G A B C D E and member the 6
is minor. So here's a very common ____ (8:31) often called the 50's progression
that's 1 to 6, 4 and to 5 and again many songs particularly
they're gonna have a sound that you associate with that style or with that
error something like the Beatles.
How about Elvis? When no one else can understand me
When everything I do is wrong
Or Unchained Melody. My kids called it a theme for Ghost. Oh, my love, my darling
I've hungered for your touch.
or this is the hardest ---
I can't climb higher than that. Okay, you get the idea. Oh, how about this - Oh,
and many, many, many more. Again, kinda remind you of that era, the
50s and it's used in pop songs as well and sometimes to give that kind of
feeling of kind of bringing you back depending on the instrumentation of
course there's a lot more to songs than just the chord progression. By the time
you add the rhythm and the melody and everything it's sometimes a little hard
to hear these progressions. Now one of the most popular modern day versions of
this is 1 5 6 4 it's just a kind of a jumbling up of that same pattern, same four chords.
You've heard this in many, many, many songs just a few would be Down Under by
Men At Work, Don’t Stop Believin’ by the band Journey,
Can You Feel The Love Tonight by Elton John, No Woman, No Cry by Bob Marley and
many, many more. This is a great progression to practice because it's a
good way to practice the chords in a key and you're training your ear at the same
time that you're training your fingers to go in places they're going to go
often. Now to a lesser degree, those same four chords have been used in many
different orders. Here's another one
one
Another way of using these same four chords is to start on the sixth chord.
Now this creates a progression that gives a little more sad feel, a minor
sound so it sounds like this 6, 4, 1, 5.
This would be the verse and chorus of the song Zombie by Cranberries. It's the
verse in Africa by Toto and the whole song Apologized by One Republic. These are
just samples of common chord patterns and some of the more popular ones. I
would recommend you practicing common chord patterns and then stretching
adding chords, adding chords out of the key that would be diatonic and you'll
find many that makes sense and sound good. Throw in the 3 chord so in the key
of G, G A B minor listen
3 chord, 6 , 4.
Another good progression sounds good and pretty much if you take any four chords
or three chords out of the key it's gonna sound like something. Hey it's been
good hanging out with you for this lesson. If you have any questions or any
comments, I'd love to hear from you. Go ahead and write something down in the
comments below. Also if you found this useful,
you're a perfect person for my Real Guitar Success Academy. If you'd like
to learn more about that I'd love to have you there.
I'll put some information in the description so you can get over there.
Thanks again. See you soon.