Hi there I'm Tomas Michaud from Real Guitar. Today I want to talk about
7 common chord patterns also can be referred to as common chord progressions
that you definitely should learn, understand
and practice. And why might you say should i learn these seven progressions?
Good question. First of all, in your journey of learning
music it will make learning popular music
much easier because it's much easier to recognize patterns to learn a song
than to just try to learn it one little piece at a time. It also makes it much
easier to practice when you're learning chords. If you're
just learning one chord and another and then another
you're not really using it in a way it's going to be used but when you practice
chords together in common chord patterns. First
of all, you have a template that you can use to play songs
but it sounds like something you recognize. It'll be easier to remember
and it'll be more fun to practice but even more to the point it'll be actually
the way you're more likely to use the chords. And it's also one way to train
your ears by playing, learning and listening for common chord patterns
you get better and better and identify them which makes music easier to learn
and it makes it more fun. It also makes it much easier to change keys for a song.
So when you're first starting out, you might want to refer to a chart if
you want to change the key to a song. But after a while,
you'll naturally remember the chords to common patterns
in the keys that you use over and over. And finally,
if you do get the place where you want to improvise, it makes it a lot more
fun. If somebody can play a common pattern that you recognize
when you improvise over it you know what to expect. You're listening for the next
chord coming up. It makes it a lot easier and more fun to
improvise into being caught just as they change chords
trying to figure out what to play next. So let me start by saying
probably the most common pattern which I didn't include in the 7
is just a simple 1 4 5 chord. In the key of C that would be a
1 C, a 4 chord the F and the 5 chord the G. I encourage
students to learn and practice the 1 4 and 5 chords in the most
common keys for guitar. That's the key of C
G D A and finally E. Or you can memorize it by remembering
the word caged C A G E D. It works. So what's 1 4 5 ? Well I did a
whole lesson on this a few lessons back in this series and
I'll put a link to it but I'll do a quick overview right now
just as a refresher. Okay, just quickly a refresher
I've written out the notes of a C scale. We're going to build a chord on each of
those notes then we're going to number each of the
chords based on where it is in the scale. Of course that
means C would be 1, D would be 2 and so on. Now the chords naturally
fall major or minor depending on where they are. In the scale, the C is
major, D is minor, E is minor, F and G are both
major, A is minor. B is diminished.
We're not going to use that for any of these progressions but it's there. And
I've also included the roman numerals underneath. It's a common way to show
chord progressions. For example, you might say
play a 1 6 4 5 progression in the key of C. So what you would do is grab the one
chord C, the 6th chord A minor, the 4 chord
F and the 5 chord G. Of course this applies to any key. We're just using C
as an example. I'm going to play each of these progressions in the key of C
just to keep things simple but of course you can change it to any key.
The first one is probably the most popular in pop music.
It's been used for hundreds and hundreds of songs and it might even be
understating it and it's also the theme of that video. The
awesome axis of awesomeness which they really make fun of this progression. And
because it's been used for so many pop hits
it's often called the hit maker progression. Number wise it's a
I V VI IV that's a C chord. A V chord is the G
in the key of C, A minor the VI minor chord and then the IV chord and
F. Listen. See what tones come to you.
Number 2 on our list is a I VI IV V probably one of the most used
progressions in that 50-ish area. But it's still used today
and often kind of brings back memories of the 50s style
rock ballad kind of thing. In the key of C that would be a C,
A minor, F and G. See what tunes come to mind. I'll
play it a few different ways.
Or how about this ...
Okay, if you could think of some tunes write them in the comments and
I'm hoping to catch some of the more unusual ones
some of them are more obvious than others. Number 3,
I IV V IV that would be the C chord, an F major
a G major and an F major. Let's see what this conjures.
What about this
or like this number 4, I IV VI
V that's a C chord an F chord, the VI chord
and then V chord the G. So you probably know this up to now. It's mostly the same
chords used in different orders that won't always be true but in this
chord progression it is.
Listen.
One really important thing about chord progressions is to kind of let yourself
get used to hearing them and to identifying
them when you hear them. It really makes learning songs a lot
easier when you hear a chord progression and can identify it as opposed to trying
to pick out one chord after another after
another. The chords in relation to each other are much more
distinctive. Now we're going to start with a minor
chord. We haven't done that yet. This is a II V I VI
progression. This starts with a 2 chord the D minor
then goes to a V chord the G. Now to the I chord the C and then to
the A minor the VI chord.
Listen.
Number 6, is the VI which is a minor chord IV
I V that's A minor, IV I
and then off to V.
And finally number 7 often referred to as the Andalusian cadence
or maybe in the more common terms of Spanish progression.
It's been used in a lot of tunes not only in its entirety
but in parts which have shown up over and over
in pop rock tunes. In this case, it's actually in the relative minor to C.
It's one way to describe it anyway. We're going to call this the one chord A minor
the relative minor to C, the VII chord going backwards, F
VI chord and then E will be the V chord.
Listen.
How about this? Or how about this? I'm going to leave off
the very final chord and just go back up.
Okay and many many other songs.Now these progressions are often used
as part of a song and not the whole song so you've got whole songs built around
these progressions and then you've got some songs that have
certain parts that have this progressions
and then go off and do something different for more variety.
Hey I know I've given you a lot to think about. Take it a little at a time
really. Don't worry. Pick one progression. Kind of get used to it. Maybe try it in a
few different keys then another and add to it . You don't
have to do everything all at once. But keep this video handy. Put a link to
it so you can come back to it and watch it again later. I appreciate you hanging
out with me today. This is actually day 20. Can you believe
it? Day 20 of my 30 days of guitar coaching series. I
never imagined I could do a video every day for
20 full days but it's working and I think I'm getting
better at it. You tell me. Leave me a comment below. Let me know how you like
my series and let me know how you like this particular subject.
I'd be happy to do some more in this area if you think it'd be useful.
I'll be back tomorrow for day 21 whether I feel like it or not.
Hey and I hope you'll join me. Bye for now.