Lesson-related question about chord progressions

[WilliamTK1974]

Hey all,

Today was the second of a month's worth of guitar lessons I received as a birthday gift. I'm glad to have received them because I like the personal guidance and sense of structure.

I've had a couple of doubts about the teacher's technique, but he has an encouraging personality, and it's good when someone really seems to care and is patient with their assistance.

Now, he was talking about chord progressions, and how music has a sensible order to it, and once you "crack the code," you become more than a walking tape deck that can play three or four songs by rote but is otherwise lost. That all makes perfect sense. He went on to demonstrate one such series.

Here's where things went a bit wrong: the progression he demoed had an F played with a barre. I'm just learning that and am not speedy yet. So, he said to try a different one. I *think* it was something like E to A to C to G, but that seems almost too simple

Am I missing something? Would someone mind cluing me in a bit?

I told him that when it came to stuff like this, I needed something written down that I could take with me, otherwise there's that real risk that I'll lose something between the lesson site and home. He said he would be prepared for that next week.

As an aside, he said that given the proficiency I demonstrated with my open chords, I know enough to play some Gordon Lightfoot. That's good news. Bad news is that I have a hard time keeping it straight in my head til I get home...

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank you,

[ChalkLitIScream]

He may have meant Em, although an E will sound good with that key. Id recommend learning the easier F chord: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a4/f8...261bd0be99.png

You should familiarize yourself with the different scales and the notes they comprise of. Then move onto intervals, and you should quickly find out that all the different possibilites can be created from 12 keys.

Meanwhile, here are some easy and fun chord progressions in the key of C:
C G Am F
C F Am G
Am G C F
G Am Em F
Am Em F C

The same 4 or 5 chords, but in different patterns will give you some variation

Remember to have fun practicing!

[Gmountain]

You might like this- https://www.amazon.com/Chord-Wheel-U...ds=chord+wheel

It's only $10.99 but it will help you with all the chord progressions.

[3notes]

He should have put it on paper and you should have taken notes. So, be sure to bring pen/pencil/paper to your next lesson. That way he can write on your paper if he spaces out and doesn't have any....

I don't much care for that chord progression, E - A - C - G. Those are great chords to work on but the progression isn't great, to my ear. Try playing D - A - E. Listen to the tones and try to work out a smooth rhythm using all 3 chords.

Hope this helps you get to your next lesson. You might want to mention to him you didn't get much out of that lesson because nothing was on paper to help you along. Maybe he could make it up to you.

[jaybones]

When I was first learning I found the F barre to be much more accessible than the first position F "open" chord. Easier to hit all the strings than to try and miss the ones not played and of course fuller sounding.

Now whenever a song calls for an F I always play the barre.

My instructor had me practice switching from C to F, and B to F as cleanly as I could, but when I started playing the F barre he just said "Well, if that's what you want to do..."

Thought it was too advanced for a beginner like me to pick up.

[Seagull S6]

Learn the F Barre. Nothing advanced about it. it's just a part of being articulate and precise when you play. A music teacher that doesn't provide some sort of lesson plan to recap your lesson is less than worthless.

[WilliamTK1974]

I just remembered something else: he mentioned the chord progression for a '50's era popular song called "Heart And Soul."

I must confess that I'm only somewhat familiar.

[1neeto]

E A C sounds not pleasing at all to my ear. In C they’re the III, VI, and I. E and A fit in the key of A, but that C is out of place. And in E, they’re the I, IV, and VI. So in E, I’d substitute that C to Cm, but that’s a hard chord in the open position or 3rd fret barre. A CMaj7, will give it a bit of a sadness that will resolve nicely to the E. So I’d play it A, CMaj7, E.

Ask him to teach you the four chords of awesome in G. G, D, Em, C. In that order, you can play a whole lot of songs since that’s the most common chord progression in modern music.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by WilliamTK1974

Hey all,

Today was the second of a month's worth of guitar lessons I received as a birthday gift. I'm glad to have received them because I like the personal guidance and sense of structure.

I've had a couple of doubts about the teacher's technique, but he has an encouraging personality, and it's good when someone really seems to care and is patient with their assistance.

Now, he was talking about chord progressions, and how music has a sensible order to it, and once you "crack the code," you become more than a walking tape deck that can play three or four songs by rote but is otherwise lost. That all makes perfect sense. He went on to demonstrate one such series.

Here's where things went a bit wrong: the progression he demoed had an F played with a barre. I'm just learning that and am not speedy yet. So, he said to try a different one. I *think* it was something like E to A to C to G, but that seems almost too simple

Am I missing something? Would someone mind cluing me in a bit?

I told him that when it came to stuff like this, I needed something written down that I could take with me, otherwise there's that real risk that I'll lose something between the lesson site and home. He said he would be prepared for that next week.

As an aside, he said that given the proficiency I demonstrated with my open chords, I know enough to play some Gordon Lightfoot. That's good news. Bad news is that I have a hard time keeping it straight in my head til I get home...

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank you,

The first thing to know is the "I-IV-V", or one-four-five. That's the major chords built on the 1st, 4th and 5th steps of a major scale. 1000s of songs have been written with those three.

In key of C (which I guess where your teacher was starting), that's C-F-G.
Easier keys are:
G = G-C-D
D = D-G-A
A = A-D-E

The V chord can also be a 7th (dominant 7th), which makes the E key easier: E-A-B7. (B is a tricky barre chord, B7 is easier.) Using "7" chords for the V gives them more tension to lead back to I, but they're fine without.

Minor keys are fun too, but only two have no barre chords:
Am-Dm-E(7)-Am
Em-Am-B(7)-Em

Remember the chords can go in any order. So, G-C-D-G could be G-D-C-G, or G-C-G-D-G. (Ending on the "I" chord is usually a good idea, but you don't have to start on it.)

In major keys, you can add the "vi" (six) chord, which is minor, and then you have the foundation of even more 1000s of pop/rock songs.

Here's a couple of really common 4-chord sequences:
G-Em-C-D (the 1950s changes, doo-wop, or ice cream changes)
G-D-Em-C (a cliche in the last 40 years of rock, at least - check out the Axis of Awesome video)

Unfortunately, G is the only key where you don't need a barre chord for any of those four. In C you need F. In D you need Bm. In A you need F#m. (So get working on those barres! Meantime, you can use a capo to play the easy shapes in other keys.)

Vary the length of each chord, as well as the order you play them in.

[mr. beaumont]

Originally Posted by WilliamTK1974

I just remembered something else: he mentioned the chord progression for a '50's era popular song called "Heart And Soul."

I must confess that I'm only somewhat familiar.

That's a very common progression used in hundreds of tunes, in C, it'd be C-Am-F-G.

(Did you ever see Big with Tom Hanks? The floor piano scene)

Sounds like your teacher is trying to show you some common ways chords are strung together, ones that'll pop up in lots of different tunes.

[BFD]

I wouldn't worry so much about the content of your first lesson, you'll have time to review and wrap your head around that in the future, though based on your second clue I'd say Mr. Beau has steered you straight.

I think the biggest takeaway from your 1st lesson should be to realize that that time is meant, in part, to give you concepts and material for you to work on for a whole week (or however long between lessons). Relying on your memory is NOT a good way to go.
It's not your fault for not knowing how to best learn from your lessons, it's your teacher's fault for not making sure you were prepared to capture what he's teaching you. Taking notes is fine. Most good teachers have prepared instructional materials to give you - chord & scale charts; tabs or sheet music; sound files. A really helpful thing to do is to audio record your entire lesson, maybe in addition to taking some notes, if the teacher doesn't have prepared materials to give you.

[Seagull S6]

Originally Posted by WilliamTK1974

I just remembered something else: he mentioned the chord progression for a '50's era popular song called "Heart And Soul."

I must confess that I'm only somewhat familiar.

A very old song that Train put new lyrics to and released it as "Play That Song."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5qWnG5RQTk

In grade school I got "treated" to this pretty regularly by kids who's parents could afford piano lessons.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxxm6qQR9yg

[WilliamTK1974]

Originally Posted by Seagull S6

A very old song that Train put new lyrics to and released it as "Play That Song."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5qWnG5RQTk

In grade school I got "treated" to this pretty regularly by kids who's parents could afford piano lessons.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxxm6qQR9yg

What is old has become new...

I knew I'd heard the tune before. My grandmother was a play-by-ear, perfect pitch person who could play about anything. I wish I'd let her teach me, but she had a very limited amount of patience lol, and I was afraid I wouldn't be quick enough for her.

[reeve21]

I bring my phone and record my teacher doing the tricky stuff. One pass through at slow speed, one at performance speed. Even with tab it's nice to be able to listen to a tune you are not familiar with. When I can play along with the recording up to tempo I'm good.

I've heard of people recording the entire lesson. This would be overkill for me, but if he allows it you may find it helpful, especially in the beginning with all of the unfamiliar jargon and movements

[gfa]

People with a lot more music theory knowledge than me have given you some good advice. Perhaps my simpler understanding & explanation will be helpful. The key to getting a handle on the standard chord progressions is something called the "Circle of Fifths." Google it, read about it, find a chart.

The chords in standard chord progressions are the I, IV and V. If there is a minor it is usually the II or the VI. This holds true for a large majority of popular music (popular music in the broad sense; rock, pop, blues, folk, country, etc.). This gives you the progressions listed below for some of the most common keys. In each, the chords are listed in the order of I, IV, V, IImin, VImin:

G C D Amin Emin

C F G Dmin Amin

D G A Emin Bmin

A D E Bmin F#min

The first two or three times someone explained this to me it seemed like gobbledygook. Then one time it just clicked, "Oh, I get it!" So, if it is not making sense don't sweat it. Good luck, have fun.