Chord Progressions

[Bubba3141]

Hi all,

I am a newbie guitar player. I am hearing a lot about chord progressions, and how if one knows the root chord then one can figure out the others. I'm not sure what that means. Surely, there can't be that rigid of a structure to playing guitar? What is meant when someone says chord progressions?

Thanks!

[walternewton]

The chord progression is the pattern of chords played in the song - say it starts with C, then goes to F, then back to C, then to G, then finally back to C, for a simple example.

It's true that if you know a little about music theory you can very often predict what chords will be found together, since you will know what chords are found in any given key.

Of course there are no rigid rules, and you can play anything you want - and chord progressions can get quite complicated, songs can modulate (change keys) and do all sorts of other things - however there are certain tried-and-true sounds that you'll find come up over and over again.

(The C, F and G in the example above are the "I, IV, and V" chords in C, which are the chords you'll find together most often together in a major key - there are literally thousands of folk/country/blues/rock/pop/etc. songs you can play with just those 3 chords.)

[bluesbassdad]

+1 to what walternewton wrote.

Here's an oldie but goodie that you can use on hundreds of songs.

Try it! Strum a measure of G Major, then one of E minor, one of C Major and one of D (or D7) Major. If you're anywhere close to my age (admittedly something of a long shot ), I'll bet a song pops into your head immediately. Of course, it can be in any key, but that's an easy key for guitar.

[Allman_Fan]

For Bubba3141 - Maybe not today, but at some point in time, you should be able to answer questions like these.

This is the chord progressions part of the music theory analogies test.


A is to D as C is to __:
a. Bb
b. F
c. G
d. none of the above.


A minor is to F as __ is to A:
a. G# minor
b. F# minor
c. D minor
d. none of the above.


.

[NitroX]

Originally Posted by bluesbassdad

+1 to what walternewton wrote.

Here's an oldie but goodie that you can use on hundreds of songs.

Try it! Strum a measure of G Major, then one of E minor, one of C Major and one of D (or D7) Major. If you're anywhere close to my age (admittedly something of a long shot ), I'll bet a song pops into your head immediately. Of course, it can be in any key, but that's an easy key for guitar.

haha it took me about 10 min of playing it before the name finally popped into my head.
it helped me doing 2 measures of G, 2 of Em, then 1 of C and 1 of D