Wow… this video has been watched over 8 million times on YouTube!!
Simple chord progression using 4 chords
Many songs use just 3 or 4 chords. In fact, thousands of ‘hit’ songs have been written with just 3 or 4 chords. So you don’t always need to know a lot of chords to be able to play lots of easy songs.
The point of this video is to show how a simple chord progression can be used to write a song. The songs in this video were originally played in different keys. But here, they are all in the one key. To show how the chord progression fits all the songs.
- KEY: E Major
- CHORDS: E, B, C# minor, A
- PROGRESSION: I – V – vi – IV
The key of E Major has 7 chords: E(1), F#m(2), G#m(3), A(4), B(5), C#m(6), D#dim(7)
Each chord has a number from 1-7. But here, we use ‘roman numerals’ instead: Capitals mean MAJOR and lower-case means MINOR.
E(I), F#m(ii), G#m(iii), A(IV), B(V), C#m(vi), D#dim(vii)
So this is called a I-V-vii-IV progression. Or, in English, a one – five – six – four progression.
January 29, 2011 at 7:56 am
now that was great, clean, intertainment!!
JB you lessons on music theory are great. My wife just said that my playing is greatly improved. Thanks for all!!
November 1, 2010 at 3:48 am
It would be a fab ressource to have all those songs on here…
Do the entire songs use that chord pattern, or just parts of the songs?
November 1, 2010 at 11:48 am
Dunno. Haven’t listened to all those songs myself, sorry. However, the songs I put up will have charts for the entire song. Generally, songs change during choruses and bridges.
But the general idea is there. The point is… that thousands of songs use the same chord progressions over and over. What makes them sound “different”, is different keys, different tempos, different instruments, different effects, different strumming, different rhythms, different chord voicings/alterations/extensions, etc etc.
But underneath is the ‘skeleton’ of the basic chord progression. It’s how you dress that ‘skeleton’ that makes songs sound so different.
October 31, 2010 at 2:51 am
This was great didn’t know there were so many songs with only four chords. Thanks John!
October 30, 2010 at 10:31 pm
Aren’t you wrong in saying C#m is 7th (viii) and vii as 6th
October 31, 2010 at 10:44 am
Oops… typo. Fixed. Thanks, Lenny.
October 30, 2010 at 8:17 pm
That video is fantastic and helps get right down to the basics, its just what I wanted to motivate me to try and progress, its quite eye opening! Wheres that guitar…
October 30, 2010 at 2:24 pm
That’s amazing John! I really can’t believe that all those songs revolve around only 4 chords. Wow!
October 30, 2010 at 7:53 pm
there’s heap and heaps of songs that use that chord progression, Ben.
But that’s the key thing, is being able to recognize them when you hear them.
Also, using different instruments, different sounds, different effects, different rhythms, different chord voicings etc all contribute to making the progression sound so different from one song to the next.
But underneath all the sugar coating, it’s just one plain old chord sequence.