You will begin to recognize chord progressions as you develop your ear for music. They are often referred to by a number system representing each chord's status within its key. We've seen how the scale yields seven chords. These chords are number "One" to "Seven", and if you know your keys well enough, the numbers will tell you which are which. Roman numeras are used to represent these chords, upper case for Majors, lower case for minors.

I ii iii IV V vi vii

For example:

The first progression on the left is from the key of C. It uses 4 of the 7 seven chords: One, Six, Two and Five. So that progression can be viewed as the I vi ii V progression in the key of C. The same I vi ii V progression in the other 11 keys will sound exactly the same except in a different pitch. This how singers with different natural voice ranges can sing the same song -- by changing key, but retaining the same chord progression in terms of numbers.

Once again, this info is not necessary to know at this stage but might be of interest.

Chord progressions

You will be hearing about chord progressions from now on. A chord progression is simply a series of chords which make up a piece of music. Chords are the setters of rules within a piece of music. Each moment of any tune is backed by a chord which, for those moments, sets the rules. It determines where the melody can go, what the harmonies will be etc. When you hit a clanger (bad note), you're hitting a note which is not allowed by the chord of the moment, and your whole audience will know it. It is the composer of the song who determines which chords go where, what the progression will be.

The most well known progression is the "12 bar blues" progression, so called because it takes twelve bars to to get back to the starting point again (We'll look it that on another page).

There are many other familiar progressions which have been the basis of hundreds of hit songs, and there is a whole science to the way chords can lead to each other. Progressions are often the spark of a composition, rather than the melody.

Chords from within the same key always sound good when played together.

Here are some chord progressions that sound good using the open chords. (The yellow flash shows the start of the loop)

| C - - - | Am - - - | Dm - - - | G - - - | (From the key of C) Listen to simple version Listen to Reggae version Listen to finger picked version Listen to improvised version

| A - - - | D - - - | E - - - | A - - - | (From the key of A) Listen to simple version Listen to Rock version Listen to Bop version Listen to improvised version

| Am - - - | Dm - - - | E - - - | Am - - - | (From the key of Am) Listen to simple version Listen to finger picked version Listen to improvised version

Other chords