CHORD PROGRESSION FUN!

Digging deep with progressions, inversions and arps

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So by now you should have some basic scales, chords and arpeggios under your fingers, so let’s get onto playing something a bit more musical. We’re going to look at a basic pop chord progression, used in thousands of songs but fairly easy to play, based on a sequence of diatonic chords, known as I, V, vi, IV. 3

So how do we play these chords? We know C major from the previous exercises, but to recap: you get a C major triad by playing C with your thumb, E with finger 3 and G with finger 5. As our four chosen chords are all diatonic to the key of C major, we can maintain the same chord shape for each and just move around the keyboard. 5

For A minor, shift the same shape to the next white to the right, which is A. Finger 3 should now be on C, finger 5 on E. Lower case Roman numerals denote minor chords, so this is our vi chord – it’s rooted on A, the sixth degree of the C major scale, and is a minor chord due to the minor third interval ’tween the third, C, and root, A. 2

This Roman numeral notation is a common way of spelling chord progressions. The numbers relate to the degrees of the scale that each chord is rooted upon. The idea is that they work whichever key you happen to be working in, so in the case of the key of C major, this progression translates to C major, G major, A minor and F major. 4

For the G major chord, simply move your hand up the keyboard so that your thumb rests on the G key. Your other fingers should now be in the correct position to play a G major triad, with finger 3 on B and finger 5 on D. This is the V chord in our progression, as G is the fifth degree of the C major scale. 6

Guess what comes next? That’s right, the F major chord. Slide the shape down so that your thumb rests on the F key. If you’ve maintained the chord shape correctly, finger 3 should be on A and finger 5 on C. Play all three notes together for a smooth, even chord.

7 Once the chords are under your fingers, move around the keyboard playing them in sequence, following the I-V-vi-IV progression, slowly at first so you have time to move your thumb up to the correct root note and frame the chord shape accurately. Play the chords as triads to begin with, speeding up when ready.

8 Once you’re comfortable with playing the chords as triads, try switching to playing them as broken chords, playing the notes separately in sequence rather than all at once. This would mean playing C-E-G-E for C major, G-B-D-B for G major, A-C-E-C for A minor and F-A-C-A for F major.

9 For bonus points, try varying the sequence of the notes in the broken chords. For example, for C major you could play G-C-E-C, E-C-G-E or C-G-E-G. If you get to the point where you can confidently mix them up randomly on the fly as you play, you’ll be improvising – congratulations! You’re making proper music!