Hey Friend,

When we start learning guitar, a chord is a word we've heard associated with playing guitar, but we really don't have a grasp on the concept, especially if guitar is our first instrument. It isn't until the first lesson where chords are introduced that the seeds of understanding begin. and possible anguish...

For the most part, the first chords we learn are fairly simple triads (three different notes played together). Most of us learn C major, E major and minor, A minor, D major and minor. A major calls for a little more dexterity, and G major gives a good stretch, but all-in-all, we can learn these chords within a couple weeks. 

The challenge is training the fingers to become used to the new, strange contortions you're forcing upon them. There's a little discomfort in the finger tips and some unnatural stretching between fingers. It normally takes time and practice to increase flexibility so you can play the chords easily.

Chords are like anything else. When you take on something new, there's a learning period where you must get familiar with the unique aspects of that skill or experience. 

The real fun begins when we go from practicing individual chords randomly to stringing them together in a meaningful pattern that creates a song structure. This is what a chord progression is - creating a structured pattern of complimentary chords.

We're going to look at some of the most common chord progressions used in Rock, but first, a question.

Why do you think chord progressions developed? Why don't we just play random chords wherever we want and call it a song?

You know what? You could do that, but don't expect your creation to get a large following. Organisms love structure. In fact, we crave it. Even out of the most chaotic scenarios, we look for commonalities that allow us to build some kind of framework. 

Nearly everything we do begs for some sort of routine - we get comfort from having a certain level of stability. If you think about it, this ties in with Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. The basic levels of comfort - food, shelter and clothing - are gotten through having some structure in our lives.

Let's review the chords that fit naturally within a major key. The key of C major has seven chords:

As you can see, this lines up with a pattern of Major, minor, minor, Major, Major, minor, diminished.

To use the standard chord notation, we'll give each of these chords a Roman numeral based on its tonality:

I ii iii IV V vi vii°

These chords all fit within the key because of the notes in its scale. Each of these chords are constructed from the notes in the scale.

Practically, since we use tabs most of the time, you'll usually see the chord names in shorthand (such as C or Am). But if you see Roman numerals, you'll know which chords are being used.

You can easily practice chord changes using only two chords. This will get you used to changing finger position and chord shapes, and get you familiar with some simple strumming patterns.

There are two rather famous Rock songs that switch between two chords throughout. The first is "Paperback Writer" by The Beatles. The second is "Horse With No Name" by America. 

"Paperback Writer" uses the G and C guitar chords in the key of G major. If written out in standard notation, you'd see Roman numerals I and IV. "Horse With No Name" is in the key of E minor and uses Em and a simple D chord variation (I'm not going to go into details on that today). The Roman numeral notation is i and VII.

You might notice here that a minor key has a different chord pattern, which we'll look at later. Otherwise, neither song is too difficult to learn.

As you can see, using only two chord progressions can be very effective, but it is a bit limiting. We'll look at three and four chord progressions tomorrow that are responsible for literally thousands of songs. 

And yes, you can use power chords for any of these progressions. In fact, thousands of recordings have been made using power chords as the primary chord structure for the rhythm guitar parts.

Power chords give us the base from which most other chords are constructed, and they provide the solid "umph" in a guitar track. You can master power chords with a little ebook I wrote called Easy Power Chords. Take a look here.

Peace~

Dave