penster
Well-known member
Song Chord Progressions – 1 Major Chords
People have asked how to work out the chords for a song that you hear. I am going to try to explain some of the theory which will help you to work out which chords are being used. No prior knowledge of music theory is required (this is Chord Progressions 101). I am going to start simply and cover major chords first. I will add other posts if people find this helpful.
The first idea to be mastered is the key signature (key) of a song. I won’t explain it in detail here, but if you know the key (“this song is in A major”) you can have a good guess at which chords will be used in the song. If you change the key signature eg. from A to C to F#, the song plays higher or lower, but the relationship between the notes does not change.
The simplest key signature is C (C means C major). Watch this video from uke minutes which explains the chords for C:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH0Ia27et1M&feature=related
Kudos to the author, he describes it better than I ever could. He explains that, if a song is in the key of C, you can guess that it may have 3 major chords: C F G and 3 minor chords: Dm Em Am (the small m means minor). You don’t need to understand the difference between major and minor right now (most rock stars don’t). Ignore the diminished chord for simplicity.
The problem is that songs are written in a variety of keys, so how can you work out the chords if the song is in F or G or Bb? The answer is a diagram called the Circle Of Fifths. I have attached a simple copy. I am only going to focus on the major chords.
Round the outside of the circle are the names of all the major keys. When you look at C major, you see that the two letters either side are F and G. So the major chords for the key of C are C F G. I have already said that, when you change key signature, the relationship between the notes does not change. In the same way, the relationship between the chords does not change. So if you want the major chords for D, they are D G A (the letters G and A are either side of the letter D). This means that if you played a song in C major and played C F G then played the same song in D major and played D G A the song would sound the same but would be a little higher.
Why focus on the major chords alone? Because the classic ‘3 chord song’ usually uses only the major chords. An example is Sheryl Crow singing ‘The First Cut Is The Deepest’. It is in D major, so the chords (looking at the Circle Of Fifths diagram) are D G A.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBcAW63YWyk
You can play along using just D G A. If you struggle to pick up the sequence, the chords for every line are D A G A except the last line of each verse which is D G A. The middle 8 instrumental is also D G A.
What if you can’t sing as high as Sheryl? Then change the key.
Try the same song in C (C G F C and C F G)
Try G (G D C D and G C D)
The song will sound the same, but be either higher or lower. This is really useful if the song is not pitched right for your voice or if you don’t like the chords and would like to use different chords. Changing the key in this way is called transposing (rock stars don’t know about it, you don’t need to either).
A second song which uses the identical 3 chords is Sufjan Stevens ‘For The Widows In Paradise’. It is also in the key of D major. This is D G D A played round and round.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4tkiGvV_ek
Songs that sound completely different are often using the same group of chords, following a very simple principle.
I have not tried to explain how to find the key signature of a song, since I did not want to overcomplicate the message. Let me know if you find this useful, and I will do a post on Minor Chords.
Penster
People have asked how to work out the chords for a song that you hear. I am going to try to explain some of the theory which will help you to work out which chords are being used. No prior knowledge of music theory is required (this is Chord Progressions 101). I am going to start simply and cover major chords first. I will add other posts if people find this helpful.
The first idea to be mastered is the key signature (key) of a song. I won’t explain it in detail here, but if you know the key (“this song is in A major”) you can have a good guess at which chords will be used in the song. If you change the key signature eg. from A to C to F#, the song plays higher or lower, but the relationship between the notes does not change.
The simplest key signature is C (C means C major). Watch this video from uke minutes which explains the chords for C:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH0Ia27et1M&feature=related
Kudos to the author, he describes it better than I ever could. He explains that, if a song is in the key of C, you can guess that it may have 3 major chords: C F G and 3 minor chords: Dm Em Am (the small m means minor). You don’t need to understand the difference between major and minor right now (most rock stars don’t). Ignore the diminished chord for simplicity.
The problem is that songs are written in a variety of keys, so how can you work out the chords if the song is in F or G or Bb? The answer is a diagram called the Circle Of Fifths. I have attached a simple copy. I am only going to focus on the major chords.
Round the outside of the circle are the names of all the major keys. When you look at C major, you see that the two letters either side are F and G. So the major chords for the key of C are C F G. I have already said that, when you change key signature, the relationship between the notes does not change. In the same way, the relationship between the chords does not change. So if you want the major chords for D, they are D G A (the letters G and A are either side of the letter D). This means that if you played a song in C major and played C F G then played the same song in D major and played D G A the song would sound the same but would be a little higher.
Why focus on the major chords alone? Because the classic ‘3 chord song’ usually uses only the major chords. An example is Sheryl Crow singing ‘The First Cut Is The Deepest’. It is in D major, so the chords (looking at the Circle Of Fifths diagram) are D G A.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBcAW63YWyk
You can play along using just D G A. If you struggle to pick up the sequence, the chords for every line are D A G A except the last line of each verse which is D G A. The middle 8 instrumental is also D G A.
What if you can’t sing as high as Sheryl? Then change the key.
Try the same song in C (C G F C and C F G)
Try G (G D C D and G C D)
The song will sound the same, but be either higher or lower. This is really useful if the song is not pitched right for your voice or if you don’t like the chords and would like to use different chords. Changing the key in this way is called transposing (rock stars don’t know about it, you don’t need to either).
A second song which uses the identical 3 chords is Sufjan Stevens ‘For The Widows In Paradise’. It is also in the key of D major. This is D G D A played round and round.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4tkiGvV_ek
Songs that sound completely different are often using the same group of chords, following a very simple principle.
I have not tried to explain how to find the key signature of a song, since I did not want to overcomplicate the message. Let me know if you find this useful, and I will do a post on Minor Chords.
Penster
