Open Chord Progressions

Start by going in fifths: C-G-D-A-E-B7
Add the relative minors where possible: C-Am-G-Em-D-Fm-A-E-B7
Replace them all with chords from the C-major scale and it actually sounds nice: C-Am-G-Em-Dm-F-Am-Em-Bm5/b
Then play the bluesbar with these chords: [C, F, G], [A, D, E], [E, D, B7] or [G, C, D]. Play these in minor if you know them.

That should get you going I guess.

do a search for 'circle of fifths'. no it isnt a drinking song. it is a circular chart that shows you chord relationships. Ive used it to create new (to me) chord combos.

Hi,

When I took a few lessons last year my teacher wrote this "chord revision" sheet out for me. I've used it ever since.

It just shows some useful chords in seven common keys. They are basically the 1st, 4th and a slight variation on the 5th chord that you could build from the notes of the scales.

E - A - B7 (Key of E)

A - D - E7 (Key of A)

D - G - A7 (Key of D)

G - C - D7 (Key of G)

C - F - G7 (Key of C)

Am - Dm - E7 (Key of A minor)

Em - Am - B7 (Key of E minor)

Those clumps of chords crop up in heaps of songs, so try mixing up the order and later maybe adding in some of the 2nd, 3rd and 6th chords too. So for the key of C add Dm, Em and Am, and so on.

Whenever I'm warming up, or just looking for something to fill in a minute or two I turn to that sheet and improvise some stuff using that as a starting point. :)

Cheers,

Chris

Hi again,

He also gave me some exercises that would probably suit working with a metronome quite well. The idea was to have a couple of different strumming patterns and to mix them up between bars. But you could start with a single strum pattern until you get settled in. It's always better to start simple and slow and work your way up, rather than to be too ambitious and keep stuffing it up. There's a danger of just practising mistakes if you bite off too much too early. So you might want to start with something simpler than the one below, but it actually doesn't take a lot of practice before you can do ones like that or fancier.

In the original exercise there were two basic strums that were on each beat - either a plain Downstroke, or a Down/Up. Both fitted into a single beat, and you could mix the order any way you liked. For example D, DU, DU, D . Until you get the pattern going smoothly it might help to match to the beat if you say "One...., Two and, Three and, Four ...." (or whatever) with the "and" on the 'off beat' upstroke.

You can make up strumming patterns and chord progression that are as simple or as complex as you like. But it helps to write it down and follow it as you play. This one uses Dm, but if you can do D and D7 then Dm isn't too tough to add to the list

Here's one example he gave me:

|(C) D, Du, Du, D | (Em) D, D, Du, Du | (Dm) D, Du, Du, D |(G) D, D, Du, Du |

|(C) D, Du, Du, D | (Em) D, D, Du, Du | (Dm) D, Du, Du, D |(G) D, D, Du, Du |

|(Dm) D, Du, Du, D |(Em) D, D, Du, Du |(Dm) D, Du, Du, D |(Em) D, D, Du, Du |

|(C) D, Du, Du, D |(Em) D, D, Du, Du |(Dm) D, Du, Du, D | (G) D, D, (C) D, D ||

Once you've really nailed one sheet write out some more using different chords and different strum patterns. Push yourself a bit with different combinations of down and upstrokes, misses and strikes etc, and try to move on from only using the same simple strum pattern in every bar. And of course, start nice and slow and gradually crank up the pace of the metronome. 8)

There are other much better looking ways of writing out chord sheets and strum patterns but I don't find them so easy to type out quickly on a keyboard. I prefer other ways of hand writing it than Du, D, D etc. when I have to follow it off a page. So use whatever suits you.

Hope somebody finds that useful - I certainly did when it was given to me. 8)

Cheers,

Chris

Apologies for any mistyping in the above posts. I usually manage at least one typo per post.... :oops:

Good one Chris

Copied pasted and printed all in one swift motion !

I tend to just noodle away most of the time so hopefully putting something like this into practice may have a positive effect...

Keith

Good one Chris

Copied pasted and printed all in one swift motion !

I tend to just noodle away most of the time so hopefully putting something like this into practice may have a positive effect...

Keith

Onya mate! 8) Always good when somebody thinks they might be able to use what's been typed out... one finger at a time.... :wink:

I'm a die hard noodler too, so a few sheets like that to keep me on track have proved very useful. A bit of meat with my noodles....

Chris:

Thanks for all that effort. Once again the helping hand you get from folks here is amazing. Here's hoping I will get to a point some day when I can give back to others struggling.

Anyway, just a question or maybe two. You show a 16 bar progression, this looks to me like a 12 bar progression I have seen before. Just wondering.

Also, what do you suggest as a starting point for BPM on the metronome ? Mine goes as low as 40, but this is harder than playing at the higher speeds.

Thanks

Dave T

Also, what do you suggest as a starting point for BPM on the metronome ? Mine goes as low as 40, but this is harder than playing at the higher speeds.

Thanks

Dave T

I used a metronome for the first time last night and like you say found that hitting the really slow speeds was a lot harder than moderate ones, just feels very un-natural playing toooooo sloooooowwwww. I was playing scales rather than chords but found that around 100bpm was a reasonable pace to keep rythm with. Slow enough to be accurate but fast enough to feel like you are actually playing. I guess it's just a case then of when it's perfect everytime without fail at that speed you move it up a notch.

And Chris thanks for the chord progressions, I've printed these too for some more strctured chord practice rather than my usual open chord noodleing

Hi,

When I took a few lessons last year my teacher wrote this "chord revision" sheet out for me. I've used it ever since.

It just shows some useful chords in seven common keys. They are basically the 1st, 4th and a slight variation on the 5th chord that you could build from the notes of the scales.

E - A - B7 (Key of E)

A - D - E7 (Key of A)

D - G - A7 (Key of D)

G - C - D7 (Key of G)

C - F - G7 (Key of C)

Am - Dm - E7 (Key of A minor)

Em - Am - B7 (Key of E minor)

Those clumps of chords crop up in heaps of songs, so try mixing up the order and later maybe adding in some of the 2nd, 3rd and 6th chords too. So for the key of C add Dm, Em and Am, and so on.

Whenever I'm warming up, or just looking for something to fill in a minute or two I turn to that sheet and improvise some stuff using that as a starting point. :)

Cheers,

Chris
Hi Chris

thanks for your progressions, I'll try them all. There's a point that I do not understand: if I play in a major key (let's say C major for simplicity's sake), I've always tought that the key is made of major chords only. Anyway reading your post and playing a lot of songs it is clear that major chords are mixed with minor ones: i.e the C turnaround (I do not know the English word sorry) is made of

C/Am/Dm/G7

so my question is: how could I know which minor chords can be played in a major key? Are the equivalent minor chords of the major key (i.e. for the C key, Cm, Dm, Em, Fm, Gm, Am, Bm)?

To answer some questions regarding praticing patterns, I play exercises very similar to the ones suggested by Chris, alternating strumming patterns after each progression or so like this

play C/Am/Dm/G7 progression with D/du/u/du, then play it again with D/D/du/du, then with Dd/Dd/Dd/dd and so on

Regarding bpm it depens on both the kind of pattern (I play sixteen notes with lower bpm) and your ability( speed increase with time).

To start with I'll suggest these speeds:

sixteen notes patterns: start at 65-70 to reach gradually at leat 80. Now I pratice them at 90 but my goal is to reach at least 100
blues shuffle: start at 80 to reach 120
power chords: since they're played with downstrums mainly start with 80-90 to reach at least 180 (i play them quite comfortably at 140 so there's still a few road to travel!)
eight notes: start around 100 to reach at least 140. I pratice them comfortably at 150 but my goal is to reach 180

Matteo

so my question is: how could I know which minor chords can be played in a major key? Are the equivalent minor chords of the major key (i.e. for the C key, Cm, Dm, Em, Fm, Gm, Am, Bm)?

Short version: There are patterns to which chords make up which key. For a major key it's major, minor, minor, major, major, minor, diminished - so the key of C would be C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am, Bdim.

Long version, explained in great detail: https://www.guitarnoise.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=30116 :wink:

Beat me to it i was just about to post that link up. Good post that one. Convinced me to learn a bit of theory, I am today the proud owner of Music Theory for Guitarists. :)

play C/Am/Dm/G7 progression with D/du/u/du, then play it again with D/D/du/du, then with Dd/Dd/Dd/dd and so on

Matteo,
What is the significance of capitol "D" as opposed to "d" ?
To me these all appear to be 4/4 time so is it just accent ?

Thanks

Keith

Anyway, just a question or maybe two. You show a 16 bar progression, this looks to me like a 12 bar progression I have seen before. Just wondering.

Lots of possibilities really. For instance you often see "12 bar blues" referred to. All that means is that it uses a pattern which takes 12 bars to completely unfold, and then repeats from the beginning again. Many songs have patterns or progressions that fall into verse/chorus structures with repeats and/or changes at various points. But it's more a matter of 'possibilities' than rigid rules. That exercise just happens to go for 16 bars. You can see a 'songlike' structure in it though. First two lines the same, third line introducing a fresh order/selection, then a final line that's almost a repeat of the first 2, but with an 'ending' added.
Also, what do you suggest as a starting point for BPM on the metronome ? Mine goes as low as 40, but this is harder than playing at the higher speeds.

As others said, slow is hard. There's a mid point at which playing is comfortable. What speed that is will vary depending on experience. But it's worthwhile trying to get both slower and faster. Really good accurate slow playing is every bit as difficult as good fast playing, if not more so.

Here's some more that my teacher Andew gave me. Easier this time. Add and improve as needed.

These were all downstrokes, and each chord went for two bars before changing. The letter in brackets means play that major chord. So (D) means play the D chord. But D,D,D,D means do 4 Downward strums, not play the D chord four times. :wink:

(A) Down, Down, Down, Down (A) D, D, D, D, D (E) D, D, D, D, D (E) D, D, D, D

(D) D, D etc ....(D) ........... (A) .............. (A)................

(D)................. (D)................ (E).............. (E).............

(A)........... (A)............... Repeat from the start again.

Same as above only using the chords:

D, D, A, A, G, G, D, D, G, G, A, A, D, D,

Same again only with these chords:

G, G, D, D, C, C, G, G, C, C, D, D, G, G

See if you can figure out which "Key" those 3 are in. They're all simple sets of chords found in hundreds of songs.

Cheers

Chris