Country Chord Progression

I have a new student who wants to study country, so I've been learning a bunch of tunes lately. Country tends to use the same I-IV-V chords (most popular music does, really, in all styles), with simple chord forms. The progressions line up almost like blues... here's the verse progression from Tim McGrath's "Real Good Man":

I
/ / / / | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / |
IV I
/ / / / | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / |
V7 (N.C.) I
/ / / / | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / |


Except for bars 9-12, which would go V-IV-I-(V) in the blues, it's pretty much the same. Melodically, modern country draws a lot from blues too - that tune is loaded with b3s and b7s in the melody line.

Country is starting to get a little more harmonically diverse... 'old time' music used just basic chords (major, minor, seventh), while today's stuff will have some suspensions, major sevenths, and even a ninth here and there, but overall it's still very simply constructed.

When I first began to learn guitar, I was told that country music relied heavily on the major pentatonic. Yet, whenever I learn a country tune (generally more recent stuff), they seem to be using the minor pentatonic like rock does. Mabe the older stuff relied on the major. Any comments on this? I don't play much country music, so I am pretty much just curious.

Yeah, that's accurate - but it's talking about the scales used in the melodies and solos. There isn't a lot of music that's done in a vaccuum, so modern country draws heavily from blues, rock, and even jazz at times.

There are still a lot of country songs with major scale melodies (one I'll do with the new student is Kenny Chesney's "There Goes My Life"). Since the invention of radio, there's been a lot of cross-pollination in music of all styles, so modern country draws heavily from blues, rock, and even jazz at times.... just as some rock and blues draws back from country.

Older music tends to be 'purer' in style, but it's been a good 20 years since someone's come to me wanting to learn Carter Family tunes.

Since the invention of radio, there's been a lot of cross-pollination in music of all styles, so modern country draws heavily from blues, rock, and even jazz at times.... just as some rock and blues draws back from country.
Older music tends to be 'purer' in style, but it's been a good 20 years since someone's come to me wanting to learn Carter Family tunes.

I'm basically a blues/rock/jazz guitar player. Since I live in Texas playing country is simply a fact of life. Whether it's a rock band, blues band or jazz band, around here you can bet they're going to play at least one country song in the course of a show just to keep the audience happy. A while ago I got involved with another lady who was doing a solo thing with a keyboard and she asked me to play a couple of gigs with her, so I had to learn a whole bunch of Patsy Cline stuff, which, I found out while learning to play, has major blues and jazz influences. :D While I stuck to the basic country patterns, it still left me lots of room for the stuff that I'm more comfortable playing, i.e. blues, jazz, which incorporated itself into the country stuff perfectly and I doubt that the crowd even noticed that I wasn't playing pure country.

I'm playing with a rock cover band, too, and that band's token country song is one I posted here on the Easy Song Database the other day, 'Fast As You' by Dwight Yoakam. Basically, it's a modified blues shuffle (I guess you could even call it a rock shuffle) all the way through. It's a piece of cake to play and it's really fun to play and it gets the crowd up. Give it a shot, if you like.

NoteBoat is absolutely right in his 'cross-pollenation' reference. Very little in popular music today is pure, and it hasn't been pure for a very long time. I have friends in two respective blues bands. One thinks that the other doesn't play "true blues" because they play in the style of Luther Allison and Stevie Ray Vaughan (electric and somewhat rock oriented), and that one thinks that the other one is stuck in a time warp because they only play the old acoustic style blues (i.e. Howlin' Wolf, Son House, etc...). But no one can deny that both are blues bands. It's all in your own perceptions and preferences.

My advice would be to choose a few country songs that you like, learn the basic country patterns (you probably already know the chords), and incorporate what you already know into what you're learning (you'll be surprised at how much country you can already play!). And, check out my post on 'Fast As You'.

that will always be the case though..

if something new and pure came out, no one would recognise it, and instantly go "eh, its weird" and still to the stuff they like / have grown up listening to.

but when it starts to get old, and its been a while since it came out, it starts to get appriciated and then lots of people think its good (of course there will be few exceptions)

but generally, it is like that, if its new, its disregarded, till its been heard so much it grows on people.. i would say generally that majority of new pure stuff would be disregarded as being good, only when its old it gets appriciated.

Take Shoenberg.. his 12 tone crazy weird thing, everyone booed him off the stage and he caused riots at his concerts because of his stupidly new crazy idea's about his new way of music and his hate for tonality..

then... a few years later, it grew on people and people liked it and started writing it themselves, i.e The second vieneese school of music started.

Point : generally, new pure things are disregarded till they have had time to grow on people and they like it, which then it isnt new anymore

Point : generally, new pure things are disregarded till they have had time to grow on people and they like it, which then it isnt new anymoreAnd then there'll be a bunch of "true disciples" insisting on maintaining the purity of that style, insistently proclaiming that anything different isn't worthy.

And then there'll be a bunch of "true disciples" insisting on maintaining the purity of that style, insistently proclaiming that anything different isn't worthy.

Which is exactly what is going on with the two blues bands I mentioned above.

I'd like to learn a Carter Family tune. But I wasn't aware that Jimmy played music! :lol: