Guitar Chord Progression – Adding Minor Chords
Hello, this is TJ again from the Beginner Guitar Lessons blog. A few days ago we have learned about the basic guitar chord progression. In that post I suggested you to learn as many songs as possible, finding chords of the songs you know and see whether you can determine the chord progression. Some of you maybe start questioning why we need to learn the chord progression if we can download the guitar cheat book easily. To answer your question here is my explanation:
First, we need the guitar chords for the songs you know downloaded to give you various examples on how chords combination can form songs. But knowing these chords only without understanding the logic behind it can help us nothing. Imagine your band is ready to play ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ in F when suddenly your lead vocalist wanted you to play in D because he couldn’t reach the highest note. Knowing that you can play it in F only you started arguing with him, telling him that the song had to be played in F, because Mr. F. Mercury wanted it that way, blah-blah-blah, end of discussion ……
Second, yes you can be a good guitarist playing other people’s songs but I don’t think a cover version band can be more popular than the original artists. If you want to do it make sure you do it better than them.
Alright, let’s go back to our topic: Adding minor chords to our guitar chord progression. From the minor chords topic posted earlier we know that each major chord has a ‘soul mate’, the relative minor chord. Relative minor chord is taken from the sixth chord of the W – W – H – W – W – W – H formula.
Root Chord (I) - Relative Minor Chord (VIm)
C - Am
D - Bm
E - C#m
F - Dm
G - Em
A - F#m
B - G#m
Now you can add up these chords to our I – IV – V Chords previously made:
I – IV – V – VIm
C – F – G – Am – Dm – Em
D – G – A – Bm – Em – F#m
E – A – B – C#m – F#m – G#m
F – Bb – C – Dm – Gm – Am
G – C – D – Em – Am – Bm
A – D – E – F#m – Bm – C#m
B – E – F# – G#m – C#m – Ebm
The other way to remember this progression faster is to memorize this pattern:
I(major) – IIm – IIIm – IV(Major) – V(Major or Dom7) – VIm
example:
Cmajor – Dminor – Eminor – Fmajor – Gmajor or G7 – Aminor
Confused? Don’t be, please. Instead try whether you can find this guitar chord progression in the songs you are familiar with.
To Your Guitar Success,
-TJ-
Beginner Guitar Lessons Admin
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