Some basic in-key chord progressions.
Music Theory 102 - Playing In Key
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I'm sure you have heard people say things like, "that's in the key of C major." The easiest and best way to explain what that means is to think of your key as "home." If you are in the key of C major, then the C major chord is home base. It is the complete resolution of all musical tension. The flavor or feeling of a song is created by the function of its chords, and all of the chords function in relation to "home."
Some chords go away from home. Some chords go towards home. Some moves are close and some moves are far. But, they all serve to create or resolve musical tension, which is ultimately resolved by the arrival at our root, or "home." In musical terms, the key (or key center) is called the root or the one (I) chord. Therefore, in the key of C major, the note C is the root and the C major chord is the one (I) chord.
Look at the chart below. I have listed the two most common keys in popular music. Remember the key center is called the one chord. Therefore, the keys listed below are the keys of C major and G major, respectively. You will notice that there are seven chords in any key, which are notated by roman numerals. You will also notice that, regardless of the key, when the one chord is major so are the four and five chords. The two, three, and six chords are always minor, and the seventh chord is diminished. Don't worry about diminished just yet. We will get there in a bit.
Take a look at the key of C major. If C major is the one chord, then what is the six chord? If you answered A minor you get it. What is the two chord in the key of G major? That's right! A minor.
| I major | II minor | III minor | IV major | V major | VI minor | VII dim |
| C | D | E | F | G | A | B |
| G | A | B | C | D | E | F# |
At the bottom of this lesson you will see a few progressions. A progression tells you what chords are in a song - but not the key. You need to start viewing chords as performing functions relative to the key center, root, or one chord. With this knowledge you understand how any song can be played in any key. Chords exist in a context, not alone. It is the chord function that is important.
I have listed the most common progressions in popular music. You will recognize them. I want you to try them with the different strumming patterns we have already explored, and I want you to try them in both the key of C and G. . For example, play a I IV V in the key of C major. The chords are C major, F major, and G major respectively. The C major chord functions as "home." The F major chord will function as going "away." And the G major chord will function as if it wants to "go towards home." Now try the same I IV V progression in the key of G major. The chords will now be G major, C major, and D major, respectively. Now the G major chord will function as "home." The C major chord will function as going "away." And the D major chord will function as if it wants to "go towards home." You will find that the functions of the chords are the same for each key, but the overall flavor or feeling is different. The key is different. The progression is the same.
Lastly, I want you to experiment with using different rhythms and progressions you make up yourself. Have fun. See what sounds good and what doesn't. Start developing an "active ear." Think about the function of the chords you are playing. Don't be passive. Are they creating or resolving tension? Are they going towards or away from home? Everything serves a purpose!
Progressions
I IV V I VImi IImi V IImi V I
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Playing in key of C while trying to listen for the home base, going away, and coming back home cues in each chord.
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πΈ Music Theory 102: Playing in Key πΈ
In this lesson, weβre focusing on playing in keyβa fundamental concept that helps make your music sound cohesive and intentional. Understanding how chords work together within a key is key (pun intended!) to writing songs and jamming with others.
For practice, Iβm playing a 1-6-2-5 chord progression in two different keys: C and G. This is a great exercise to hear how the same progression takes on a new character depending on the key.
This video is part of my journey through Guitargate lessons to deepen my understanding of music theory. If youβre working on this concept too, let me know how itβs going! Do you have a favorite chord progression or tips for practicing in multiple keys?
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My first take and what I learn or understand about playing in key. I hope I am right tho.
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For this lesson I chose to play a 1, 6, 2, 5 in the key of E and a 1, 4, 5 in the key of G. When messing around with different rhythms I came up with a pattern that reminded me of "Good Loving" by the grateful dead in the second example. I guess it just goes to show how popular that progression is.
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All three progressions. Had a little 'spare' time during the holidays ( you can see our tree in the background! ) Enjoying playing with triads even though we've not covered that yet in this course. Enjoying creating tracks in Garageband, the effort being to try to record it all in one sitting.
This is pretty much me as I am and it would be valuable to receive feed back. I really don't know what I don't know, if you know what I mean. What are some next steps for my playing to continue to grow?
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This is starting to make sense but clearly my left hand and my brain are still fighting each other. I also tend to think that E comes after F in the alphabet, which is making this even harder. But I'm really enjoying it (much to the dismay of my family).
I had a "my guitar is the problem" moment. Thankfully, I made a little progress before I bought something.
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I IV V and then I iv ii V I
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The video showed me that I still need a lot of work on chord transitions and making the chords themselves. I also decided to work on some triads and finding relations between voicing on the neck. This lesson was a lot of fun for me, and also videoing myself I am finding the things that I really need to work on. Thank you again Michael! What an amazing learning platform.
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I've been lagging behind on the lessons recently but I should be able to start moving through a little faster now. I though this was a cool intro to note keys and took a stab at something a little more advanced, but definitely see how much more there is to it.
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Using one of our strumming techniques I played the I, IV V and the I, VI, II, V chords from the key of
C and G.
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Some of them need a bit of work.
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Created a backing track in the key of B minor, used a looper, a drum machine pedal and an octave pedal to get the bass line.
The progression is (I think):
B minor 7 - F# minor 7 - E minor 7 - G7 - A7
Then solo'd over the top playing the 7 notes of the key. Both the loop and the solo have reverb, the solo has delay, overdrive and wah in places. Also tried changing pickups and coil-taps to get different sounds.
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Playing progressions in the key of D, C, G, and A.
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Learning chord progressions.
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I VI II V in G and I IV V in A. I was a little off-beat on the first one. I blame this on the amp/volume fail^^ I'll work on that though... and the auto-thumbnail was hilarious so I left it like that.
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