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Step 2

Musical

Example

 Selecting a Chord Progression

In the Common Chord Progressions section immediately following this lesson, we display many commonly used chord progressions for you to familiarize yourself with - and to use. But for now, let's start with a single chord progression.

This chord progression is one of the most common and can be heard in hundreds of songs. Musicians often refer to it as the I-vi-ii-V progression. If you refer to our chart Chords built from the C Major scale, you will notice that each chord is labeled with a Roman numeral:

This number tells the position of each chord in that particular major scale. As you can see from the chart, in the key of C Major the I, vi, ii and V chords are C Major, a minor, d minor and G Major. Let's listen to what those chords sound like:

As you can hear, we have played each chord in root position. This creates wide leaps between each chord. As an alternative, we will play the chords in different inversions, so that they flow smoothly from one chord to the next. (See Major Chords, Step 2 for more information regarding chord inversions.)

Here is the same chord progression as before with different voicings of each chord:

We have simply repositioned the notes within some of the chords. The C Major and d minor chords are now played in 2nd inversion. The a minor and G Major chords are still in root position, but are now played one octave lower:

By making these adjustments, we have allowed the chords to flow effortlessly from one to the next.

Listen again. You might recognize this chord progression as the basis for many pop songs, especially those from the 1950's:

Chord

Inversions

Review