Songwriting - Chord Progressions

More on songwriting. This time we're talking about chord progressions. There are literally an infinite amount of ways to play chords when you factor in the rhythm, pausing and accent of your playing style. Knowing the common chord progression will help you give structure and familiarity to your songs.


First you must know that every chord when we are talking about progression patterns is given a roman numeral. Reference this chart.

So here the most common chord progressions.

The three chord change.  I - IV - V.
Check the chart. If you want to write a 3 chord change in the key of A, the chords are A-I, D-IV, E-V.
Now these three chords could be played many different ways.
Such as I - I - IV - V, I - IV - V - IV,  I - IV - I - V...ect.

Twelve Bar Blues Pattern
This uses I , IV and V, but it goes;

I - I - I - I
IV - IV - I - I
V - V - I - I

Ways to extend the I - IV - V
Two other ways to extend the I - IV - V are as follows:
I - vi - IV - V
OR
I - vi - ii - V

The lower case roman numerals are minor chords.



- These are the basic progressions. Listen to some of your favorite songs and see if you can figure out their progression and how they tweaked it to make it their own. Use that chart to your advantage. Try to make up your own progressions.