Explained: Which Chords Belong Together

have you ever wondered how some players seem to be able to pick up songs instantly or improvise great new music right on the spot well it all starts by simply understanding which chords belong together so if only there was a simple shape which told us which chords went together wouldn't that be amazing well of course there is and I'm about to show you in every key we have three major chords and you may have heard the term 145 especially in blues now the pattern that tells us exactly what these three chords are is simply this [Music] so wherever we start on the low E string let's say here the fifth fret we can play an E shape bar chord like this a here and that's our one chord then all we do is go up to the a string of that exact same fret we play an A shape bar chord and that will be our four chord in this case a d so now we know that A and D go together perfectly then all we do is simply move up two Frets on the a string and play another a shape bar chord and that's our V chord here an e so now a d and e will always work perfectly together now we don't need to play these chords up here we can move back down to the Cowboy end and play them here but this pattern of low E then up to a and then up two Frets always tells us which chords fit together perfectly now you've probably already kind of know the a dig and E go together from experience but what about F sharp B and C sharp or d flat G flat and a flat now of course these three chords one four and five are the backbone of the Blues so we could play Blues using a d and e but now using our pattern we can also do this in any other key for example in the key of G it would now be g c and d that go together [Music] or in the key of C c f and g [Music] you get the idea so here are the three major chords in each of the main Keys we use for guitar we'll come back to this graphic as we go through the video but what about Minor chords how do they fit into this pattern well the exact same pattern also tells us which minor chords go together so let's start here at the fifth fret again and this sign will play an E minor shape bar chord which gives us a minor and then again up to the a string at that same fret and play an A Minor shape bar chord so this is a D minor and then up two Frets we get E minor so now we know a minor D minor and E minor always belong together just like F sharp minor B minor and C sharp minor or E minor a minor and B minor so that's all great but how on Earth do all these minor and major chords fit together we need to understand what I call the three fret rule which says wherever we play a major chord three Frets down we'll find a minor chord which fits perfectly with it so let's say we play this C here at the eighth fret and then go down three Frets to the fifth and play A minor chord it will be a minor so C and A minor always belong together now these two chords have a very special relationship and are known as relative major and minor chords but it's not just C and A minor that go together but every chord from our pattern starting up those same Frets so from C we also get f and g then from a minor we also get D minor and E minor now these six chords together c f g a minor D minor and E minor fit together perfectly and form 90 of Music in the key of C now what you'll notice is that every major chord has a relative minor chord three Frets down so we already know that c goes with a minor but look also F goes three Frets down to its relative minor of D minor and then G three Frets down to its relative minor of E minor now this works exactly the same in any key for example in a we get a d and e and then three Frets down F sharp minor B minor and C sharp minor six chords that always work together so back to our graphic which now shows the three major chords and three minor chords in every key as you'll see every major chord has a relative minor chord three Frets down so just like a minor is three Frets down from C E minor is three Frets down from G and G sharp minor is three Frets down from B now these groups of six chords together fit within either a major key or its relative minor key depending on where the song starts and ends so for example c f g a minor D minor and E minor can be used for the key of C or the key of A minor so now we understand which chords go together let's see how this applies to some common progressions so let's start with a simple one four five progression there are loads of ways these chords fit together especially in blues but you could think of this as like a Twist and Shout progression the way I'll play it here [Music] so we can play it like that with c as the one f as the four and G is the five [Music] and then if we wanted to move it up we could go to d as the one G is the four and a is the five foreign chords for the exact same progression and what we want to be able to do is play this readily in any of the five main guitar keys almost without thinking so c [Music] d [Music] e d a foreign now let's make it slightly more complex by adding a minor chord into the mix so this time we'll play C to a minor to f and g now this is a super common progression it sounds like Sound by me Unchained Melody or Perfect by Ed Sheeran so we'll see as our starting point then it's down to the relative minor three Frets down for a minor and then f and g are simply the other two major chords within C major so if we were to transpose this then up to D we would start on D and then B minor down three Frets so B minor playing them now as Cowboy chords and then G and a would be our other two major chords in the key of D so D B minor G and a so then let's try moving this progression through all those five main guitar keys starting on C down with the cowboy chords [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] lastly let's look at a pattern that starts on a minor chord so we're going to have D Minor to F to C and then G so even though this starts on a D Minor all of these chords come from the key of C major and starting on a D Minor this could be the chorus to make me smile by Steve Harley and the Cockney Rebel [Music] but now I've removed that exact same progression up to start on E minor we would have E minor to G to D to a and it might start to sound a little bit more like Oasis [Music] then if we go up again to F sharp minor Brian Adams anyone not every chord progression fits neatly into these six chords we've looked at but by understanding which chords do go together it makes it easier to see which chords are out of place and in turn learn some of the common ways composers use additional chords if you're wondering what scales to use to solo over different chord progressions then click the video on screen now

Channel: Jules Guitar

Views: 15,447

Keywords:

Id: RtwpwF8vgts

Length: 9min 42sec (582 seconds)

Published: Sat May 13 2023