Major Progressions

Home B progressions C progressions D progressions E progressions F progressions F# progressions G progressions

A major progressions

The top 3 chord progressions have been illustrated in every major key. To begin, strum each chord two times and move to the next chord. Practice each progression below and come up with your own songs. To play lead over the progressions you can use A major. All of these progressions are for the key of A major. You can play A major pentatonic or the A Ionian mode. You will find different chord fingerings in the progressions, learn each chord as illustrated. The suggested fingering are in each circle. The numbers under each chord are the fret numbers for easy location. The (O's) on the side of the chords are the open strings. Some chords you strum that string along with the fingered notes.

You may want to see the formulas used to construct all the scales. Each of these progressions will be the foundation to your progressions. You can mix them up an use them to come up with an endless number of original songs. You don't have to use the suggested chords illustrated, you can use any fingering or pattern you like. For example, you don't have to use an A bar chord, you can use the open A chord if you wanted to. Different chords have been illustrated to get you to move around the fretboard.

The scales at the bottom of each page would be a good starting point to play lead over the progressions. By no means are these the only progressions you can play. There are hundreds of different progressions you can come up with by mixing in other chords from the scale you are playing.

As you begin to play progressions, you can also play the progressions as 7 chords. As you build up chords in 3rds by continuing up the scale you can add the 7th note to each chord. You can read more on this subject on major scale construction.

You can also play each of these progressions using just the power type of chords. You can find them here. This means you can convert every chord illustrated in every key to these types of chords. When you do this, it makes improvising a little easier. You need to experiment with all of the progressions and suggested scales.

Drum Track

A D E Progression
Play the A major scale audio file and then strum these chords over it. You will notice how each chord harmonizes nicely over over the scale. 
Listen to A major scale with out distortion.

 

 

A E D A progression
A E D A progression with basic lead

 

A C#m and Bm progression

 

 

Here is a popular position to play the A major pentatonic scale. It is also a popular position to play the F# m pentatonic scale. F#m is the relative minor to A major. Figure out all the other positions to play the A major pentatonic scale. Notice the notes are: A, B, C#, E and F#.

 

Here's another popular position to play the A major pentatonic scale.

The Area outlined in yellow is the A major pentatonic scale. The area outlined in purple is the F#m pentatonic scale. F# is the relative minor to A major. This means they share the same key signature and the same notes. Check out progressions for the key of F# minor.

Here are the notes of the A major scale using a different type of fingering patter. By starting this fingering at the 3rd fret, it would be the G major scale. Starting on the 7th fret would be the B major scale.

 

This is the G major scale, notice it has the same fingering pattern as the A major scale, but starts at the 3rd fret.
Listen to the G major scale.

 

Check out the key of A major scale.
Practice all the scales in A and the A major pentatonic scale.
Check out a number of different A scales.

Good Luck,

From the jam room