12 Guitar Chords Every Guitar Player Must Learn

For example, if you were to strum the C major chord, illustrated below, you would only finger 3 notes, and there are 2 notes that are not fretted, but strummed with the chord. There will also be barre chords included in the progressions below. The best way to learn how to play guitar chords, is to play them in some type of form. A great way to learn how to play songs, is to learn how to play a guitar progression.

One of the most popular guitar progressions is called a I-IV-V progression. This represents a 1-4-5 progression. If you were to play a I-IV-V progression in the key of C major, you would be playing the guitar chords of C, F and G. If you recall from the C major modes guitar lessons, the C major scale has the notes and chords of:
C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am, Bdim and C. The C chord would be the I chord, the Dm would be the ii chord, the Em would be the iii chord, F the IV chord, the G the V chord, the Am the vi chord and the Bdim the vii chord. So if you play the I, IV, V progression in C major you would play the C, F and G chords, that simple.

The example I put together in the lesson, Blowin in the wind, would be a good example of a I-IV-V progression. The notes and chords in the key of C major are: (C = I)  (Dm = ii)  (Em = iii)  (F  = IV)  (G = V) (Am  = vi)  (B =vii) and C. The I-IV-V progression in the key of C major would be: The C = the I  The F = the IV The G = the V.

The progressions illustrated below that start with a major guitar chord will be:  I, IV, V progressions. 

The progressions that start with the minor guitar chord will be i, VI VII progressions. If we show all the notes in the key of A minor, the notes would be A, B, C, D, E, F, G and A. The A note would be now be the (i) one note. The chords in the key of A minor are Am, B dim, C, Dm, Em, F, G and Am.

The notes are the same as C major, but you now start with the A note.   Each of the chords shown below, are also illustrated as 3 chord progressions. The first 3 chords across, are the C, F and G chords and this would be a I-IV-V progression.

The second progression across, would be the Am, F and G progression. This would be i-VI-Vll in the key of A minor. The main point here, is to realize that the chords below are also shown as 3 chord progressions. You could actually write a song using only 3 guitar chords and there have been many.

The video included below, explains a little about progression theory and construction. The mode table and chords can be found here. Must be a Guitar Secrets member to download the PDF file.