Did you know that many songs are based on the same chord progression – a sequence of chords within a certain key? There are several chord progressions which will sound familiar to you, because you’ve heard them already in many songs. In this blog post we’ll dive into one of these. Enjoy!
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
In this chord progression of the month blog you’ll find
The I – V – vi – IV chord progression
In this article we’ll bring your attention to one of these chord progressions in a major key:
As you can see I, V, VI and IV are Roman numerals, indicating the notes or chords within a certain key. And it needs some practice to find these chords in different major keys. Notice that the Roman numeral becomes a capital letter for the major chord and a lowercase letter for the minor chord.
In a major key, chords based on I, IV and V are major. A chord based on VI is a minor chord. That’s why we indicate it as “vi”. If you want to read up on the music theory behind chord progressions check out our music dictionary. And now… It’s time for practice!
I – V – vi – IV in C major
Let’s take the good old C major scale:
From this figure we can see that I represents the C note, V the G note, VI the A note and IV the F note. If we create a triad from each of these notes, the chord progression I – V – vi – IV for the C major scale will look like this:
In the note charts it can look like this:
Do you already know all the chords?
Here are the chord diagrams for guitar:
Here are the chord diagrams for piano:
Here are the chord diagrams for ukulele:
I – V – vi – IV in G major
Let’s take the key of G major and find I, V, VI, IV notes there:
From this figure we can see that I represents the G note, V the D note, VI the E note and IV the C note. If we create a triad from each of these notes, the chord sequence I – V – vi – IV for the G major scale will look like this:
You can find an example of this exact chord sequence in “Fuckin’ Perfect” by Pink. By knowing how to play these chords, you can play an entire song.
The note chart can look like this:
Here are the chord diagrams for guitar:
Here are the chord diagrams for piano:
Here are the chord diagrams for ukulele:
Final thoughts
We’ve just talked about one of the most popular chord progressions: I – V – vi – IV. We also played, and visualized it in the C and G major keys. You can find this chord progression in many songs, but be aware that the keys of the songs can be different. So, it’s also a good idea to practice in different keys.
Happy jamming!
Kirill is Chordify’s academy content creator. Being a professional musician and musical educator, he brings more than 12 years of experience to the table. At Chordify, he explains theoretical and practical music matters. Besides that, Kirill leads the music project The Skypainters and performs in different venues and festivals.
