Contents
The Parts of the Guitar
How To Hold the Guitar
How To Play Notes on the Guitar
How to Tune Your Guitar
Guitar Chord Basics
Open-Position Chords
Barre Chords
Power Chords
How to Play Songs with Tablature
Chord Progressions
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Chord Progressions
A chord progression is a series of chords played in a particular order. Most popular songs are composed using a simple chord progression that repeats. The melody, usually sung by the lead singer, is played over the chords as they progress from chord to chord.
The first step toward playing entire songs on the guitar is to learn to play chord progressions. You can learn to play chord progressions from chord charts or from tab.
Chord Charts
Chord charts are used to map out chord progressions to make them easy to play. The chord progression that beginners tend to learn first is called a 12-bar blues and goes like this:
The letter above each bar indicates the chord you need to play, while the horizontal slashes clustered together represent the number of beats for which each chord should be played. Beats, also called counts, are a way of measuring the duration of each note or chord played in a piece of music. Each slash represents one beat.
The lines separating each of the four beats are called bar lines. Everything contained between two bar lines is called a bar, or measure. The two 4s stacked one atop the other at the beginning of each line indicate the progression’s time signature, the number of beats per measure (in this case, four). Since this progression contains 12 bars and is most often used to play blues-rock songs, it’s called a 12-bar blues.
Chord Progressions in Tab
Chord progressions in tab can look confusing. This example demonstrates how all those numbers simply show a series of chords in a row, just as tab shows notes in a melody one by one.
How to Play Chord Progressions
To play a chord progression, you need to count beats and strum in a particular style.
Counting Beats
You can measure out a beat by tapping your foot or by playing along to a metronome, an electronic device that emits audible beats according to the overall tempo (speed) you set.
Chord Charts and Strumming Style
The strumming style—the way you bring your finger or guitar pick across the strings—has a dramatic impact on how the progression or song you’re playing will sound. Here are the three most common strumming styles, indicated by the up and down arrows:
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One per beat: Strum one chord per beat.
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One down, one up: Strum down and then up during each beat. This technique, called double timing, makes the chord progression sound much livelier.
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Bass note, then chord: Play the bass note (low note) with a pick or your thumb on the 1st and 3rd beats, then strum the chord on the 2nd and 4th beats.
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