3 EASY GUITAR CHORD PROGRESSIONS FOR BEGINNERS

Once you have a pocketful of chords under your belt, those chords can be mixed and matched in a variety of ways. Even if you know just four basic chords, those beginner chords can be used to play some of the most common guitar chord progressions that can be heard in some of your favorite songs.

The chord progressions we’ll show you here make use of the A minor chord (Am), C major chord, F major chord, and G major chord. These chords, along with the D major chord, are arguably the most essential beginner chords, giving new guitarists a firm foundation and the tools needed to play some of the most well-known songs ever.

The Am, C, F, and G chords can be shuffled around in a few tried-and-true ways to create some commonly used guitar chord progressions for beginners to add to their repertoire. While these chord progressions each have their own recognizable name, they also make use of Roman numeral names and patterns to let you know which chords to play in each configuration. The numbers or Roman numeral names for chords in a progression indicate which interval or note that chord represents in a given scale.

For instance, the chord progressions we’ll show you here build off of the C major scale. The first (or root) note of the C major scale is C. This scale does not have any sharps or flats, making it an easy one for beginners to remember.

Pro tip: When you see the Roman numeral names for chord progressions, major chords are written as an uppercase Roman numeral. For instance, the Roman numeral “IV” is shorthand for the fourth note of the C major scale (F), without any sharps or flats.

On the flipside, when you see a Roman numeral written in lowercase, it represents shorthand for a minor chord version of the specified note of the scale. For example, the lowercase Roman numeral “vi” represents the minor of the sixth note of a given scale. Using the C major scale as an example, the sixth note is “A,” and you would make use of the Am chord in a chord progression if you see lowercase Roman numerals as an indicator.