Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Classic chord progression with strum variety

During class today, we introduced a classic chord progression that has been used for years in classical, jazz, and pop music. We call this progression (G, Em, C, and D) a I-vi-IV-V progression. For those of you who need to refresh your knowledge of roman numerals that mean 1,6,4,5. We use roman numeral in music because they have the ability to be upper case and lower case. In this case, that is important because upper case means the chord is major and lower case means the chord is minor. If you look at the chord progression you see that only one chord (Em) is minor and only one roman numeral (vi) is lower case. If you count G as I, then counting to 6 will bring you to E, or in this case, Em (vi). 

Try playing this progression using the strums shown on the image: Syncopated, Latin and Rock. I have included a video which demonstrates using each strum patter.


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