 Hello everyone and welcome to Blackstar Potential. My name is Lee Fuge and I'm here today with MGRmusic.com and in this video we're going to look at building chord progressions. In the last video we talked about 10 essential chord shapes that you can use right now to unlock the guitar. So in this video we're going to actually look at how to use those chord shapes in a constructive way. All the tones you're hearing in this video are coming from the Blackstar Studio 10 6R6 which is mic'd with the Luit Audio LCT 440 condenser mic. The amp is running on the clean channel and all the reverb you hear is also coming from the amp. So one big question a lot of guitar players ask when they first start learning some chords is how do I know which order these chords go in and this is especially useful if you're looking to get into songwriting. So in this video we're going to answer that question very simply. We're going to look at a formula you guys can use to start writing chord progressions and make sure that your chords always fit together. So we're going to do this in the key of A major. So the first thing we need to know is the A major scale and this is what we're going to be using. So that is a major scale. I rooted that from an A note so that means this is an A major scale. The major scale is very useful for any guitar player to learn because I always like to think of this as being the gateway to music theory. So if you can understand what a major scale does and what you can do with it you can apply that to a bunch of other theory concepts as you progress. So the first thing we need to understand is what notes go into this scale. So on the low E string we've got an A note and a B note. On the A string we've got a C sharp a D and an E and on the D string we've got an F sharp a G sharp and an A. So I've just played the first octave of the scale there because we don't need to know the whole shape we just need to know that one octave so that we can apply the theory to this. So once I know what those notes are A, B, C sharp, D, E, F sharp and G sharp and then A at my octave I then need to apply a number to each one so I'm just going to call these numbers one through seven. Not going to include that final A note because that would be my first note again. This numbering system is known as intervals. So intervals are a big part of music theory and a big part of chord progression use. You may have seen a few things written down about one four five chord progressions. If you're unsure what that means that's basically chords that are taken from a scale using intervals as an identifier because that's all they are. They're an identifier and a way to spot what notes or what chords are in a progression. So they are literally numbered in a linear fashion A being the first note which is the one and all the way up the scale to the G sharp being the seven which is the seventh note of the octave. So when you're learning a major scale it's really easy because the intervals are just one through seven as you start to bridge this out into different scales and using this to build up different theory ideas we're going to manipulate those intervals as we go along but in this lesson we're just going to be using one through seven as shown there. Once you know that we're then going to apply a specific chord to each one so we know the notes we know the intervals. Now this is where the formula comes in. The major scale always has a formula so the one chord is always going to be a major chord. The two chord is always going to be a minor chord so that's B minor. The three chord is always going to be minor so that's a C sharp minor. The four and five chords are always going to be major so that's D and E major. The sixth chord is always minor so that's F sharp minor and then the seventh chord is where it gets a little bit weird so this is the chord you're probably not going to use a ton. This is called the diminished chord or otherwise known as a minor seven flat five. This is quite a hard chord to use because it doesn't really sort of sound that great in typical strumming context you're probably not going to use that too much unless you're digging into the world of jazz so let's go through those once more. So there are the seven chords we need for the key of A major. Now the great news is all of those chords are linked by the factor in the same key family so A major being our key. That means I can play those chords in any order I want and they will always work together. Even that minor seven flat five it's a little bit of a strange one to use because of its diminished nature but you can use it to go back to the one chord quite nicely with what's called a resolution. So if you're passing through that this is more of a jazz technique but if you're passing through that chord you might not want to hang on it too long as long as you're going back to the one chord it will work pretty well. So those seven chords are all the chords we need in the key of A major. Now the great thing about this is this is a formula you can apply this to any key like I said we'll just focus this in the key of A for this lesson because it's easy enough to get started with. So those seven chords will always work together no matter what order I play them in. They will always feed nicely into each other. The only one that's going to be a little bit tricky is that G sharp minor seven flat five only because of its diminished nature unless you're playing jazz it's quite a hard chord to use. You're probably not going to base too many sort of pop or rock tracks around one of those chords. So the reason this is really useful to know is because now we can compose a song. So let's say I wanted to write a song and I didn't really know what chords to put in there but I knew I wanted an A chord as my first chord. So I've got my A chord I might want to base it around that. So using the other chords that we just talked about in that key family I can now play a chord progression using all of those chords and it'll always work. So let's say I want to go from A major to F sharp minor so that's the one to the six. If I want to vary that up a bit I could go from the F sharp minor up to a D major. So what I'm doing there is I'm doing one, six, four, one. There are some common chord progressions like a one four five which makes up a blues progression so if I was playing a blues in the key of A major I would play A, D and E. As long as I fit that into a blues type rhythm track that will work perfectly. From a songwriting perspective I don't always have to start on that root chord because all of these are in the same key family I can actually start with a different chord if I wanted to. So I can actually start for instance with a C sharp minor. All linked by the fact that in that same family. So this really opens a lot of creative doors for you. You've basically got six chords plus a diminished chord to basically put together in whatever form you want. Now if you want to put this together in different keys all you have to do is take that major scale formula and shift it to a new root position. So let's say I now want to write a song in the key of C major. So I'm going to take this A note and I'm going to move that to a C which is my eighth fret. Then I'm just applying the same pattern. Then I'm just fitting the notes to the intervals. So we've got one through seven in the key of C major there are no sharps or flats so it's C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C. So then we fit the chords to that. We've got C major and D minor. E minor, F major, G major. A minor and B minor, seven flat five. So the same rule applies. I could now play any of those progressions in the key of C major. So I could do my one, six, four, one again which would be C, A minor, F and C. So you see that time I switched it up on the second time and took my F major chord all the way down to the first position. You can use these chord ideas in any position of the fretboard. So obviously I've explained this with bar chords but the same principle rings true of open chords. So I could also play the C major chord progression as open chords. So we've got C major, D minor, E minor, F, G, A minor, B minor, seven flat five. So you can use that simple formula to move chord progressions in any major key you want. So try that out. Learn the major scale in whatever position you want. Pick your root chord based on whatever root note you'd like the sound of. If you want to write a chord progression in the key of G, start with a G note. If you want to write in the key of D, start with a D note. It's great because you can literally move that formula around. Once you put the scale in place, identify the notes that fall into that pattern, then apply that chord formula to it. So the one chord is always a major, the two and three are always minors, the four and five are always majors, the six is always a minor and the seven is always a minor seven flat five or diminished chord. So that is it. You can use that idea and write as many songs as you want in any major key you want anywhere on the guitar. You can also call upon the chords from the last lesson and mix it up a little bit. So anytime you play a major chord, you could substitute that for one of those dominant sevens. And anytime you play a minor chord, you could substitute that for one of the minor seven chords we talked about as well. Thank you guys so much for watching. I hope you've enjoyed this lesson. Let me know down below in the comments how you've gotten on with building some basic chord progressions using this formula. And if there are any other topics you'd like to see us talk about in these videos, please leave those below as well. Don't forget to check out Blackstar Amplification on YouTube for more videos just like this. And if you're looking for a guitar teacher, please head to mgrmusic.com and check out the network of music teachers all around the country. Thanks guys. See you very soon.