The 1-4-5 chord progression

Playing music can sometimes be difficult. There are hundreds of different chords to play and lots of patterns to remember. This can create a headache for beginners who wants to play music. However, playing music has not to be as difficult as it looks. A basic technique for playing chords is the 1-4-5 chord progression.



The 1-4-5 chord progression - also known as the Nashville Notation Sytem or the Figured Bass - is a basic pattern to remember when playing instrumental tools that relies on chords such as guitar and piano. You can play almost all songs with the 1-4-5 chord progression (although it sometimes sounds bored).

The pattern is to play chords with the 1st note chord, 4th note chord and the 5th note chord. So, if you play a song in C then the chords that you need to play is the 1st note (C), 4th note (F) and the 5th note (G).

Another example: If you play a song in G, then the chords that you should play varies between the G chord, C chord and D chord.

Now a song example. Everybody knows the kids song "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". You can play this easily in the A chord:

A___________D__A
Twinkle, twinkle little star.

D____A____E______A
How I wonder what you are.

A__D______A_____E
Up above the world so high,

A____D_____A___E
Like a diamond in the sky.

A___________D__A
Twinkle, twinkle little star.

D____A____E______A
How I wonder what you are.

Try it by yourself the song above and try to implement this technique to other songs.