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.

Minor Scale

I have written before about the major scale. Another basic theory that you must know is the counterpart of the major scale which is the minor scale.

The minor scale is another one of the diatonic scales (a scale with 7 intervals on an octave) which has the following pattern based on the range of the interval:

whole:half:whole:whole:half:whole:whole

Check on my previous post on whole and half intervals.

Now the example:

If you play on a C scale, then the notes on a minor scale are C-D-Eb-F-G-Ab-B-C. On a piano, these notes would be all “white” notes except 2 notes which is the 3rd and the 6th note. These notes are "black" notes. If you play it on a D scale, then lower the 3rd and 6th note by half compared to the major scale note. So, if the major scale notes on D are D-E-F#-G-A-B-C#-D , then for the minor notes you have D-E-F-G-A-Bb-C#-D.

On a guitar the same counting method as the major scale except a different pattern of course. For a whole interval you should skip one fret and for a half interval you should play on the adjecent fret of the current note.

Hope this blog can explain and helps you a little but about the minor scale.

Major Scale

One of the basic theories that you have to know for playing music is the Major Scale. The Major scale is one of the diatonic scales (a scale with 7 intervals on an octave) which has the following pattern based on the range of the interval:

whole:whole:half:whole:whole:whole:half

A “whole” interval means 2 “half” intervals. A half interval is the smallest interval on a basic music instrument (guitar of piano). Using a guitar, a half interval is the interval between 2 adjacent frets. Using a piano, a half interval is the interval between 2 adjacent and closest note. If you use the C note, than the half interval is the B note (half interval lower than C) and the C# note (half interval higher than C). Remember, there are 2 intervals for a note. The higher interval and the lower interval.

For example:

If you play on a C scale, then the notes on a major scale are C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C. On a piano, these notes would be all “white” notes. Therefore playing on C scale is considered the easiest scale to play. If you play it on a D scale, then the notes you must play are D-E-F#-G-A-B-C#-D (count it if you want and you will see this uses the same major scale pattern as above). In this scale, you will press 2 “black” notes in it.

On a guitar, you can count these scales based on the interval. For a whole interval you should skip one fret and for a half interval you should play on the adjecent fret of the current note. Because you can use a counting method on a guitar, none of the scales are considered easier than the others, because they are basically the same.

Hope this blog can explain and helps you a little but about the major scale.