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This site is for music students and their teachersChord progressions are at the very heart of all music. In classical music, the I, IV and V chords establish movement that are most strongly heard in cadences. Strongest is the movement from the dominant V chord to the tonic I chord. This is common music theory that many students learn.
Learn To Play Guitar WITHOUT Notation
With respect to learning to play the guitar, many books and sites will begin with music notation and learning to read music. This site bypasses this, as it teaches students music concepts as if they were John, Paul or George. None of the Beatles could read music -- and it didn't stop them from writing some of the best compositions to emerge in the 1960's. Apart from tuning a guitar, they would have learned words and chords, rather than notes on a staff.
There is ample evidence that the Beatles used pitch pipes before they learned the process involved in tuning a guitar. The strings were not tuned to E A D G B and E. Banjo tunings were used -- until Paul McCartney met Lennon in the summer of 1957.
Following in the Beatles Footsteps
For those wishing to know more about the Beatles' music, there are plenty of references online, but many of the publications on both sides of the Pacific use standard music notation, along with guitar tabs. This site departs from that and approaches it as they would have. They did not read music; they listened to it and copied it.
Beatles 1962-1966
In 1973, EMI released The Beatles 1962-1966. It contained 26 compositions. Running just over an hour, it contains some of their best compositions and has been transcribed countless times (Japan: Shinko Music Publishing, United States: Hal Leonard). On Hal Leonard, over 700 publications are listed. There are even videos on YouTube dedicated to their songwriting, like Lennon's song In My Life. Paul and John differed with respect to their choice of chord prorgressions -- and this site focuses on the period from 1956-1966. You will soon disiver that it merely skims over the surface. If you are intested in subscribing to the larger publication, sign up today! But before you do, take a sneak preview of what will be expanded upon. Begin bt starting with Basic Music Theory.
Basic Music Theory
Each chord within a piece of music has a function, and this is commonly denoted by a roman numeral. The chords used in a song correspond to the scale that is currently being used by the melody -- and this can bounce back and forth from the relative major and minor scales.
Movement Within Rock'n'Roll
Rock'n'Roll that hit the shores of the UK in the late 1950s also makes use of dominant and tonic chords, as well as the subdominant chord. This is the type of music that the Beatles grew up on, and up until October 1958, most of the music they played used no minor chords. For all intents and purposes, this is how chords progressed until minor chords were used in later compositions:
For those learning to play guitar, this means that they should learn the following chords, that are associated with 7 keys on the Circle of 5ths -- before they tackle any minor chords. As is usual, one can use alternate chords in place of the regular tonic chord -- in a chord progression; for example I7 -> IV7 -> V7.
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C major: |
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G major: |
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D major: |
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A major: |
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E major: |
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These are the chords that the Beatles learned from 1956-1958. A lot of the songs they played were in the Key of E, Key of A, Key of D and the Key of G. There were even a few in the Key of C. By the fall of 1957, they even made use of a capo that allowed them to increase the resulting pitch.
Beatles Chord Progressions
When the John Lennon and Paul McCartney decided to start writing music, they adopted the chord progressions used by musicians that they admired. These included Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly. They were all at the top of the UK charts from 1957-1958. Lennon and McCartney quickly learned the chord progressions using the above displayed chords and eventually added the minor chords to their compositions. The first song to use minor chords was likely Like Dreamers Do, written sometime in the fall of 1958 -- in the Key of A.
The Beatles learnt music by copying what they heard and were unorthodox in many respects. None of them learnt to read music -- and to many, there really is no need to. However, having some knowledge of music theory can help, like that applicable to keychords and the circle of 5ths.
Discover some new chord progressions.
