Welcome to our latest series of free guitar lessons for kids. Over the last five weeks, you learned how to play a handful of guitar chords including the E, A, D, G, & C chords. Over the next five weeks, we’ll teach how to combine those basic chords with common rhythmic patterns to create chord progressions that rock!
If you need a quick review of your first five guitar chords for kids before moving on to chord progressions, then you can access those lessons using the links below:
- To read chord diagrams.
- Play the E major chord.
- Play the A major chord.
- Play the D major chord.
- Play the G major chord.
- Play the C major chord.
As with all of these free guitar lessons, feel free take your time reading through the material. In the process, you’ll increase your knowledge of music theory and gain a better understanding of how music works and why your favorite songs are so dang catchy. On the other hand, you can also skip straight to the video lesson at the end of this blog post if you prefer to dive right in!
What are Chord Progressions?
As atoms are the ‘stuff of life,’ so too are chord progressions the basic building blocks of all music. From Bach and Beethoven to Rihanna and Taylor Swift, every song you’ve ever heard can be reduced to a set of repeating chord changes known as chord progressions. Although chords can be combined in nearly limitless combinations, some chord progressions show up all the time in music! That’s especially true of the I IV V chord progression, the I V IV chord progression, and the king of them all today: the I V vi IV chord progression.
What’s up with the Roman Numerals?
Chord progressions are written in Roman numerals. Capital Roman numerals (like I, IV, & V) represent major chords while lower case Roman numerals (like ii, iii, and vi) represent minor chords. As previously mentioned, the I V vi IV ( or 1, 6, 4, 5 in the Arabic numerals) chord progression can be heard in countless hit songs.
If you’re unfamiliar with Roman numerals, here’s a quick refresher:
Roman Numerals
|
Roman Numeral |
I |
II |
III |
IV |
V |
VI |
VII |
|
Translation |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
When reading chord progressions, it’s also important to remember that:
Upper Case Roman Numerals like I, IV, & V= MAJOR CHORDS
Lower Case Roman Numerals like ii, iii, & vi = MINOR CHORDS
And Finally, the I IV V Chord Progression in the Key of A
|
Note Name |
A |
Bm |
C#m |
D |
E |
F#m |
G#dim |
|
Roman Numeral |
I |
ii |
iii |
IV |
V |
vi |
vii |
Now, that’s a lot of material to cover in one session, so let’s quickly review. Today, you learned that chord progressions are the basic building blocks of all music. You also learned that chord progressions are commonly written in Roman numerals. Finally, you learned upper case roman numerals represent major chords and lower case Roman numerals represent minor chords.
It’s time to take all that knowledge and play some music. For this lesson, we’ll take the I, IV, V chord progression in A major. Those chords are A, D, and E major. We’ll keep things easy with whole notes to create an easy-to-play and musically-pleasing guitar chord progression for kids.
Your Kid Can Get a Black Belt in Rock!
Next week, you’ll learn how to create some cool variations with these three chords along with an easy rhythmic pattern to make it sound even better! In the meantime, you can contact us on the Rock Dojo Facebook page if you have any questions!
Free Backing Track Provided by Band-in-a-Box
Click on the play button below to jam along with the free guitar backing track. This guitar backing track for kids is provided by Band-in-a-Box, an incredibly powerful backing track generator! Learn more at Band-in-a-Box.
GET A BLACK BELT IN ROCK!
The Rock Dojo offers award-winning, introductory-level guitar lessons for kids after-school in Portland, Beaverton, Hillsboro, and Lake Oswego. You can check out the Rock Dojo FAQs to learn how our colored-belt systems works (hint: it’s like karate. As your students improve on the guitar, they graduate belt levels just like the martial arts). Do you have a specific question about our guitar lessons for kids? Drop us a line at (503) 484-6417 or contact us on the Rock Dojo Facebook page.
