Hey, guys Marco here welcome to another guitar lesson.

Today I want to talk about chords and chord progressions, and I want to try to answer this question “What makes a good chord progression.”

Now whether you are a musician or not, you agree with me that certain elements make a chord progression good.
It could be because it’s catchy, or sad, or bluesy and reflects an exact state of mind or emotion.

So today we are going to analyze different chord progressions and see why they sound the way they sound and what are the elements that you can apply into your playing that will create the same character or vibe.

Enjoy this lesson.

Chord Progression #1: E minor.

The first chord progression is in E minor.

I played these chords in my previous video “Six chord progressions that will make you cry,” which was my very first viral video on YouTube.
So what are the things that made this chord progression go viral and why did you guys like it so much.

1. Minor chords with singing 3rd.
2. Open strings chords.
3. Express emotions with chords.

1. Minor Chords With Singing 3rd

The minor chords with singing 3rd sound melodic. It just feels like the chords are singing.

The chord progression goes as follows: Em, D, C, G, and D chord but If you play the chords in the first position of the neck, they don’t sound quite the same, and the reason for that is because chords with the singing 3rd have their character and melody.

The E minor, C major, and G major are still basic triads, but because of the interval structure of the chord, they sound amazing and, well, different.

2. Open Strings Chords

The open strings chords create space, harmony, and pianistic interval structure.

Most of the time, when we play a chord on the guitar, we start from the bass note which is, of course, the lowest note of the chord and as we go up the notes are higher and higher in pitch

Now, when a chord is played above the third fret, we can combine fretted notes and open strings just like a basic chord, but the result is different because now the notes are not necessarily only going up.

For this E minor chord, I play the low E string followed by the B note on the D string, which is higher in pitch. The next note though is the open G string, which is lower and another G follows it on the B string fret eight which is higher. The last note is the open E, which is lower in pitch.

The same thing happens with the other chords. With the C major and G major chord, we can double the same notes of the chord, and with the Dadd11 the cluster between the note A on the D string and the open G is what makes this chord so unique.

Now, don’t ask me why but for me this chord sounds more like a piano than a guitar.

3. Express Emotions with Chords

Emotionally this chord progression is great because it expresses an exact feeling. It could be a struggle, a difficult moment, a fight, or a moment of inspiration.

Chord Progression 2: B minor

Moving on to the second chord progression. Let’s check this chord progression in B minor.

The number one thing that I think when I play these chords is “I am going on a journey.”

I picture myself sitting on a train while I am looking outside the window thinking about something. It’s an insanely beautiful chord progression which I took from Paul Davids in one of his videos.

There are a few things that make this chord progression good.

1. The rhythm played by the thumb, which resembles the Travis Picking technique creates a lot of movement and motions. This is why I instantly feel like this is good music for a journey. Even if I change the chord progression, but I keep the same rhythmic fingerpicking pattern it feels the same.

2. The Chords sound pretty folky and rich. They are all extended chords with 7th, 9th, or 11th. We are playing a Bm(add11), a Bm(add9)/A, an Em7 chord, and a Gadd9 chord.
The fingerpicking pattern spreads out through the entire measure.

3. Dynamically the chords are mostly played quietly, and I am emphasizing different beats of the chords. The 1st beat and offbeat, and the 3rd beat.

4. Let the chords ring out beautifully.

Chord Progression #3 – A major

A good chord progression will fire up your emotions. Whether it’s joy, happiness, sadness or fear you know that a chord progression is good when gives you goosebumps.

In this example, I am going to show you one of the saddest chord progression I know. Amazingly enough, this is also the simplest because it’s played with just two chords, the I and minor iii.

So grab your guitar and some tissues.

In this example, we are playing an A major chord followed by a C#m chord.

There are three reasons why this chord progression is good.

1. It’s simple and goes straight to the point. Just think about it. How many people can you make feel sad with only two words? Almost impossible right! But you can do that with two chords.

2. Moving between the two chords isn’t enough. You should single out a few notes from the chords to create a chord/melody harmony that sounds quite, simple, and heartbreaking.

3. The A major is a basic triad played with a bar chord on fret five. The reasons why I don’t play the basic chord in the first position is because I want to have full control over the strings and I don’t want to chord to ring out too much.

The C#m chord is played with the singing 3rd, which works perfectly in this example.

Let’s Wrap This Up

That’s it for today folks. I hope you enjoy this video.
Make sure you learn the examples I played in this video and then create your music.
You can get the tab, check my Patreon page and subscribe to this channel if you want to keep up with all the upcoming lesson.
Have a super day, people.
M