Guitar Chord Progressions
Using the "Chord Scale"

Building chord progressions is where your creative side can really get a chance to shine. When learning guitar, it can often become tedious with scale exercises and lifeless patterns, so devoting a good portion of your practice time to actually experimenting with chords and melody is a welcome break.

In this 4-part lesson, I'll show you how simple music theory can help you become a songwriting factory. Bare with me on this 1st part, we need to get to grips with the basics first before you can start to look at making your own chord progressions.

So what is a chord progression?

Basically, it's a sequence of chords that build a melody or take you on a journey. A chord progression can consist of just 2 chords, or 22, it's really up to you! (ok, enough rhyming).

Before we start though, make sure you familiarise yourself with the 7 modes and how they work together, because the modes work along side relative chords as part of a scale. Learn more about guitar modes here.

Here's the deal - you give this your best shot, right to the end of this page, read every word, try your best. If you're completely lost by the end I'll explain exactly what to do.

Alright...

Chord progressions - 1 scale, 7 modes, 7 chords

Most of the songs you hear today, especially the more popular mainstream ones follow a formula. This formula is what keeps music from being a complete, senseless mess.

It's the formula that gives music a key center. If you hear musicians talk about a song being "in the key of __ major", they're indirectly talking about the formula you're about to learn.

You see, individual chords are built around single-note scales, but put these built chords in a line using the note scale's intervals as root notes for the chords, and you get chord scales...

We'll come to that in a minute. Let's just recap the modes first and their order (this is important for knowing intervals on the fretboard of your guitar).

Remember: you have the major scale and the natural minor scale - these are 2 of the 7 modes, the other 5 are flavours of those core scales.

• 1st Mode - Ionian, the elementary major scale

• 2nd Mode - Dorian, a flavour of the minor scale

• 3rd Mode - Phrygian, a flavour of the minor scale

• 4th Mode - Lydian, a flavour of the major scale

• 5th Mode - Mixolydian, a flavour of the major scale

• 6th Mode - Aeolian, the natural minor scale

• 7th Mode - Locrian, the "odd one out", a diminished flavour

Now, in the guitar modes lessons, we learned that each mode starts on the relative note of the first mode, Ionian. E.g. the 3rd note of Ionian is where 3rd mode Phrygian starts! You call these starting points "root notes", because when you build the relative major or minor chord around the mode, the 1st note of that mode is the chord's root.

Each mode has a relative chord type - major, minor or diminished.

Look at that list of modes above again - the minor modes build minor chords and the major modes build major chords. 7th mode Locrian builds diminished chords (that's why it's the odd one out).

Let's first learn the chord scale to get its "formula" in our heads. In the next lesson we can then look at creating chord progressions from this initial scale. It'll be much clearer that way, I promise.

So, starting with basic chord triads (e.g. E major, E minor), we can play each mode's relative chord, with the same root note intervals, just like the modes from 1-7. What we get is a chord scale...

W = Whole step (2 fret spacing on the neck) H = Half step (1 fret spacing on the neck)

The numbers also represent the mode number the chord is built from.

Look at that string of chords - I (1) is the first chord from the first mode - Ionian builds major chords. We then follow the intervals like we would with the notes of the first scale/mode - Ionian. It's all relative - Each Ionian note interval marks the start of a new mode, so they also mark the root notes of their relative chords!

Now, the lower case numerals (ii, iii, vi, vii) are from the minor modes, and the diminished mode (Locrian). Basically, if it ain't a major then it gets a lower case numeral! This reminds us, when writing a progression (e.g. I, ii, V) which chords are major, and which are minor (diminished is technically minor with a flat 5th).

See how they are like simple chord versions of the modes in sequence? Because we're only using triads at this stage, they are the simplest chords we can use, just 3 notes in each chord.

Note: You can learn more about how to construct chords here.

So if we were to just use barre chords to play that chord scale above, this is what we could play (note: this is NOT a progression. Well, it is, but it's pretty dull because it's just the chord scale in natural sequence!)...

click the tab to hear

The 5th mode, Mixolydian is a major mode in its purest form, so its relative chord becomes...yep, major!

Thing is, triads are OK as chords, but I like to use fuller sounding chords like 7ths (4-note chords) in my chord progressions.

So what happens if we make the relative chords in that scale 7th chords?

The intervals stay the same, the overall type of chord stays the same (e.g. major, minor) but we add the extra note to each chord.

Confused?: If you're scratching your head wondering what "adding the extra note" means, you need a chord theory fix! Get it here.

If we are using 7th chords, you need to remember how the 7th is added for each chord in the scale, based on which notes their relative modes highlight...

• Ionian and Lydian both build maj7 chords (major 7th chords) because the notes in their scales involves a 7th in its "regular", major scale position.

• Mixolydian (5th mode, therefore 5th chord in scale) builds dominant 7 chords (flattened 7th) because there's a flattened 7th in its scale. A major chord with a flat 7th is called a dominant 7th chord!

• The minor modes, Dorian, Phrygian and the diminished mode, Locrian also have flat 7ths in their scales.

So, bearing this in mind...

If we started the scale on C# (C# Ionian would be the first mode) then its relative 7th chord would be... C#maj7.

Let's follow the rest in this diagram, from the first chord in the scale, C#maj7...

click on the diagram to hear

This is a great method for building chord progressions from this scale - start with the basic 3 note triad chords and add notes to each chord from their relative mode scales (e.g. Mixolydian has a flat 7th, sure, but why not try adding the 9th note in that scale)...

We're jumping way ahead of ourselves anyway, more on that soon ;)

Now, just to show you how relative the modes and chord scales are, how they work together, I'm going to play the C# Ionian scale/mode over that C# chord scale above.

Sounds a bit boring, but that's just because I'm playing a scale over a scale!! A mode scale over its relative chord scale. In the next lesson we'll look at using this initial, fairly boring scale to create meaningful chord progressions.

You could in fact play any relative mode from that chord scale and it would "fit" the whole chord scale, not just that one chord.

E.g. That C# chord scale above includes the V (5th) chord Ab7 relative to the 5th mode mixolydian, so I could play Ab7 mixolydian over that whole chord scale, because it's all relative. Are you starting to see the formula now? :)

Right, I think we deserve a break!...

Patience! In the next lesson I'll show you exactly how to use this chord scale to create your own major and minor key progressions on your guitar.

For now, trust me, learn that chord scale's intervals - you should be able to play it starting from any chord using this interval structure. But, if you're really struggling at this stage...

deep breath - go back to the main guitar theory page using the links below and see what you've missed before this lesson. It's important to learn this stuff in the order I've presented it, but I understand you may have arrived at this page from a search engine. You must take your time with guitar theory.

See you when you're ready for the next lesson...