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- Lesson 49 - How many songs can you play with just a few chords?
I thought it might be fun to count the chords in the written versions of common Christmas Carols, just to see what songs can be played with just a few chords, and what songs required more chords. Here's the results of the count: (If you get a different number, it's probably due to the fact that there are different arrangements of the same carol. I have tried to use the most standard arrangement of each carol in my computations). I thought it might be fun to count the chords in the written versions of common Christmas Carols just to see what songs can be played with just a few chords, and what songs required more chords. Here' the results of the count: Silent Night -- 3 chords -- I, IV, and V Away In a Manger - 3 chords - I, IV, and V O Christmas Tree -- 3 chords - I, IV, and V Joy To The World - 3 chords - I, IV, V Good King Wenceslas -- 3 chords - I, IV, and V Jingle Bells -- 4 chords - I, IV, V, and II What Child Is This? -- 5 chords - I, VI, V, III, and VII O Come All Ye Faithful -- 5 chords - I, IV, V, II, and VI Deck The Halls - 5 chords -- I, IV, V, II, and VI It Came Upon The Midnight Clear - 6 chords -- I, IV, V, II, VI, and III O Little Town Of Bethlehem - 6 chords - I, IV, V, II, VI, III We Three Kings - 7 chords - I, IV, V, and II, VI, VII, III
Well, well. As Gomer Pyle would say "Surprise, surprise!" Did you notice that every single one of these carols uses the primary chords -- I, IV, and V ? Did you notice that after I, IV, and V, the next most occuring chord is II? And did you notice that after II, the next most occuring chord is VI? So what? Here's what: If you learn the most likely chord progressions, you can play a humongous number of songs! Just by learning the I - IV - V chord progression you can play hundreds of songs. Add the II chord, and you can play hundreds more! Add the VI chord and you can play hundreds more. It's like this: Pretend you are a doctor, and in med school youlearn all about the human skeleton, so you know each bone, each part, and how it works. When a patient walks into your office, you don't have to say to yourself "Oh oh ! -- this guy is short and bald and a Republican -- I wonder where his tibia is?" That's ridiculous. He knows exactly where the tibia is in every single person who comes into his office -- it doesn't matter what their size or occupation or color or if they eat Wheaties. Those things have nothing to do with it. And yet many piano players don't have a clue that the style or tempo or form of a song has nothing to do with the chord progressions "underneath the hood". In other words, a jazz tune and a classical piece and a hymn and a rock song could have EXACTLY the same chord progression. The "flesh" on each piece of music would be very different, but the skeleton would be the same -- as in our imaginary doctor's analogy. Does that mean you HAVE to use just 3 or 4 or 5 chords in a song? No! That's what learning chord progressions is all about. You learn substitutions for the simple chords that appear in the music. For example, in my video course on "How To Play Spectacularly Beautiful Christmas Carols", I play Silent Night and instead of using just the 3 chords that normally come with the song -- I, IV, and V -- I use 12 different chords! (Actually, more than that, because I show how to alter certain chords to make different sounds.) And on the other carols I use even more, showing the logic of each chord progression and why it works.
If you want to get good at chord progressions, I suggest that you do what I did. Take a book of songs, and count the chords in each song, and what they are -- I, V, or whatever. You will learn a great deal doing this, and you will discover some things that may surprise you about chords and chord progressions. And if you REALLY want to master this idea, click on the CD below and take a look at this:
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