A chord refers to nothing more than a commonly-played sequence or pattern of playing a few chords (usually 4- 5) during a song. One chord typically ‘progresses’ to another expected one, before the pattern is often broken and the player plays a chord other than the next one in this chord progression pattern. But the point is, it’s good to recognize and be familiar with patterns when they occur

Some simpler songs just repeat these patterns through the song, Eg., oldies music with a C –Am-F-G progression.

For starters, the above video illustrates this very common progression.

It is useful to be familiar with chord progressions because:

- Being able to better anticipate what the next chord/s will ‘typically’ be helps make learning and playing easier in that part of the song where the pattern occurs;

- It possibly also helps when you’re composing a song. Many popular song melodies are built around common chord progressions because they’re proven and work nicely.

- Knowing chord progression also helps when you’re in a situation of playing impromptu, and may need to think quickly to apply an appropriate set of known progression chords for say, an intro or a break before the main melody starts again .

We’ll talk about other chord progressions in due course.

Thank you.