Chord Progressions for Guitarists: How to Decode Any Progression You Play

Every song is built from a handful of chords. This book shows you what each one is doing.

Most chord progression books hand you a list to learn. I’ve never found that much use. You memorise a dozen progressions, then the next song you pick up uses a thirteenth and you’re back where you started.

This book gives you four questions instead, and asks them of fourteen progressions, one chapter at a time:

1. Find home. Which chord can the song stop on?
2. Number the chords. Count up from home.
3. Give each one a job. Home, away or tension.
4. Spot the outsiders. Circle them and say where they came from.

By the end you won’t need the list. You’ll be able to take a chord chart you’ve never seen and say what every chord in it is doing, what you can swap in, and what you can leave out.

The fourteen progressions: the three-chord trick, the four-chord loop, the same chords with a new home, swapping chords, starting away from home, the twelve-bar blues, the rock chord, a minor key, the walk-down, the borrowed minor chord, a chord that points, the walking bass, the colour chord, and finally a whole song decoded from top to bottom.

You don’t need to read music. The diagrams do most of the work, every chapter ends with progressions for you to decode yourself, and the answers are at the back.

Part of the Fretboard First series. If you’ve read Before the Boxes or Music Theory for Guitarists, this is the natural next step.

Instant PDF download. 40 pages, 6 x 9 in.