Be Prepared for Any Impromptu Music Situation by Learning these Golden Chord Progressions

My brother and colleague shared this Youtube video called 4 chords, 36 songs by Axis of Awesome with me. I laughed so hard I just HAD to show my intermediate and senior students. Here's a performance of it:

The way I see it, if one were to memorize this chord progression, in addition to the Canon in D and Heart & Soul progressions, in every key; one could improvise, fake and impress everyone the next time s/he is coerced (er, asked) to play and has nothing else performance ready.

If you could also throw in snippets of any of the songs from the video every few minutes, you'd have the audience eating from the palm of your hand. You might as well turn this into a practical ear training exercise and try and pick out the notes to some of the tunes by ear. That way, you'll never forget the notes.

Plus, if you ever start up a band, you'd be set. After all, these three progressions are in...well, as Axis of Awesome says, they're in every pop hit.

Don't believe me? Check out Pachelbel Rant:

And finally, Heart & Soul Chords in other songs:

By the way, these chords are sometimes called the "50s chord progression".

If you're itching to try this, here are the chords:

The Four Chords: |: I V vi IV :| V(7) I || Canon in D: |: I V vi iii IV I IV V :| I || Heart & Soul: |: I vi ii V :| I ||

For those that need to see the chords with the jazz or pop/rock symbols, they are (in the key of C):

The Four Chords: |: C G Am F :| G(7) C || Canon in D: |: D A Bm F#m G D G A :| D || Heart & Soul: |: C Am Dm G :| C ||

Happy jamming!

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