In this blog post, we'll cover some of the fundamental concepts that will get you started with playing neo-soul guitar. We teach you the most popular chords, two must-know chord progressions, and give you tips on how to get the feel right.
: This blog covers neo soul, which is an inherently difficult style of guitar. The material here is meant for neo-soul beginners who are comfortable with bar chords. For true beginner content, check out one of our other articles!
In this blog post, we'll cover some of the fundamental concepts that will help you get started with neo-soul guitar. You'll learn essential neo-soul chords, two must-know chord progressions, and give you tips on how to get the feel right.
Walrus Productions Mini Laminated Guitar Progressions Chart
Neo-soul guitar originated from Black American gospel guitarists. Many of the defining neo-soul guitarists started out playing in church and working alongside gospel artists before venturing into the secular pop and R&B world.
Neo-soul harmony is influenced by jazz. This means you’ll find more colorful chord progressions than in pop or rock music. Neo-soul chords are extended chords that contain extra sonic flavor compared to basic major and minor chord shapes.
Since it’s hard sometimes to find voicings that cover the root, third, fifth and an added color note (or two), it’s ok to replace notes. No need to turn your hand into a pretzel.
Chord Progressions (continued)
When you play with a bassist, it’s also common practice to play a color tone on the bottom of your chord instead of the root note. Here’s an example of a rootless F#m chord voicing:
The most popular extensions are 7th, 9th, 11th, and 13th tones. If you know how to build chords, you can modify the shapes you know.
We like to make your life easier though, so below are the most common neo-soul chord shapes, all built from the root note C.
Jason Mraz I V Vi Iv Chord Progression
Most pop and rock songs don’t venture beyond diatonic chords (chords that are derived from the major scale), but neo-soul guitarists will frequently make use of borrowed chords.
We’ll show you two examples below. If you’re not familiar with the voicings for the chords, we’ve got you covered: Simply refer to the TAB and listen to the recordings.
When people talk about neo-soul, they usually think Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, or D’Angelo. These artists mix the feel of R&B with the harmony of jazz and the rhythmic components of 90's hip hop.
Top 7 Basic Chord Progressions In Modern Music
Neo-soul guitar, on the other hand, can be thought of as instrumental R&B music without a singer. This means your guitar is starring in the role of lead singer.
Rhythmic feel is a key component of neo-soul guitar. We recommend listening to other guitarists to absorb their unique rhythmic neo-soul vibes.
You might already have some favorites but in case you need listening recommendations, we put together a list of six guitarists who pioneered the neo-soul sound:
Minor Key Chord Progressions
If you're looking to dive deeper and learn neo-soul guitar step by step, check out our Neo-Soul Learning Pathway with a free 14-day trial to Pickup Music. In this 3-month program, we’ll guide you step-by-step through the world of neo-soul guitar and show you exactly what to work on at each step of the way.
Ever wanted to know more about the history of Neo soul? Sam, co-founder at Pickup Music and Karl, Head of Education at Pickup Music give you a brief history lesson about Neo soul. Watch it below!Unless you’re listening to jazz, you’ll hear that most chord progressions (which means the series of chords played in a certain order) are quite similar. When listening to the acoustic version of favorite artists, like Ed Sheeran, Kacey Musgraves, Shawn Mendes, Harry Styles, and Taylor Swift, you’ll realize most typically don’t use more than 5 chords in the majority of their songs.
Listening to the acoustic versions of songs has helped me with songwriting because I’ve learned that more complicated doesn’t always mean better or catchier. Sometimes overcomplicating chord progressions just for the sake of using more chords can make a song feel awkward — like someone squished the chords together. Complex chord progressions can sound amazing, but you don’t have to use them to be an effective player and songwriter.
Neo Soul Guitar Chords For Beginners
There are a few simple chord progressions that are known for their catchiness and melody. If you’re just learning guitar, it’s helpful to learn basic chord progressions that you can apply to a lot of different songs.
In this blog, I’ll cover the top 3 most common chord progressions and some examples of the different songs that use them. So grab your Orangewood , and let’s start!
I’ll be referring to the chord progressions themselves with cardinal numbers, but if you aren’t familiar with the number system, you can refer to this chart to see what each number translates to in various keys. I also recommend watching this short video to learn more about the number system .
Most Popular & Common Guitar Chord Progressions For Song Writers
Most pop songs are variations of the 1-4-5-6m progression in different orders. There are a number of pop songs that even use just two of these chords. Of all variations though, the most popular progression is 1-5-6m-4.
This pop chord progression spans across genres, and even though it’s technically the same chords, the songs have extremely different feels from one another because of the key that they’re played in.
For jazz players, this chord progression is known to be the gold standard for jazz standards (I crack myself up!). Of course, since this is jazz that we’re talking about, the chords are never that straightforward. Instead of Dm-G-C, in this progression, we typically use Dm7-G7-Cmaj7 to add flare.
The 80s: High Gain Rock: Basic 80s Chord Progression
Even for non-jazz players, this simple progression is important to know since a lot of pop songs incorporate these chords as well – like “Sunday Morning” by Maroon 5. There’s also a lot of variations to this progression, and sometimes you’ll see 6m added to the end.
If you want to play the blues, you probably already know exactly how this 1-4-5 progression sounds. It’s usually referred to as a “12 bar blues, ” and these chords are often played as 7th chords. The rhythm is essential for this chord progression when playing 12 bar blues, and it’s usually played in 4/4 or, if you listen carefully, 12/8 (which sounds complicated but basically feels like a more swinging version of 4/4).
This 1-4-5 blues chord progression is not only important for learning songs, but it’s especially useful for jamming with others since it’s a universally known chord progression. Plus, if you use the blues scale, you can solo to it no matter your guitar skill level. If you don’t know your 12 bar blues yet, check out this lesson with Marty Music to learn it!
Substitute Chords For The Key Of G
As guitar players, we’re trained to have unique, sometimes flashy, and signature-sounding solos. Studying a popular chord progression is interesting because the songs overall sound so different from each other, even though the chords are the same. It’s cool to see how much a song can change by adding production, an interesting guitar or synth part, or a unique rhythm.
I like to think of chords as the backbone of a song, rather than thinking of chords as the focal point. To better understand the chord progressions that you naturally love, I recommend making a list of your favorite songs and writing down the chord progressions to each one. You might find that there are certain chord progressions you love, or that the songs you thought were too complicated actually have simple chords.
Whether you just got your Orangewood Guitar , or you’re making sure you have your bases covered as a guitar player, I hope this gives you some ideas of popular progressions to practice. Thanks for reading!
Popular Guitar Chord Progressions
Haley is a guitar player, blogger, and guitar teacher based out of Nashville, TN. When she's not playing or writing, you can find her in line at her favorite breakfast taco shop, taking her dog hiking at the nearest waterfall, or binging Outer Banks with her hubby.One of the most common chord progressions used in music is known as the I-IV-V or 1-4-5, and with it you can play quite a variety of songs across many genres.
In the western scale there are 12 notes and the distances between them make all the difference in how they sound. These are note intervals and the best place to start for ear training.
And the chords built on these degrees end up with the same qualities, they are known as the tonic, subdominant, and dominant.
Bach Chord Progressions To Use In Your Music
While the other major and minor chord degrees bring flavor to the music, it is possible for the consonant chords to survive all alone.
Here is a chart to remind you of all the scale degrees in each key. Pay attention to the 1, 4 and 5 degrees in each key.
This table is taken from my Roman Numbers vs Nashville Number systems tutorial, have a look at it to better understand chord progressions notation.
The 10 Most Popular Jazz Chord Progressions
Here below I've put an image showing the I V IV progression in most common guitar keys. Try the chords in all keys and get used to the sound!
These diagrams are an excerpt from my complete ebook 52 Chord Progressions | Learn How To
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