What are some interesting chord progressions for guitar?

Asked by TexasDude (25274

) July 22nd, 2011

C, Am, F, G is just so passe’ these days.

I’ve perused my guitar books, and pretty much every progression in them involves your typical C or G or F chord. I started a dreampop/lo-fi garage band not long ago, and as the guitarist and songwriter, I’m looking for interesting and “different” chord progressions to use in songs.

My parameters:

-They must be relatively easy to play. (for instance, Bflat diminshed isn’t easy to play)
-I’m not looking for harsh dissonance. Mild dissonance is ok.

Thanks, lovelies.

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7 Answers

Inversions! It’s a technique typically employed in jazz.

For example, a Cmaj7 would start on the tonic note – the 2nd fret of the D string (E).The chord would be E,G,B,E. The root note can be played on a bass, keyboard or another guitar.

It sounds like it should be dissonant, but fails to be. It would be very interesting to hear it applied in lo-fi.

edit

If that doesn’t work for you (it could be horrible!), Radiohead are the kings of weird progressions. Their lead guitarist is a classically-trained violinist with no formal instruction in guitar. His tonality is… different.

the100thmonkey (11265

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@the100thmonkey awesome, I never thought about exploring jazz stuff. I’ve never really been a fan of Radiohead, but I’ll study their music a bit for inspiration. Thanks!

TexasDude (25274

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My personal favourite is playing around with Amin, Cmaj, G, and Fmaj. You can actually mix these around a lot to make some awesome finger pickings progressions too!

Schroedes13 (3896

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