The I IV V Progression
In the key of C it is C, F and G. Three major chords, and between them they contain all seven notes of the scale, which is the reason an enormous amount of music needs nothing else.
- 3 chords
- all major
- 27 songs below
same family
The progression
I - IV - V
Why it works
Play the C major chord and look at which keys are lit: C, E and G. Three of the seven notes in the key, and four still missing. Play F next. That chord is F, A and C, so it hands you the F and the A. Two left. Play G: G, B and D. The B and the D arrive, and the key is complete.
Three chords, seven notes, nothing left over. Whatever melody you write in C major, one of these three chords contains the note you are singing. That is a plain counting fact, and it is why a guitarist who knows three shapes can accompany almost anything in that key.
The order does the rest. The C is home, and nothing about it wants to move. The F steps away without any urgency, which is why you can sit on it for a whole bar and nothing feels unfinished. The G is the only one of the three that pulls, because it holds the B, one half step under the C. Play G and stop, and your ear finishes the sentence for you.
Not the same as the blues
The 12-bar blues uses these three chords too, and it is a different thing. There the three chords sit in a fixed twelve-bar order that repeats, and all three are dominant sevenths, including the one on home. Here the three chords are plain major and the order is free: I-IV-V, I-V-IV, sixteen bars on the I and then two on the V, whatever the song needs.
Hear it in context
Twenty-seven songs on three chords. Play the loop above and then read the list: the same C, F and G sit underneath all of them, moved to whatever key the singer needed.
- La Bamba
- Twist and Shout
- Louie Louie
- Wild Thing
- Hang on Sloopy
- Do You Love Me
- Get Off of My Cloud
- Ring of Fire
- Blowin' in the Wind
- Guantanamera
- Leaving on a Jet Plane
- Summer Nights
- Blitzkrieg Bop
- I Fought the Law
- What I Like About You
- You Shook Me All Night Long
- Three Little Birds
- Red Red Wine
- Footloose
- Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)
- Common People
- Wannabe
- La Camisa Negra
- La Bicicleta
- The Cave
- Budapest
- Bloed Zweet en Tranen
Make it yours
- Swap the last two
I-V-IV lands on the softer of the two and the loop stops pulling. Same three chords, and the ending goes from a question to a shrug.
- Add the vi
One minor chord turns three chords into the axis progression, which is four.
- Stay on one chord
Sixteen bars on the I before the IV arrives makes the change feel like an event. The blues does the opposite and moves every four bars.
When to reach for it
When the song lives in the melody, the lyric or the groove and the harmony only has to stay out of the way. For anything you want a room full of people to play along to on a first hearing. When you are writing on an instrument you barely know.
When to leave it alone
When the harmony itself has to carry the interest, which is most jazz and a lot of film music. When the song needs a moment of genuine surprise, because these three chords cannot supply one.