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Chord Degrees

July 27, 2017 By Jim Beckwith

Pro’s refer to chords by Roman numbers, which tell the chords’ place in the key, or its degree. The first chord in the key is called the I chord, the fourth chord in the key is called the IV chord, etc. Since any key contains seven chords you have seven Roman numbers/degrees. Why give the chords number names? It makes it easy to change keys! If a song uses a I,IV,V chord progression in the key of C, you can play the I,IV,V chords in the same sequence in the key of G. That’s how you change keys, it’s just a line by line substitution. Below is a chart of the keys of C and G with their common degree names. (Upper case Roman numbers mean the chord is major, lower case means minor, lower case plus degree sign means diminished).

DEGREE NAME    KEY OF C         KEY OF G

I                                       C Major    >       G Major

ii                                      D minor             A minor

iii                                     E minor             B minor

IV                                     F Major    >      C Major

V                                       G Major   >       D Major

vi                                       A minor   >       E minor

viiº                                    B dim.                F# dim.

Changing keys is easy! Say you’re playing a song in the key of C. The chords are; C,G,Am,F. Looking in the chart you notice these chords have the degree names; I,V,vi,IV in the key of C. If you want to change the song to the key of G, just locate the chords that have the same degree numbers in the key of G (I,V,vi,IV chords in G are; G,D,Em,C) and substitute those chords. That’s it! A simple chart of all 12 keys with degree names is in the appendix of my book,”No Fail Guitar” available on Amazon.

 

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