Which chords will sound good together?

[Danny Poole]

How do I know which chords will sound good together? Let say if I was writing a song or also i I am just messing around strummng. Are there any rules of thumb? I already know that in blues, a 1, 4,5 sounds cool. But, that is the only combination I know so far.

Like how does the songwriter know which chords to use in a 4 chord song for example?

We’ll go through the process 1 step at a time. Each one of these steps are a bit of work in themselves.

1. Know you major scale formula (T=tone: 2 fret move, S=semitone: 1 fret move) T-T-S-T-T-T-S
2. Know the rule to work out chords in any key
   • 1st Major
   • 2nd Minor
   • 3rd Minor
   • 4th Major
   • 5th Major
   • 6th Minor (relative)
   • 7th Diminished
3. Choose a Key… Let’s say “C”
4. Notes in the “C Major Scale” C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C
5. Apply the Chord rule to these notes
   • C Major
   • D Minor
   • E Minor
   • F Major
   • G Major
   • A Minor (relative)
   • B Diminished
6. Now start playing any of these chords one after the other (Start & finish on “C”) and you have your very own song in the Key of “C”

The 1, 4 & 5 chord progression in the key of C would be C F & G. A common chord to throw in is the relative minor (6th). These are such common songs like…

• Stand By Me
• Last Kiss
• The Wanderer
• Complicated
• Welcome To My Life

Also, did you intentionally misspell the word "videos" as "vodeos"?

Yes I did! and I'm sticking to that.... O.K. I didn't but it's fixed now.

Also, when you are doing arpeggios, do you normally just hit the strings at random or do you follow a pattern every time? I know you have some patterns in the lessons but my guess is, you don't use that same one all the time.

I find that if I just dance my fingers, or a pick across the strings sometimes is sounds really good and other times it sounds like crap. I would like it to sound cool all the time. I would like to eliminate the part which sounds like crap. I want to de-crap my arpeggios.

Arpeggios are usually in some form of order, usually 1-3-5-1-3-5 and back down, and then up again and so on. I think I’m a little hazy on the question. Do you want to improvise or play an arpeggio type rhythm? Here is a theory I apply to soloing to get rid of bad sounding notes.
When soloing I like to rate notes from 1 to 3 or Red, Orange & Green. Let’s say Red is bad, Orange is O.K. and Green is good. In a scale you have Root notes (green), chord notes (orange) and scale notes (red). In this technique it all about pausing, where is the safest place to stop or linger when improvising. Let’s say you’re playing a “C” chord, this means you can solo using the notes C-D-E-F-G-A-B. The root note of a “C” major scale & chord is “C” so this is the best note to stop on (green). The notes that make up a C major chord are C-E-G, so if you’re playing a C major chord how can you go wrong playing these notes, they won’t sound as good as the C root note though (orange). Last of all are all the notes that are not the root or chord notes, D, F, A & B (red). These notes are not really BAD, they will still have their time and place to be played or paused on in a solo. They just won’t sound as harmonious to the ears as the other notes.

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