How to Play a 1 5 4 Chord Progression

When it comes to playing the piano, you can accomplish a lot by understanding chords. In fact, if you know what key something is being played in, you can instantly pick up the bones of the song by plucking the different chords. Here's how to play a 1 5 4 chord progression on the piano.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Piano
• Basic knowledge of music theory

1. Find the key in which you want to play the song. The key is determined by the lowest note in the chord. So for instance if you wish to play in the key of G, then G is your root note and the root of the chord.

2. Play a G major chord. A major chord consists of two full steps between the first and third note and one and a half steps between the third and fifth note. A half step is the distance between any two adjacent keys. So starting on the G in our example, the next note in the chord would be the B above it, followed by the D.

3. Because you are in the key of G major, the 5th happens to be D. So move your hand down so that your root note is D followed by a F# and then A to complete the D major chord.

4. Play the 4th of the G major by playing a C as the bottom note of the chord. When you played the G chord originally, the second note of your chord was the third (B) and the third note of your chord was the fifth (D). Well, the note right in between them is C, which is the 4th. Complete the C major chord by adding the E and G on top of it.

5. Return to the original G major chord to complete the playing of the 1 5 4 chord progression on your piano.

Tips & Warnings

• By using chord inversions--for example, playing a chord 3-5-1 (E,G,C) rather than 1-3-5 (C,E,G)--you may also play these chords with your hand staying close to its original position rather than jumping around. Depending on the song, this may be preferable.

Resources

• Basic music theory