4 Chord Progressions - 80% of the Hymnal: Here's the Formula

[00:00:03]I'm going to show you four chord progressions, just four.

[00:00:09]And once you know them, you can sit down and play roughly 80% of the hymnal without even using sheet music.

[00:00:27]Hear that sound right there?

[00:00:34]You've probably heard this a thousand times, and that's chord progression four out of the four chord progressions that I'm going to show you.

[00:00:45]By the end of this video, you'll know all four chord progressions and you'll never hear a hymn the same way again.

[00:00:54]Now, just a quick note before we get started. When you look at hymns in the hymnal, they're written in four-part harmony, soprano, alto, tenor, bass.

[00:01:05]And if you read music and you play exactly what is there, you'll often find the chords changing practically on every beat or on every other beat.

[00:01:16]But as I've demonstrated in past videos, if you just take the tunes from these hymns, they are usually very straightforward and can be harmonized with simple chords.

[00:01:29]And the chord progressions are very familiar.

[00:01:33]So, let me show you these four chord progressions.

[00:01:38]The first progression, I'll call this one the workhorse progression. You'll see it a lot in hymns.

[00:01:44]Starts on the one, and by the way, I'm going to play all of these in the key of C, but of course, you can transpose them to other keys.

[00:01:54]So, it starts [music] on one, goes to four and then five and back to one. So, in the key of C, we're playing C F G C.

[00:02:08]So, this is like the backbone of traditional hymn phrases, if you like.

[00:02:15]And most of the movement that you hear is just this chord cycle over and over and often in different order. So, you have one, four, [music] five one.

[00:02:32]Now, let's try playing Amazing Grace using this chord progression.

[00:02:38]One Now, we go to four. Now, notice it goes back to one.

[00:02:46]And then goes to five. [music] So, you do have one four and then [music] it actually does go back to one and then it goes to five.

[00:03:02]Now, listen to this. I'm going to play the exact same chord progression. So, we got these four chords, one, four and then it goes back to one briefly and then five. And then, of course, back to one.

[00:03:16]Maybe you know this one.

[00:03:20]How Great Thou [music] Art goes to four then back to one and then five.

[00:03:32]So, [music] there's a different melody.

[00:03:34]It's the song has a different mood, but it's the same identical chord progression underneath. In fact, let's try a couple of more.

[00:03:44]Here's [music] What a Friend We Have in Jesus.

[00:03:50]Goes to the four back to the one, [music] and then back to the five.

[00:04:00]That's what this whole video is built on. Hymns don't have a thousand different structures, a thousand different chord progressions. They mostly reuse a small handful of chord progressions, and they're dressed up a little bit differently. Here's another one that uses that same workhorse progression.

[00:04:25]Goes from one to four, and then it goes directly to five this time.

[00:04:38]So, as you can see, there's going to be a lot of hymns that use this progression.

[00:04:44]Now, progression number two sounds a little more emotional than progression one. Progression one is very solid, but progression two starts on one and then goes to the minor six, and then to the four, and then to the five. [music] So, if the first progression is what I call the plain workhorse, this one has a little bit of an ache in it, a little bit of a bittersweet flavor.

[00:05:18]You have that [music] minor six chord, and then it resolves.

[00:05:24]>> [music and snorts] >> Now, if you appreciate popular music as well as hymns like I do, you'll notice that this is the old Heart and Soul progression.

[00:05:39]>> [music] >> And it also shows up in quite a few popular songs, especially early rock and roll songs and so on. So, it turns out that the hymnnal and the the popular music, the top 40 chart, well, they have more in common than you'd think.

[00:05:58]You can hear this progression used in the famous hymn, It is well with my soul.

[00:06:08]Goes to the A minor and then F, >> [music] >> G, C.

[00:06:16]Now, you could also use the first progression, >> [music] >> and that works just as well. But to me, if you add that minor sixth chord, it's a little more [music] interesting, and it also kind of fits the mood of the hymn.

[00:06:39]If you know [music] the history behind It is well with my soul, it was written after a [music] terrible tragedy that the writer had faced, and you can look up the history behind that hymn, and find out what was behind the lyric.

[00:06:53]And so, that minor chord >> [music] >> gives it a little bit more of a bittersweet feeling.

[00:06:58]And yet, it still resolves.

[00:07:03]So, it's the difference between a hymn that just states something and then a hymn like this that really feels something.

[00:07:11]The third chord progression could be very familiar to those of you who have studied chords and chord progressions.

[00:07:19]It goes from the two, to the five, to the one. [music] And it's not really a chord progression that you would hear in the verse, but it's how a phrase ends, going from the two minor, you know, in the key of C, the two chord is D minor, and then going to the five, and to the one. So, this is kind of like that little arrival moment right before the next line of the hymn starts. In fact, you'll hear it in a hymn like Blessed Assurance.

[00:07:57]So, it's [music] one four and then when you get to the end of the of the verse two >> [music] >> five Whoops, I got to play it right. There I go trying to play and talk at the same time. I'll just play it.

[00:08:14]Starting on the right note.

[00:08:22]There you hear it, the two five one.

[00:08:26]You could even use this in Amazing Grace.

[00:08:30]>> [music] >> I've demonstrated that before. Every time a hymn phrase feels finished before the next phrase begins, there's a good chance that this progression or something very close to it is sitting right underneath.

[00:08:49]And now finally, progression four.

[00:08:52]And this is really not actually a chord progression, but you'll see what I mean. We're going to go back to where we started. Remember this?

[00:09:00]>> [music] >> From the four to the one, two chords.

[00:09:06]And you may know this by its technical [music] name and it's called the plagal cadence. And you also know it by its nickname, the amen.

[00:09:17]Ooh, don't sing it like that, the amen cadence. And if you look in a hymn book, almost every hymn in the book ends on this exact move. You'll get to the end of a famous song >> [music] >> and if you look in the hymn book and then you see this.

[00:09:39]It's probably a something of a lost art to sing the amen at the end of a hymn, but it's actually there in the hymnal if you look.

[00:09:48]And so now >> [laughter] >> you can impress your friends by telling them that hey, that thing at the end of the hymns, that's a plagal cadence, otherwise known as the amen cadence. So there you have it, four chord progressions. You've got the workhorse progression.

[00:10:08]You've got the one that's got a little bit more emotion to it.

[00:10:14]Then you have the 251 cadence [music] or the amen.

[00:10:24]So I would encourage you to learn these.

[00:10:26]I'm starting out here in the key of C.

[00:10:29]And now you've got a chord vocabulary that will take you through a huge chunk of the hymnal. Here's your homework. Now that you are familiar with these four chord shapes, if you like, chord progressions, pick a hymn that you love and see if you can spot which of these four progressions are hiding inside the hymn. You might find some variations on these chord progressions. You might find them exactly as I showed you from the video.

[00:11:00]So let me know which hymn you chose or hymns.

[00:11:06]Let me know in the comments and maybe we can pick a few of those and we'll break them down in a follow-up video. And by the way, if if this has clicked for you, if this is helping you understand how these things work and you actually want to learn how to voice these with your left hand so they don't sound stiff, I've got a full video series on that, three video series, and it'll be right here on the channel. I'll also include a link in the description to my playlist on playing from a hymnal. If you'd like to support my work here at At Home with Music, you can buy me a coffee, or you can join my Patreon. The links to those two ways that you can support the channel are also in the description. I'd like to thank those of you who do support the channel in that way, and also those of you who have subscribed to the channel. Both recent subscribers and those of you who have been watching my videos for a long time. I just recently celebrated 5 years on YouTube, and I have so many more things that I'm excited to share with you. Thanks again for watching, and I look forward to speaking to you in the next one.