Summary

Mix and match activities to create a fun lesson in which students will learn the most common chord progression in different musical styles, get familiar with the basic concepts of Western harmony, and practice playing C, F and G chords in a popular song.

💻 Materials:

• Solfeg.io web app best used with Chrome browser
• Projector or computer and access to WIFI
• Guitars

Harmonic introduction

🕐 Time: 5 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Get familiar with the chosen song and its harmony
• Recognize the chords in the song

🎶 Recommended Songs:

🎲 Activity:

• Select a song from the suggestion list.
• Project the song onto a screen. Click on 'Guitar' under 'Tools' - 'Visuals' so that the guitar chord diagrams are visible.
• Listen to the indicated section(s) of the song:

Happy Birthday: Verse 1

Ho Hey: Bridge

Respect: Verse 1 & Chorus 1

• Shortly discuss the harmony of this song section.

What chords did you notice in this section?

Can you play them on the guitar?

Chord exploration - C chord

🕐 Time: 10 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Learn to play the C chord on the guitar

🎶 Recommended Songs:

🎲 Activity:

• Click on 'C' under 'Tools' - 'Chords' so that the Solfeg.io fretboard showing the C chord is visible.
• To play the C chord, students should place their 1st finger on the 2nd string, 1st fret. Then add 2nd finger on the 4th string, 2nd fret. Lastly - add 3rd finger on 5th string, 3rd fret. Strum only five strings downwards, starting with the second thickest string.
• Let them practice the chord and get familiar with it!

Next - the F chord

🕐 Time: 5 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Learn to play the F chord on the guitar

🎶 Recommended Songs:

🎲 Activity:

• Click on 'F' under 'Tools' - 'Chords' so that the Solfeg.io fretboard showing the F chord is visible.
• Tell your students to play the F chord on their guitar with their left hand. To play that chord, students need to hold down all the strings at the first fret with the 1st finger. Then add the 2nd finger on the 3rd string, 2nd fret. Then add the 4th finger on the 4th string, 3rd fret. Lastly - add the 3rd finger on the 5th string, same fret. Then strum downwards with their right thumb.
• Let them practice the chord and get familiar with it!

Combine C & F chord

🕐 Time: 10 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Learn to play the C & F chord on the guitar

🎶 Recommended Songs:

🎲 Activity:

• Tell students that they will have to play the C and F chords.
• Let them practice the chords and get familiar with the chord change!

The last chord - G

🕐 Time: 10 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Learn to play the G chord on the guitar

🎶 Recommended Songs:

🎲 Activity:

• Click on 'G' under 'Tools' - 'Chords' so that the Solfeg.io fretboard showing the G chord is visible.
• To play the G chord, students should place the 3rd finger on the 1st string, 3rd fret. Then add the 1st finger on the 5th string, 2nd fret. Lastly - add the second finger on the 6th string, 3rd fret. Then strum all six strings downwards with their right thumb.
• Let them practice the chord and get familiar with it!

THE chord combo

Time: 8 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Get familiar with a common chord progression (I-IV-V-I or C-F-G-C)
• Practice chord changes on the guitar
• Reflect on the harmony of popular songs

🎶 Recommended Songs:

🎲 Activity:

• Mute all tracks except the rhythm section under the menu “Controls” - “Volume”.
• Press “Play” and invite the whole class or selected students to play this chord progression along to the rhythm section:

C-F-G-C (ignore the chords that appear on the screen!)

First, change the chord every 8 beats (every 2 bars).

Later, you can try to switch every 4 beats (every bar).

• Start a short discussion.

Did the sound of the chord combination remind you of any popular songs?

If yes, which ones?

Same chords, another combo

🕐 Time: 10 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Improvise a chord progression with three different chords
• Practice chord changes on the guitar
• Reflect on the harmony of popular songs

🎶 Recommended Songs:

🎲 Activity:

• Ask students to split into small groups.
• Give students a few minutes to figure out what other chord combos sound nice, using the same three chords - C, F and G.

The combo should be 8 bars long.

Chords can be freely repeated.

• Play the rhythm section of the song as in the previous exercise and invite each group to perform their chord combo to the rest of the class.

If needed, slow the song down by pressing “﹣” on the left side of the “Play” button. You can press it up to 4 times to find the most suitable speed.

• Discuss what you heard.

Which combination did you like the most? Why?

Which chord sounded the best to start with?

Which chord sounded the best to end with?

Did any of the combinations remind you of popular songs? Which ones?

A short theoretical interlude

🕐 Time: 10 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Get familiar with the basic concepts of Western classical harmony
• Understand the characteristics and functions of chords on different scale degrees

🎲 Activity:

• Explain to students that all three chords they played are a part of the same scale - the C major. For a chord progression to sound good, usually the chords from the same scale are used.
• There are seven notes in the scale: C, D, E, F, G, A and B.

Demonstrate how this scale sounds on the piano, guitar or any other suitable instrument at hand!

• A chord can be built from each note of the chord like this:

C-E-G

D-F-A

E-G-B

F-A-C

G-B-D

A-C-E

B-D-F

• Demonstrate how these chords sound one after the other and draw students' attention to the different characteristics of the chords!

Three of them (C-E-G, F-A-C and G-B-D) sound bright and happy - they are major triads. By the way, students played these three chords on their guitars just now!

Another three chords (D-F-A, E-G-B and A-C-E) sound sadder - they are minor triads.

The last chord (B-D-F) sounds slightly odd - it's a diminished triad.

• Now, let's investigate the chord progression C-F-G-C!

It's very common in different musical styles.

It can be noted as I-IV-V-I or 1-4-5-1: those are degrees of the scale the chords are on.

The C chord is located on the 1st degree (I) of the C major scale. It's also called the tonic chord. It sounds like “home” and gives a feel of stability, so the pieces in C often start and end with this chord.

The F chord is located on the 4th degree (IV) of the C major scale. It's also called the subdominant chord. In this chord progression, it gives a feel of departure away from the tonic chord, a sense of exploration.

The F chord is located on the 5th degree (V) of the C major scale. It's also called the dominant chord. In this chord progression, it creates a tension and pulls toward the “home” chord - C.

Finally, going back to the C chord creates a sense of resolution and stability.

Play along!

🕐 Time: 5 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Play C, F and G chords along to a song

🎶 Recommended Songs:

🎲 Activity:

• Play the indicated part of the song and invite the students to play the chords!

Happy Birthday: Verse 1

Ho Hey: Bridge

Respect: Verse 1 & Chorus 1

• If needed, slow the song down by pressing “﹣” on the left side of the “Play” button. You can press it up to 4 times to find the most suitable speed.

Reflection

🕐 Time: 4 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Reflect on the concepts learned in the lesson

🎲 Activity:

Ask these questions to the class and have a short discussion

• Was the order of the chords in the song different from the I-IV-V-I progression?
• What was the order of the scale degrees in the song?
• What was the most challenging part of the lesson?

Homework assignment

🕐 Time: 3 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Practice playing and singing a whole song

🎲 Activity:

Challenge students to go beyond the lesson by…

• Learning one more easy guitar chord (Am) and playing one of these songs in full:

Ho Hey

Savage Love

Riptide

Stitches

Still Falling for You

Little Talks

• Learning to play a song on the guitar by following a guided song tutorial on the Solfeg.io mobile app