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Posted by: JTaylor Dec 12 2011, 06:24 PM

Finally getting serious about learning guitar and I have yet another question. First, thank you to all the instructors and fellow members who have answered my previous posts. I watched Marcus' lesson on "O Holy Night"and decided to try to learn to play it. Not the way Marcus does, that is way, way, way ahead of me right now. As I am going through Bear Rose's lessons right now, I decided to figure out the chords and pick them instead of strumming them (I think it is called arpeggio).
The chords I used were C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am, and a weird one (to me) that almost just looks like a variation of an E (have no idea what chord it is). This is my question: Can I "plug" these chords into a chord progression and figure out the key. If so, I am coming up with the key of C. Is this right? Can this be done for every song? Thanks and hope I didn't confuse anybody with my lack of proper guitar terminology!

Posted by: quadrium Dec 12 2011, 07:06 PM

Yeah, you are right this progression is C Major. And i think the last chord you are trying the figure out is B diminished. Because thats the last chord built from the C Major key. It contains root, minor 3rd and diminished 5th. And finally you can figure out the key from a chord progression That's what i do I hope that helps.

You can also check my lesson about chords from http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_forum/index.php?showtopic=38273

Dogukan,

Posted by: Daniel Realpe Dec 12 2011, 07:55 PM

Have you seen this video?



The same chord progression can be used in different songs, that just goes to show the importance of melody! imo

Posted by: JTaylor Dec 12 2011, 08:19 PM

Thanks for the response! I think you're right about the last chord...The root is definitely B. Let me see if I can write it out.
E-x-
B-0-
G-2-
D-1-
A-2-
E-x-
It's not the way I've seen Bdim played but maybe it's another version? Thanks again and funny video!