In this lesson, I go over the skill of simplifying songs. Understanding this concept will help you to get the most use out of the 18 chords we're learning here.
So how do you replace chords that you don't know with the 18 essential chords? Here are the main steps to go over.
Key Of A Song
The first step to simplifying songs is to figure out what key the song is in. Some chord charts you find online will say at the top of the song which key the song is in. But if it doesn't, you'll have to figure it out on your own.
In most cases the very first chord of the song will be the key of the song, like in "You Are My Sunshine" or "Paradise". However, you will run across some songs where this isn't the case, like in "In The Air Tonight" which begins with the C#m chord, or "Feeling Good" which begins with the Em7 chord.
One fault proof way to know is to look at all the chords of the song and figure out which chord family all (or at least most) of them fit into.
For example, "In The Air Tonight" has the 3 chords C#m, Bsus, and A2. The only chord family that contains all three of these chords is the E chord family. Same with "Feeling Good", which has the chords Em7, G, Cadd9, Bm7, and Am7. The G chord family alone has all of these chords in it.
Note: As I mentioned in the overview at the beginning of this course, I am using variations for many of these chords. So if you find a chord chart online in the key of G, it may show a C instead of Cadd9 or a D instead of D/F#. Those can simply be replaced with the variations I've shown you. You can refer to the "Course Overview" lesson for a review of the difference between the variations you've learned here and their traditional counterparts.
Closest Relative
Once you've found the key of a song, the next step is to determine which chords are not part of the family. So if you're trying to play a song in the key of G and come across an A chord, what do you do?
Ask yourself "What chord in the G chord family is nearest to the A chord?" Obviously it would be the Am7, which shares the same root (A). At this point, try and switch out the A with the Am7, play the song and see how it sounds. Most of the time, you'll find that it works.
However, there will be times that switching out chords changes the song too drastically for your liking, or that it simply can't be done without completely butchering the song. In that case, it's time to add a new chord to your library. With thousands of possible chords to play, you'll eventually want to expand your knowledge of them as you master the beginning stages. So good luck to you and happy guitaring!!