Basic Theory Every Songwriter Needs to Know: Part 1

You Can Harmonize Any Song With Just 3 Chords

Tom Slater

by Tom Slatter

Three chords and the truth, that’s all you need to play rock and roll, right?

I’m not sure if it is all you need, but it certainly is possible – you can harmonize (almost) any song with just three chords. But which three?

Have a listen to this Ramones song, I wanna be sedated.

It only uses three chords: E A B, and then F# B C#.

Isn’t that six chords? Yes, but it’s also three.

There are two things you need to know for that to make sense: what primary chords are, and how chords can be described with numbers.

Primary Chords

Let’s take a look at the C major scale. The notes in it are:

C D E F G A B

The three chords you would use in this scale are C, F and G. Those chords weren’t chosen at random, there’s a logic to them.

The C chord contains the notes: C E G
The F chord contains the notes: F A C
The G chord contains the notes: G B D

Look closely and you’ll see that every single note in the C major scale occurs in at least one of those chords. So by sticking to just those three chords, not matter what your melody does in that scale, there will be a chord to fit.

The Ramones song starts off in the key of E, so let’s do the same thing, but with E rather than C. The notes in the E major scale are:

E F# G# A B C# D#

The E chord contains the notes: E G# B
The A chord contains the notes: A C# E
The B chord contains the notes: B D# F#

So by using E A and B chords you can fit any melody in E.

But what about the other three chords in the Ramones song?

Chords as Numbers

The three chords we used in the key of C were C F and G. C is the chord built on the first note of the scale. F if the fourth, G is the fifth.

The Ramones used E A and B. E is built on the first note of the E major scale, A on the fourth, B on the fifith.

First Fourth Fifth

Or, in roman numerals: I IV V

I wanna be Sedated changes key halfway through, moving to F sharp, it is uses chords I, IV and V from that scale: F# B and C#.

So even though it changes key, you can still say it’s using the same three chords, just in another key.

All chords can be symbolised with a Roman numeral. So if you say, chord IV in C, you mean and F chord. If you say chord I in F, you still mean an F chord.

In Summary

In summary, we’ve learned:

There are three chords in each key that can fit with any melody in that key.
Those three chords are found on the first, fourth and fifth of the scale.
They can be represented with the symbols I, IV and V.

Just to help you out, here are the three chords you’ll need in all twelve of the major keys:

C:- C F G
G:- G C D
D:- D G A
A:- A D E
E:- E A B
B:- B E F#
F#:- F# B C#
F:- F Bb C
Bb:- Bb Eb F
Eb:- Eb Ab Bb
Ab:- Ab Db Eb
Db:- DB Gb AB

So now you have the three chords, As long as you’ve got the truth as well, rock and roll songwriting is within your grasp.

Tom Slatter is a singer-songwriter, who released his steampunk themed album ‘Spinning the Compass’ in January 2010. He is also author of the www.indiesongwriter.net blog.

Why not follow him on twitter @tomslatter

You can read…

Part 2 of this series here: You Can Harmonize Any Song With Just 3 Chords

Part 3 of this series here: Seventh Chords and How Human Biology is Like Music Theory

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