VIm - IV - I - V    ( ...instead of   I - V - VIm - IV )

The VIm - IV - I - V progression is a variation of the I V VIm IV progression (the last two chords are now played in the beginning) and can as well be heard in thousands of hit songs like...

  • Joan Osborne - One Of Us
  • Avicii - Wake Me Up
  • Avril Lavigne - Complicated
  • ...and thousands of other songs*...

The chord progression is shown in the same keys (C, D, E, G and A major) as in the I V VIm IV lesson before.

*) At Wikipedia you can find a list of songs, that contain the I V VIm IV progression or the variation VIm IV I V.

Some new chords

To keep us from getting bored I replaced some chords with others that sound way cooler and some are even easier to play. You can find them in the variations of every key. Some of those chords contain additional tones and therefore are no longer pure major or minor chords.

We don't want to go too deep into theory here, instead you should just try to memorise some of the new chords. You don't even have to remember the new chord symbols, e.g. D(add9). Just look at the chords as a new possibility to replace the major or minor chord that was there before.

In the video the VIm IV I V progression is played through all 12 keys: