Simple tricks for figuring out chords

A common question when it comes to figure out the chords of a given song is … well … how do we figure them out?

Nowadays, thanks to Internet, you may find nearly any song and its chords just with one click. But let´s say you don´t have an Internet access or the song is pretty obscure and nobody dared uploading the chords to Internet.

So, there we go. First thing, the chords progression are not random, (only in experimental music, but let´s not stray from our path) and there´s always an underlying harmony structure. Problem is, many of us have no idea whatsoever about harmony, so here are two basic tricks:

A - If a song –most popular songs apply- goes like this: opening, verse, chorus, verse, and ends on the chorus, then you have three different parts to learn. Some songs have non-chorus based structure but they are not common in pop music.

B - To figure out the chords, figure out the bassline (this is the key trick). The easiest way is trying to play the bass line on the low E string (la cuerda de Mi grave). Let´s say the bass line is E (Mi)– G (Sol) – A (La) then most likely the chords will be E G A (probably Major, so try first with the Major chords).

Once you have it all figured out, from then onwards, you might try experimenting with the 7^th, the 6^th, the sus2, sus4, whatever … provided that it “sounds” Ok to you.

Once again, in order to do this you don´t need to know anything about harmony, however some basics might be helpful, but it´s up to you -and me by the way :)- to investigate a little bit.

Hope it helps :)