"Three Chords and the Truth”…Harlan Howard, the Nashville songwriting legend, coined this phrase when describing country music. The “Truth” part was probably inferring to the fact that country music is predominantly driven by lyrics that bespeak and mirror real life.

The “Three Chords” part makes reference to the abundance of country songs (as well as rock and blues songs) that are written using only three chords in the whole song. Many of those songs are based on the I, IV, V chord progression, the granddaddy of chord progressions.

Why is all this I, IV, V stuff so important? Because the I, IV, V chord progression is something that you will be playing a lot, especially if you are playing rock, country or blues. From the early days of rock and roll you have heard this progression in early classics like “Johnny B. Goode” by Chuck Berry and “You Ain’t Nothin’ But a Hound Dog” by Elvis.

The I, IV, V is the veritable foundation of the blues and rock and roll. The standard “12 bar blues” is based on this progression and the list of hit songs written over the years using the I, IV, V goes on and on, and on…and on! Songs by the Stones, Hendrix, Clapton, Stevie Ray, Willie Nelson, Keith Urban, VanHalen and just about everyone in between. Just turn on the radio and you can still hear its influence today.


So what the heck is this I, IV, V thing anyway? Well if we think back to our grade school days and the lessons we learned on Roman Numerals we will discover the first piece to this puzzle. In Roman Numerals, the I stands for 1, the IV stands for 4 and the V stands for 5. So we are simply talking about a 1, 4, 5 chord progression.

The mechanics of the I, IV, V chord progression are not that complicated and once you understand them, you will be playing them in your sleep. The 1, 4 and 5 refer to the steps in the musical scale. If you are taking guitar lessons you will have learned that there are 8 steps in a scale from root to octave and each one of those steps is given a number (1 through 8, no less). Here is an example of a “C” major scale so we can see how this pans out:

C - 1

D - 2

E - 3

F - 4

G - 5

A - 6

B - 7

C - 8

Looking at this example, if we want to determine what the I, IV, V chord progression would be in the key of C, all we would have to do is look at which chords are at the 1st, 4th and 5th steps in the C scale. In this case, the I (1) chord is the C (the root chord), the IV (4) is the F chord, and the V (5) is the G chord.

So if you are playing with a band and someone says “let’s play a 1, 4, 5 in C”, you now know that you will be playing a song that has a C chord, an F chord and a G chord or a C, F, G progression.

Now what if they say “let’s play a I, IV, V in G”? Simple, we just look at a G major scale and count the steps:

G - 1

A - 2

B - 3

C - 4

D - 5

E - 6

F# - 7

G - 8

We can quickly see that if we are playing a I, IV, V in G, we will be playing a G chord (the root), a C chord (the 4), and a D chord (the 5), or a G, C, D progression.

One of the reasons that the I, IV, V chord progression is so popular is that it is instantly recognizable and familiar to the listener. In the I, IV, V there is a natural tendency for the I chord to want to transition to the IV chord. It is pleasing to the ear and just feels right. In addition, when the song progresses to the (5) chord it has a tendency to naturally resolve back to the (1) chord again bringing closure to the progression.

Many songs use the I, IV, V as its basis and expand using some other popular variations that you will recognize. Alternate chords such as a VI (6) minor, or III (3) minor, or a II (2) chord add extra flavor to the standard three chord turnaround. The “Nashville Number System” was devised many years ago so that studio musicians could chart out songs using only numbers (such as 1, 4 & 5). This way when they went into the studio they could easily read the chart and transpose the song into whatever key was best for the singer without having to re-write the chart alphabetically. The Nashville Number System is still heavily in use today and something we will dig deeper into in a later discussion.


If you are taking guitar lessons now you may be thinking that having to memorize all the steps in all the scales to figure out how to play a I, IV, V is something that doesn’t sound very exciting to you. Believe me when I say that it’s not my cup of tea either but don’t worry. There is an easy, fool proof way to know exactly what to play no matter what key you are in.

As you progress from guitar lessons to playing with a band you will invariably encounter situations where you get on stage and someone announces that you will be playing a I, IV, V in a certain key. Don’t panic, all you really need to know is the notes on one string of the guitar and what a I, IV, V looks like on the fret board. Once you know the pattern you can play it virtually anywhere on the guitar.

If you know the notes on the low E (6th) string of the guitar you can easily figure out where the root note of the I (1) chord is. You may remember that the notes on your E string ascend chromatically as follows:


E  F  F#  G  G#  A  A#  B  C  C#  D  D#  E


This can be made even simpler by realizing that 90% (unofficially) of songs played on guitar are in the keys of E, G, A, C and D. And to a lesser degree, B and F. This is not a hard rule and it is not uncommon to see songs written for horn parts or jazz tunes to be in sharp of flat keys, but for the most part you will play in these major keys.

As this relates to our memorization of the notes on the E string, the open string is, of course, E. The note on the 1st fret is F. The note on the 3rd fret where there is usually a fret marker is G. The note on the 5th fret where there is usually a fret marker is A. Two frets up from that (7th) at the next fret marker is B. The next (8th) fret up is C. Two frets up from that at the (10th) fret, where there is usually a fret marker is D. And two frets up from that puts you back at E (12th fret).

If you will think of these notes on the E string in terms of where they are in relation to the fret markers you will quickly remember them and, in addition, you will easily be able to slide up or down a fret if you need to go to a sharp or flat key.

Once you have a handle on the notes on the E string all you need to know is the pattern of a I, IV, V chord progression on the fret board. No matter what note you are starting on as the root chord on your low E string, the root of the IV (4) chord is always the note directly adjacent to it on the 5th string. Then, in turn, the root of the V (5) chord is always the note two frets up the same (5th) string from the IV (4) chord.


A lot of guitar playing is about playing in patterns and another way to find your I, IV, V chord progression is by memorizing the pattern of major scale starting on the low E or 6th string. Regardless of what key you are playing in, the pattern is always the same. By knowing the names of the notes on the 6th string you can just play the major scale from the root note of the key you want to be in and just count the steps in the scale to find your 1st, 4th and 5th steps. It’s really that simple!

So as long as you know how to find the first note of the first chord on your low E string you can play a I, IV, V progression virtually anywhere on the guitar in any key. And if you’re really feeling froggy you can memorize the notes on the A (5th) string as well and then you will be able to name all the chords in a I, IV, V chord progression just by looking at the fret board.

Go ahead and grab your guitar and mess around with some I, IV, V progressions, get used to the sound of it, learn some of the classics and write a few of your own. Now, no matter where you are, no matter who you’re playing with, you can nail a I, IV, V chord progression with the confidence of a pro and experience first hand…Three Chords and the Truth!”

Staff - TopMusicLessons.com