Chords That Sound Good Together: 8 Easy Sets for Beginners

Chords sound good together when they come from the same key, because every one of them is built from that key’s seven notes and none brings in a note that fights the others. The eight sets below are ready to play, each in an easy key: three-chord songs in C and G major, four-chord loops in D and F major, minor sets in A, E and D minor, and one set that borrows a chord from outside the key. Within each set, any chord can follow any other without a clash.

How to know what chords go together (the one rule)

Pick a key, then use only the chords built from that key’s notes. These are called the diatonic chords of the key, and every major key has seven of them in the same order of major, minor and diminished. Here they are in C major:

Many pairs share notes: C and Am share C and E, and F and Dm share F and A. F and G share nothing, yet F to G still sounds right, because neither adds a note from outside the key. A few habits make the rule work from day one:

• Start and end on chord I, the home chord. Chord V pulls back toward it.
• Build on the three major chords (I, IV and V) first, then add vi when you want a sadder color.
• Leave vii° out for now. The diminished chord is tense and hard to place, so none of the sets below use it.

The Roman numerals are the useful part: the same pattern gives you the chords of every key, and the chords in C major page and its 23 siblings spell each one out. Pick a key in the free online chord player and its pads become that key’s chords, so you can tap along with any set that stays inside its key. Gelato Chord is built on the same rule, with seven keys that always play the seven chords of the key you choose, each labeled with its name, so those sets sit under your thumb with no shapes to learn.

3 chords that sound good together

Chords I, IV and V are the three major chords of any major key, and between them they contain every note of the scale. That is enough harmony for folk, country, the 12-bar blues and a great deal of early rock and roll.

1. C, F and G (C major: I, IV, V). Best on piano. Every note is a white key: C E G, F A C and G B D. To keep your right hand in one place, play F as C F A and G as B D G. From C, the F shape moves two fingers up a step and the G shape moves two fingers down a step. Loop C, F, C, G at one chord per bar, or pick C major in the chord player and tap “Three-chord song”. On guitar the full F is a barre chord, so beginners often use Fmaj7 (xx3210) instead, which sounds a little softer.

2. G, C and D (G major: I, IV, V). Best on guitar. The same three numbers moved up to G, and one reason guitarists play in G so often: all three are open chords. Add Em as a fourth chord when the loop needs a shadow, and play D7 (xx0212) in place of D when you want a stronger pull back to G. The chords in G major page has the rest of the key, including the F#dim you can skip for now.

4 chords that sound good together

Add chord vi to I, IV and V and you have the four chords behind a huge number of pop songs. The order sets the mood: starting on I sounds bright, and starting on vi sounds wistful.

3. D, A, Bm and G (D major: I, V, vi, IV). Guitar and ukulele. This is the pop four, one chord per bar at 80 to 120 BPM. Bm is the only barre chord on guitar; the four-string shape xx4432 gets you there without the full barre. In the chord player, pick D major and tap “The pop four”. Start the same loop on Bm (Bm, G, D, A) and it turns sad without changing a single chord.

4. F, Dm, Bb and C (F major: I, vi, IV, V). Ukulele and piano. The doo-wop order (“Doo-wop” in the chord player), also called the ’50s progression and the “Heart and Soul” chords, after the Frank Loesser and Hoagy Carmichael song. On ukulele, F (2010) to Dm (2210) adds just one finger, and Bb (3211) is the one stretch, with your first finger flat across the E and A strings at the 1st fret. On piano, Bb is the only black key (Bb D F). Guitarists can put a capo on the 3rd fret and play the four shapes from set 3 in the order D, Bm, G, A, which sound as F, Dm, Bb and C.

Minor chords that sound good together

A minor key follows the same rule with its own pattern: i, ii°, III, iv, v, VI, VII. A minor uses exactly the same seven chords as C major, because the two keys share one set of notes. A set sounds sad or happy depending on which chord it treats as home.

Minor keys have one standard exception. The v chord (Em in A minor) only pulls home gently, so songs often play a major V instead (E, with a G#). That G# comes from the harmonic minor scale, and the minor key pages list both versions.

5. Am, F, C and G (A minor: i, VI, III, VII). Piano and guitar. The chords in A minor are the white-key chords of C major, so this is the pop four in C started on Am. The chord player calls it “Epic minor”, and with the Pad sound switched on it lives up to the name. For a darker three-chord set, try Am, Dm and E: the G# in E major leans hard back into Am.

6. Em, C and D, plus B7 (E minor: i, VI, VII, V7). Best on guitar. Em, C and D are among the first chords guitarists learn, and Em, C, D, Em climbs back home with a rock sound (the player’s “Rock minor”). Add G for a four-chord loop, Em, C, G, D. At the end of a line, play B7 (x21202): its D# sits a half step under E and pulls straight up to it. The chords in E minor page shows the whole key with 7ths.

7. Dm, C, Bb and A (D minor: i, VII, VI, V). Piano, guitar and ukulele. Walk down one chord at a time and you get the Andalusian cadence, named after the flamenco music of southern Spain and heard in “Hit the Road Jack”. In A minor the same walk is Am, G, F, E. The last chord here is A major, borrowed from D harmonic minor for its C#, which tips the loop back into Dm. The chord player has it as “Andalusian cadence” when D minor is selected.

The last set goes the other way: a minor chord slipping into a major key.

8. C, F and a borrowed Fm (C major: I, IV, iv). Best on piano. A borrowed chord comes from the minor key with the same root, and this is the easiest one to hear. Play C, F, Fm, C. From F (F A C) to Fm (F Ab C), one finger slides down to a black key, and the chord turns from warm to bittersweet. Two more chords borrowed from C minor, Ab (Ab C Eb) and Bb (Bb D F), climb back to C as Ab, Bb, C, a bright, heroic ending for a song. The chord player’s pads stick to the seven chords of each key, so try this set on a keyboard or a guitar (Fm is a full barre).

What chords go together on piano, guitar and ukulele

The rule is the same on every instrument; only the easy keys change.

Piano. C major and A minor use only white keys, and G major and F major add one black key each (F# and Bb). Play the root with your left hand and the three-note chord with your right, choosing the version of each chord (its inversion) that sits closest to where your hand already is. That habit is called voice leading, and it is why the set 1 loop sounds smooth: no finger moves more than a whole step.

Guitar. In G, D, A and E major, chords I, IV and V are all open shapes (G C D, D G A, A D E, and E A B7). For any other key, a capo moves a set you already know: capo 3 turns set 2’s G, C and D into Bb, Eb and F.

Ukulele. C major and A minor are the friendliest keys, because C, Am, F and G are the usual first four uke shapes. G major (G, C, D, Em) comes next, and F major is easy until you reach Bb.

The shapes for all eight sets, in one place. Guitar shapes read from the low E string to the high E string (x means do not play that string), and ukulele shapes from the G string to the A string:

When a change sounds jumpy or feels slow, find the notes the two chords share and leave those fingers where they are. On guitar, C (x32010) to Am (x02210) keeps your first and second fingers in place and moves only the third, from the A string to the G string.