10 songs you can play with C G Am F chord progression shown on piano:Maroon 5, Shakira, Disney &more

Music can be easier than you think – and one simple chord sequence can go a VERY long way!

Did you know that many famous songs use the same basic chord progression? So you can sing all those songs while playing exactly the same accompaniment on your instrument.

Today we willl look at the 4-chord progression C-G-Am-F (also called do major - sol major – la minor – fa major).

For greater clarity, I am demonstrating it here on the piano, but obviously this will work with any instrument where you can play chords!



Here are the 10 songs used in this video:

1. Girls like you (Maroon 5)

2. Someone like you (Adele)

3. Let it go (Frozen)

4. How far I’ll go (Moana)

5. This time for Africa (Shakira)

6. Country roads (John Denver)

7. With or without you (U2)

8. Take on me (a-ha)

9. Con te partiro’ (Andrea Bocelli)

10. Torn (Natalie Imbruglia)



DISCLAIMER:

For simplicity, I transposed all songs to C major, which sometimes forced me to sing out of my range. Special apologies for my poor Marten Hart impression on #8, I know that was quite terrible!

I occasionally modified some of the original songs chords to stick to the CGAF pattern, as long as they sounded OK!

For songs #3, #8, #9 and #10 only the chorus can be played with the CGAF progression, not the full song.

To make the songs sound more interesting I am occasionally modifying the basic 3-note chords, like octave-doubling the bass note on the left hand, skipping the middle note, creating rhythm patterns… but you could definitely get away with playing the basic 3-note chords all along.



Enjoy!