Lesson Tag: rock

Many Rock progressions strip out the distinctive major or minor elements in a chord and only the power-chord remains. This allows for a commanding, driving sound, without sounding too giddy or too sad/depressing.

This is another popular movement in rock. Some popular songs that use this form are “Smoke on the Water” by Deep Purple, and “Cheap Sunglasses” by ZZ Top. Similar to the I-bVII-IV, this progression can be easily transposed up and down the guitar neck, adapting easily to any key you wish.

This awesome sounding progression is seen in tons of the best rock songs. What’s great is that you can learn the I-bVII-IV in open position chords, or you can transpose it and move it around the neck very easily!

Rock didn’t emerge out of nowhere. Instead, it formed out of the blues genre. Because of this, blues and rock are closely related in many ways, sometimes making it hard to tell if a song should be categorized as blues or rock.
Still, rock does have some common distinctions: a lot of rock music has unique riffs or melodies that set it apart from blues. Especially in the 80s and 90s, many of the most popular rock songs had a signature guitar melody/riff; within the first two seconds you knew what song it was – which is almost never the case in blues. Rock also tends to have a driving feel, and it’s usually not as improvisational as the Blues.