Myth - All Songs Can Be Played With Just Three Chords

I often heard this myth from friends and fellow guitarists when I was first learning to play the guitar. It has become an urban legend and I still hear this assertion every now and then. This myth promoted the idea that if you learned just the C(Maj), F(Maj) and G(Maj) chords you could play any song. Early on however I saw through this false promise and found that this myth works only in one scenario. If the song is being performed by musicians who are all playing the actual chords of the song, it is possible for another musician to follow along playing C(Maj), F(Maj) and G(Maj) and it would sound like the musician playing just three chords was playing the whole song. However, if the same musican played the song all alone with the same three chords it would be exposed that just three chords on their own are not good enough to convey the whole song.

Chords are like words. The larger the vocabulary of chords we know, the more colorful musical statements we can make. In fact, there are some Chord Progressions that have a lot of historical significance. They are easily recognized and found in many popular songs. One such progression is the D(Maj), B(Min7), G(Maj), A(Maj) sequence. You could try as hard as you like and if you used only D(Maj), G(Maj), and A(Maj) you would not be able to reproduce the same mood and emotion that is invoked when all four chords are played.

There is a path to learning to play chords and that is by exploring many chords. As you learn more chords you will begin to hear them as you listen to your favorite music and you will be able to use them to construct your own original chord progressions.