I - IV - V Melodies
by Mike Lindyn
www.GuitarKnowledgenet.com ©2004
The I - IV - V progression
is the most common progression in rock/blues based music. If you know
any songs at all you probably know one with a I – IV –
V progression in it. This could be any song that goes G – C
– D or A – D – E, or a bunch of other simple progressions
like this.
But besides being able
to use this I – IV – V progression with chords you can
also use it with melody lines. Below are two example of the I –
IV – V progression being used in a melody line (though these
are melody lines they could be used to replace a harmony or act as
the harmony).
The first of these examples
is a very common blues rhythm line. This was the first of these I
– IV – V melody lines I learned as a kid. The second example
is a section from a song I wrote that uses this same idea and is based
off the same chords in the same order.
Once you get these down
try to figure out some of your own.
1)
Example
2)
Example