What Do One, Four And Five Chords Actually Mean?
It’s a bit confusing when guitarists talk about one, four and five as if everyone knows what that means and where it comes from. So in this article I will explain where the numbers come from and what they mean. We will need to cover a bit of theory but I will make it as clear as possible for those of you that know no or very little theory. I have a companion article that you may like to have open in a separate tab which explains theory terms if you find anything confusing or if you want a bit more detail. You can find it here:
Basic Theory For Cigar Box Guitarists
This is the definition of what is meant by one four five chords but I will unpack this as we go through the article.
- The one or I chord is the chord that is the same name as the key of the song.
- The IV or four chord has the same name as the fourth note of the scale.
- The V or five chord has the same name as the fifth note of the scale. This V chord is often played as a 7th chord and is then called the dominant 7th.
If you are using power chords, you do not need to concern yourself with playing 7th chords.
However if you want to know an easy way to play 7th chords based on the 1-finger barre chord shape, this article might be helpful: how-do-i-play-the-7th-chord-on-a-cigar-box-guitar/
A Dictionary Of Musical Terms That are Useful to Know
Any word in this list is explained more fully in the companion article found here:
LINK
- Scale – a set of notes that follows a pattern with respect to pitches
- Key – contains the notes of the scale found within the song
- Key Signature – the flats and sharps found just after the clef, signaling the key of the music
- Octave – eight notes of a scale. A note an octave higher is vibrating at twice the frequency
- Power chords – chords containing the 1st and 5th notes of the scale only
- Scale Note Number – the position of a note within the scale
- Chord – usually at least 3 different notes played together, although power chords only have 2 ( octaves don’t count)
- Major Chord – A chord made of a root note, a major 3rd above that and a perfect fifth above the root
- Minor Chord – A chord made of a root note, a minor 3rd above that and a perfect fifth above the root
- Semitone – The difference in 2 notes that are 1 fret apart
- Tone – the difference in 2 notes that are 2 frets apart
- Interval – the difference in pitch of different notes
The Circle Of Fifths
This is a term that I will explain below and I also include a sheet that you can download and print out to make your own tool. I explain it in my YouTube video linked at the foot of this page.
Is The Fret Number The Same As The Scale Note Number?
Pressing down on the fret of a particular string on the guitar raises the pitch of that string by a semitone for each fret. This has nothing to do with the scale note number.
This is a very important concept for cigar box guitarists because when we talk about the one four five chords this has nothing to do with fret numbers.
What Are The One Four Five Chords In The Key Of G?
| ONE | FOUR | FIVE | |||||
| G | A | B | C | D | E | F# | G |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII |
The table above shows the names of the notes of the scale of G Major and the corresponding number.
G is the first note of the scale, C the fourth and D the fifth. The chords that are based on these notes are known as the I IV V chords ( one, four and five)
These 3 chords act as a family of chords that fit within a song and they each have a slightly different function:
The I or 1 chord is the home chord – the song feels finished when we play it – like the end of a verse or the end of the whole song.
The V or 5 chord is the heading home chord – the song feels unfinished when we play it. We are being pushed towards the I or home chord
The IV or 4 chord is somewhere between the 2. It doesn’t feel settled like the I or home chord and it’s not got quite the same unfinished feel as the V or 5 chord
How Do I Know What Chords To Play In A Song?
There are a number of choices we can make to decide what chords to use but probably the simplest way to use 3 chords in a song is to use the one, four, five or I IV V pattern of chords.
Suppose the song is in the key of G. The last note is G and the last chord is G but if you played the chord of G through the whole song it wouldn’t sound actually wrong but it would sound very boring.
I’ll try an analogy here:
Imagine a train going along on a track. It’s getting from the start to the finish but it’s just one track. Suppose we could divert to another track for a bit for a bit of interest. We want to make sure we can get back on the right track so we need to pick the alternative track carefully.
In the same way, when we choose another chord to play in a song it needs to be one that we can easily get back from. Sticking to the I IV and V chords helps us to easily get back.
This is all to do with the way that scales work together, but we don’t need to go in to that amount of theory here.
How Do I Know What Chord To Play At A Particular Point Of A Song?
The chord needs to sound pleasing with the note of the song that we are playing. This doesn’t mean that the note we are playing has to be part of that chord. This would end up sounding very clumsy if we repeated it all the way through and would also require a lot of chord changes.
If you don’t want to get bogged down by matching chords to notes by looking at the actual notes being played you can just use your ears.
I’ve already said that the I chord often starts and ends the song and the V chord is often played just before the end of the song or verse. The IV chord fits somewhere between.
So if you are trying to work out chords for a particular song:
- start and end with the I chord
- try putting the VII chord just before the last I chord
- try the IV chord every time you feel that the I chord doesn’t sound quite right
- go back to the I chord when the IV chord doesn’t sound right
If you start out with this, you will soon find that you are able to pick out chord patterns from your favorite songs.
Adding Minor Chords To The I, IV, V Chord Progression
The I, IV and V chords will get you a long way to playing simple versions of your favorite songs, but there will come a point when you want to add in the interest that comes from adding minor chords.
We need to add the relative minors of the chords. For G, C and D these are E minor, A minor and B minor and not G, C and D minor which are the parallel minors.
Relative minors have the same key signature as their relative Major keys.
| Key Signature | F# | No sharps or flats | F# and C# |
| Major Keys/Chords | G Major | C Major | D Major |
| Relative minor Keys/Chords | E minor | A minor | B minor |
When we use Roman numerals for the Major keys we use upper case Roman Numerals but for minor keys we use lower case like this:
| G Major | A minor | B minor | C Major | D Major (or 7th) | E minor |
| I | ii | iii | IV | V | vi |
This is why you might see something like a I IV V vi progression.
In this example in the key of G that just means G Major, C Major, D Major ( or 7th) and E minor.
I IV V Power Chord Progressions – The Simplest Way To Start
If you are using 1- finger barre chords, here is a handy graphic that you can download to see which 3 chords you need for each key and where these are found on the fretboard:
Common I IV V Chord Families With Their Relative Minor Chords
The table below shows you which 3 chords go together to make up the I IV V chord progression for common keys.
For completeness I have also included the ii and vi minor chords. Bear in mind that you only need to use these minor chords if you feel the need arises.
Many songs- 1000s of songs, maybe millions- can be played with just the I IV and V. If you need to add an extra chord to get the sound how you want, first try adding the minor vi. Adding the minor ii gives you 5 chords which will usually be ample for beginner players. The minor iii gives you a complete family of I IV V and their relative minors:
The Circle Of Fifths
This is a circular version of related chords that is made by placing all 12 keys that are available in a circle in the order that gives an interval of a fifth between each root note. An inner circle contains the related minor keys.
This is a really useful tool to work out related chords and below I include a PDF that you can print out. It even allows you to make a cardboard version that spins to reveal related chords at a glance.
For those of you that like to use 1- finger power chords there is even a version that includes fret numbers:
YouTube Lesson
I have a video lesson explaining all about I IV and V :