Find 1-6-4-5 and 1-6-2-5 Chords Anywhere on the Neck
In Episode 5 we played the 1-4-5 progression around the circle of 4ths. Episode 7 of Play ANY Guitar Chord adds one more chord, the 6, to make the classic 1-6-4-5 progression. It was used in a lot of 1950s songs, and while researching this episode I found that “Every Breath You Take” by The Police is built on it too.
What I cover:
- The 1-6-4-5 progression with Nashville numbers
- The 1-6-2-5 variation
- Finding the chord roots with the root on the 6th, 5th or 4th string
- Using CAGED shapes to play the progressions up and down the neck
- Moving through every key around the circle of 4ths
In the key of C, 1-6-4-5 is C, Am, F and G. The 6 chord is minor. In the 1-6-2-5 version, the 4 chord is swapped for its relative minor, which is the 2 chord, so you play C, Am, Dm and G and back to C.
Once you know where the 4 and 5 are from Episode 5, the 6 is easy to find. With the root on the 5th string, the 6 chord is two strings over and one fret back, or one string back and two frets over. From a C-shape chord, the relative minor is three frets back. I show the same idea with the root on the 6th and 4th strings.
Then I go around the circle of 4ths. Playing the 1 chord as a dominant 7th leads you into the next key, so C7 takes you to F, F7 to B♭, then E♭, A♭ and on through all 12 keys. There aren’t that many variations to learn, and working through them also helps you memorize the neck.
The practice backing track for this episode runs in JjazzLab, and the YouTube description says the download and PDF chord charts are coming soon. In the meantime, the Episode 5 and Episode 6 pages have JjazzLab files for practicing around the circle of 4ths. New to JjazzLab? See How to Use JjazzLab.
Working on the 2-5 part? My free 2-5-1 Chords chart (PDF) shows ii7-V7-Imaj7 grips with the ii7 root starting on each string.