Three Chord Songs
Two and Three chord songs can be a good, easy way for people to practice and play with the idea of playing by ear. In any given major key, there are three chords that are most common. In music theory notation we use roman numerals to identify these I, IV, V (one, four and five). With Just these three chords in a key you can play a large number of familiar tunes. (Sometimes just 2 of these, I and V). So, if we were talking about the key of C Major, these three (primary) chords would be C, F and G major.
So what are some songs you can play with just 2 or three chords?
Silent Night
You are my sunshine
She’ll be coming round the mountain
On Top of Old Smokey
Wildwood Flower
This land is your land
Tom Dooley
Skip to my lou
Go Tell Aunt Rhodie
Clementine
Buffalo Gals
Down in the Valley
and I could go on and on and on and on.
I’ve told my students (as I’ve been told) that you can play literally thousands of songs with just 3 chords. Not all of them are old folk tunes, there are some more recent songs too. One category of songs that you’ll find a lot of 3 chord songs are traditional hymns. (Amazing Grace)
It’s my intent sometime to REALLY start collecting a list of these 2 and 3 hymn songs.
Oh, and if you look close at arrangements of some of the songs that are usually listed as 2 or 3 chord songs you may see some slight variations (notes added to one of the three chords or a different chord that’s not in the list.) These variations are there to spice things up a bit. The main point is that the songs listed can be played (at a minimum) with just 2 or 3 chords.
One trick to trying to play these songs by ear is to play through a C scale and think of the melody of the song, play all three chords and play the scale again and try to figure which tone sounds like where the song should be starting. (Amazing grace starts on G in the key of C). Some lists you find will give you a hint as to which scale degree (the first, second, third note, etc.) the song starts on.
Good luck playing with them and have fun.
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