Chord Progressions/Cadences Every Rock Guitarist Should Know?

Harmony & Theory
#1

What progressions/cadences should I work on as a Blues/Rock/Neo-Classical guitarist? In Jazz you have standards filled with chord progressions to work on as well as working out licks for ii-V-I cadences but it’s less obvious to me what to work on in Blues/Rock/Neo-Classical music outside of learning to play the changes of a Blues and a Minor Blues.

I’m really trying to work on my improvisation at the moment, break out of mindless playing and work on confidently playing the changes. I feel like I’ve maybe had an unrealistic standard for myself in the past, throwing on a random backing track where I don’t the know chords and hoping to sound good when a Jazz musician might spend months (or you could say, even the rest of their lives) working on specific standards and learning the chords inside and out. I’m thinking getting more familiar with progressions I’m likely to hear might help me out to a point where I may be able to chuck on a random backing track and actually be happy with my playing! :slight_smile:

#2

Why not pick out a bunch of songs you like and treat them like a jazz guy would treat a standard? Really learn them inside and out - not just the guitar parts, but the vocal melody, the bass, the keys if they’re applicable, etc. Find or make an instrumental version of the track and write new melodies, lots of things you could do.

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#3

Great idea, thank you! This actually got me thinking, what do they tend to jam together at G3? Maybe I could view some of those songs as rock standards :grinning:

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#4

I’ve definitely seen them do this more than once:

I think if you got real comfortable with some bluesy rock stuff like this, and some Yngwie tunes, most of the general rock bases would be covered.

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#5

That’s the one I was going to mention. and in case any of us are feeling particularly great about our own playing, this is cued up to place that should give us some humility :slight_smile:

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#6

I’d thought Going Down was a Freddie King song, but it was actually written by a guy named Don Nix, and first recorded by a band called Moloch. Here’s that version:

And a long vid featuring some history and a version with Don Nix:

So you could, with all the quite different-sounding recordings of this song, call Going Down a “rock standard” for sure.

In fact, now that I think about it, the biggest “well, of course” answer to the original question would just be to look at what the typical “plays all the old rock hits” cover band does (which is kinda huge here in NY, not sure about elsewhere).

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#7

I beleive Jeff Beck also played it on one of his albums.

#8

Indeed he did. Lots of people have recorded it, apparently.

https://secondhandsongs.com/work/31518/all