Three-chord Song

I–IV–V · The three chords · C major · I–IV–V

Play this pattern

Three-chord Song is a chord pattern you can play in any key. The degrees are I–IV–V.

The most basic three chords there are. They carry folk, rock and nursery songs alike and hold up at fast tempos.

Patterns are common chord moves. They are not the chart of a recorded hit.

Patterns are named by theory. Play them in any key that fits your voice.

Each song page has a chord chart, fingerings, and the same song in every key.

The pattern

I – IV – V

C · F · G

Chord chart

Chord chart
1	C	F	G

How to sing it

With only three chords the melody is nearly free. Sing two bars on the first chord, push once on IV, belt hardest on V and come back round. It stays steady even at 120–160 BPM.

In every key

In every key
Keys	Chord chart
C major · Written in this key	C · F · G
Db major	Db · Gb · Ab
D major	D · G · A
Eb major	Eb · Ab · Bb
E major	E · A · B
F major	F · Bb · C
F# major	F# · B · C#
G major	G · C · D
Ab major	Ab · Db · Eb
A major	A · D · E
Bb major	Bb · Eb · F
B major	B · E · F#

Heard in

La Bamba · Ritchie Valens. In C (C–F–G), the three chords repeating for the whole song. What makes the song is its rhythm and bass pattern more than the chords.
Twist and Shout · The Beatles (originally The Isley Brothers). D–G–A repeating. The stacked-voices build-up near the end is layered vocal harmony, not a chord change, so this pattern cannot reproduce it.
Wild Thing · The Troggs. In A (A–D–E). In practice it comes back to D once more at the end of each lap, closer to I–IV–V–IV.

These songs use this pattern. This is not their chord chart: real recordings differ in key, rhythm and the chords they add.