What Chords Are In The Four Chord Song? How To Play It In Any Key
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The ‘Four chord song’ is a medley performed by an Australian comedy group where snippets from a whole host of famous songs are sung over the top of the exact same chord progression. Here’s the chords they used:
The 4 chords used by Axis of awesome in ‘the four chord song’ are D, A, B min and G. The key is D Major. In a live video, they played it in E Major using the chords E, B, C# min and A. These are the I, V, vi and IV chords of a major key. Using these chord numbers, you can play this in any key.
Learning the chord numbers, (commonly notated with roman numerals) is the best way to really understand what chords are being used here. It’s how you can make sense of why these songs, originally written in different keys with ‘different’ chords, are actually using the same type of chord progression and how the band were able to merge them into one key.
Let me explain what they did and how to assign numbers or roman numerals to chords because this concept is incredibly useful for musicians to learn. Using this system, you can change the key of any song too.
Below is also a list of this four chord progression in all 12 major keys so you can play in the key of your choice.
What Chords Did Axis Of Awesome Play In The Four Chord Song?
The main studio version
Their main studio version of the four chord song was recorded in the key of D major. They use the I, V, vi and IV chords, which in this key are D major, A major, B minor and G major. Read on to learn how those numbers work. At first, they play them in a 4 measure (bar) loop. Each chord gets 1 measure like this:
After singing many famous melodies that fit over this cycle such as ‘I’m yours’, ‘where is the love’ and ‘Take me home, country roads’, they change things up a bit. They’re playing the same chord sequence still, but this time, each chord only gets half a measure:
This makes it feel twice as fast and gives them a whole bunch of other melodies that will now fit over the quicker chord changes such as ‘No woman no cry’ and ‘save tonight’. Towards the end, they revert back to the first pattern.
You can watch how to play this on piano in the key of D major in this short clip:
The popular live video on YouTube
On this live version, they performed the song in the key of E major instead (A whole step higher). Now, they needed to use the I, V, vi and IV chords from that key instead which are E major, B Major, C# minor and A major.
They just applied these chords to the same structure, 1 chord per measure for the first section:
And 2 chords per measure for the 2nd section:
Moving something to another key is called transposing. You can watch how to play this on piano in the key of E major in this short clip:
But how were they able to sing so many songs over these chords? Read on to find out but first here’s the chords for the four chord song in all 12 keys for your reference.
The Four Chord song Chord In Every Key
| Key | I | V | vi | IV |
| C Major | C | G | A min | F |
| G Major | G | D | E min | C |
| D Major | D | A | B min | G |
| A Major | A | E | F# min | D |
| E Major | E | B | C# min | A |
| B Major | B | F# | G# min | E |
| F# Major | F# | C# | D# min | B |
| Db Major | Db | Ab | Bb min | Gb |
| Ab Major | Ab | Eb | F min | Db |
| Eb Major | Eb | Bb | C min | Ab |
| Bb Major | Bb | F | G min | Eb |
| F Major | F | C | D min | Bb |
What Are the Four Chords Used In Most Pop Songs?
As displayed in the four chord song, there are many examples of successful pop songs using the same chord progression as each other. It’s not usually the entire song, typically it’s just one of the main sections, either the verse or the chorus. Of course, there’s plenty of other things to set them apart like the melody, lyrics, rhythms, the arrangement and other patterns or embellishments over the chords but the underlying basic structure of the harmony is the same.
The famous four chords used in many pop song progressions are the I, V, vi and IV chords of a major key. The roman numerals represent the numbers of the major scale we begin a chord from (1, 5, 6, 4) so in C major this would be C, G, Amin, F or in G major it would be G, D, Emin, C.
This is the most common sequence of those chords and the one used in ‘the four chord song’ but people are sometimes referring to other songs that may use those chords in another order, for example, I, IV, vi, V (1,4,6,5).
This is where we have to stop thinking about specific chords and start thinking about where those chords fit inside the key. Many pop songs that use similar chord progressions are all in a variety of keys.
This means that although they may appear as 2 completely different progressions, by referring to each set of chords using their chord numbers, we can reveal how the pattern of the chord movement is the same, using the same sequence of numbers. We can recognize how 2 progressions that use different chords by name, may essentially be the same thing, the same pattern just played in a higher or lower key.
How To Number The Chords In A Major Key
First, we need to number the notes of a major scale. The starting note of the scale (the root) is number 1, then we just continue through the rest of the notes 2,3,4,5,6 and 7.Here’s a few examples of what that looks like in different keys.
In the key of C major
| C | D | E | F | G | A | B |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
Or in the key of G major
| G | A | B | C | D | E | F# |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
Or D major
| D | E | F# | G | A | B | C# |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
When we begin a chord from a particular note of the scale, we can give that chord the same number. If we were in the key of C and play a G major chord, that would be chord number 5 (because G is the 5th note of the C major scale).
Chord number 5 in the key of G major would be D major (because D is the 5th note of the G major scale).
Chord number 5 in the key of D major would be A major (because A is the 5th note of the D major scale)
Roman Numerals
We then tend to use roman numerals instead of regular numbers and commonly, upper case to represent a major chord and lower case to represent minor. Chord 7 is diminished and for that we use lower case with this symbol next to it. o
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| I | ii | iii | IV | V | vi | viio |
Let’s compare the chord progressions of 3 songs in a different one of these 3 keys:
Song 1: C, G, A min, F
In the key of C major, these letters are numbers 1, 5, 6, and 4 (I, V, vi, IV)
Song 2: G, D, E min, C
In the key of G major, these letters are numbers 1, 5, 6, and 4 (I, V, vi, IV)
Song 3: D, A, B min, G
In the key of D major, these letters are numbers 1, 5, 6, and 4 (I, V, vi, IV)
The 3 chord progressions all appear to be different but if we assign numbers, we can spot a consistent pattern. They all use the same sequence of chord numbers.
Each of these chords actually has a function and a particular sound within the key because we’re hearing the relationships between notes and chords. Without getting too theory heavy in this post, the easiest one to understand is chord I. When you finish a song or piece of music by going to chord I, it sounds resolved, at rest and at home. That’s true of every key so in the key of C major, the C major chord sounds like home or in the key of D major, the D major chord sounds like home. Chord I is also called the tonic.
Essentially then, if you play the same sequence of chord numbers in any key, whilst the sound will not be ‘exactly’ the same because of the range, we can hear the same pattern of the movement between the chords because they are moving the same distances.
Watch this short video clip to hear these concepts for yourself:
This is how axis of awesome were able to find many songs with seemingly different chords and realise that sections of those songs were actually using the same underlying structure. They were all using the I, V, iv, IV sequence. Well, the band weren’t the first to notice this but they were the ones to make a funny performance out of it.
They then made the comparison obvious for an audience of non musicians by playing the sequence in only one key with just a simple, constant rhythm to strip out any other distinctive features of each song. The melody of each of the songs they sang would then naturally fit over the top. The melodies are just a pattern inside the scale too and so that pattern can also just be repeated in any other key and sound the same (albeit a little higher or lower)
Which type of chord should start from each number?
It is actually possible to start different types of chord from each of the numbers, some will stay in the key (only use notes from the scale) and you can also change chords to use notes out of the key too sometimes. Notes that stay inside the key, or the scale you’re using, are called diatonic and notes that go outside the key are called non-diatonic.
When people just say a chord number though and don’t specify anything else afterwards, there is a particular thing they’re referring to. They’re talking about the triad (3 note chord) formed by playing in 3rds from whichever number you start from. This essentially just means every other note in the scale until you have 3 notes. (Although in Jazz and a few other settings, people commonly assume you will play a 7 chord starting from that same number which have 4 notes)
For example, in the key of C major, starting from the 6th note (A) you would play A, skip B, play C, skip D and then play E. This gives you an A minor chord which is chord number 6 in this key:
In the key of G major starting from the 5th note (D), you would play D, skip E, play F#, skip G and then play A. This gives you a D major chord which is chord number 5 in this key.
Major chords use a root, major 3rd and perfect 5th, minor chords use a root, minor 3rd and perfect 5th. To learn more about building major and minor chords using intervals, you can watch this video here on the piano from scratch YouTube Channel.
Because every major scale is the same pattern or spacing of notes to begin with, (that’s why they’re all the same type of scale and have the same sound) the types of chords we create like this will be exactly the same for each number of the scale in every major key. For example, chord 1 is always major, chord 6 is always minor and so on.
Here’s the full sequence of the chord types in a major key:
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| Major | Minor | Minor | Major | Major | Minor | Diminished |
A diminished chord is almost like a minor chord, except it has a diminished 5th (flat 5) instead of a perfect 5th.
Check out this in depth PDF and learn all about chords step by step through 18 detailed breakdowns of common types of chord (plus more) – Includes clear graphics, helpful patterns & formulas plus simplified theory (see inside below).
And if you’re wondering about what equipment you may need to help get the best out of your practice, feel free to check out the recommended gear page.
In reality, pop music has obviously used a lot of other chord progressions too and this four chord progression is sometimes used to disparage the genre and claim it all sounds the same. It has appeared quite a lot though, the Beatles used it in ‘Let it be’ too and it has been responsible for a fair few number 1 hits.
