Voice Leading I vi ii V with Triads

The “I vi ii V” progression is one of the most common chord progressions in modern music. How common? Let’s assume that it’s in the top ten, and that it can be heard in thousands of popular songs.

In this lesson, we’re going to use our closed-position triads to play through every possible way to execute this progression on guitar using closed triads.

Since there are 12 closed triads for each chord, that leaves 12 possibilities. We’ll explore the first four here, and you’ll do the rest on your own.

I-vi-ii-V on Bottom Three

C

A-

D-

G

C

A-

D-

G

C

A-

We ran out of space; let’s jump the next one down an octave.

D-

G

C

Back to where we started!

Key Exercises

• Time to apply it. Repeat the entire above exercise on your own, on string sets 543, 432, and 321. You’re the boss now.
• Spell those notes! Play the first chord. Spell the notes. Know what the notes are. Now, what are the notes in the next chord? Spell them! Visualize them! Move to the next chord using the least possible amount of movement.