Chord & FretPop · axis rotação — Electric guitar
What is the Pop · axis rotação progression?
The Pop · axis rotação progression is Am → F → C → G (vi – IV – I – V), in the key of C. Read as harmonic function it moves tonic → subdominant → tonic → dominant, arriving home on a cadence. Play one chord per bar and let it loop.
Four chords, a whole story: Am (vi, home) → F (IV, the stroll) → C (I, home) → G (V, time to come back). Hit play. First pass, just listen. Second pass, follow with your finger on the names — and notice that by the second-to-last chord, your body already knows C — home — is coming.
Electric guitar
The amplified tone holds each chord for a long time, so a few well-chosen notes keep ringing on their own while you leave room for the rest of the group. This is the electric guitar's home ground: pop, rock, blues, funk and soul were shaped around its sound, whether you strum full chords or play short, tight chord stabs behind the singer. Its home chord C keeps its lowest note on C and rings 2 open strings.
Cadences — Harmony comes to rest here — hear every cadence type and train your ear · see it in Chord & Fret
Save this progression in Chord & Fret♪ The groove underneath is the tresillo: 3+3+2. Count "one-two-three, one-two-three, one-two" tapping your leg and you've found the engine of half the world's pop..
Reharmonize — Want richer substitutions? Reharmonize the progression in a tap · use it in Chord & Fret
Learn each chord of the trip
This is one shape of C. In Chord & Fret, you open every position of all 4 chords in this progression along the neck — on any instrument, and hear each one. Open in Chord & Fret →
Metronome — Drill this change in time, with tap tempo and subdivisions · try it in Chord & Fret
There are many more ways to play this — and they all fit in the Chord & Fret app. One tap on the store and happy playing.