Most pop songs of any decade can be boiled down to a strong chord progression or two.

This Get Inspired! episode features videos of relatively “clean” hits that aim to stay away from dark topics and the lovey-dovey stuff with a few exceptions. Just couldn’t help it!

As hits ebb and flow, there’s plenty more I could add and some to eventually subtract. I may change things up as time goes by. Some tunes were suggested by my son, others by my students and some have withstood the test of time and are permanent hits that crossover from generation to generation.

Below each video, you’ll find the opening or a popular chord progression of the hit in the original key and then translated into numbers so the piece can be played in any key.

Why an episode featuring pop songs and their chord progressions?

1. The 321 Challenge is an innovative resource found here at LeilaViss.com. It's premise is simple: select 3 musical boundaries that include a popular chord progression, explore the boundaries for 2 minutes, 1x each day. This episode directly correlates with the 321 challenge and gets under the hood of pop songs. It shares the basic chord progressions and encourages you to play along, play by ear and get creative yourself.

2. This quality-controlled collection of pop tunes serves to assist teachers and pianists in their search for appropriate/decent lyrics and pop tunes. They have been student-tested and/or approved.

3. These tunes were chosen because they use standard and sometimes unique chord progressions which offer great teaching and learning opportunities. To really know a chord progression, it’s crucial to understand the chords in relationship to each other and then transpose them to any key. That’s when knowing the numbers or functions of chords within in a key is crucial and that’s why they are supplied below. Watch this tutorial video to learn more.

4. Chord progressions can spur creativity. That’s why you’ll see unique “covers” of some tunes. These artists were inspired and made the tunes their own—that’s what a “cover” is.

5. When you see others create clever covers of hit tunes, it may inspire you to do the same. Perhaps you’ll want to create your own YouTube Channel! That’s just what my student Rylan Montoya did. Make sure to hear his covers and original work and subscribe to his channel here.

BIG TIP! YouTube has a feature that allows you to change the Playback Speed

If you want to play along by ear, you may want to slow the video down to give you more time to process what you hear. That’s when you want to take advantage of YouTube’s playback speed control features.

Slow down YouTube videos on phones

1. Open up a YouTube video and play it.

2. Tap the video while it's playing.

3. Tap the three dots that appear in the right hand corner ⋮

4. Tap Playback Speed.

5. Tap a desired playback speed—slower OR faster.

Radioactive

by Imagine Dragons

Cover by Lindsey Stirling and Pentatonix

To slow down the video, follow this link. 

Original Key is Bm, the video is in Bbm:

Bm D A E

Any key:

1m 3 7 4

Let it Be

by the Beatles