Joe,

I'm going to take a stab at this and hope that you can follow me. I'm going to show you one really elementary thing that, if you understand, you can apply to all songs.

You mentioned playing in the key of "G", so that's what I'll use for this illustration.

In the key of "G", your scale (do, re, mi, fa, etc.) is G, A, B, C, D, E, F#, G. I'm going to assume that you're with me so far.

For REALLY easy songs, USUALLY (I'm out on a climb here...) the chords you will use in the key of "G" are your G major chord, your C major chord, and your D major chord. These three chords coorespond in your scale as the 1st (G major or do -- as in do, re, mi -- the first note in the G scale), your 4th (C major or fa -- the 4th note in the scale), and your 5th (D major or sol -- the 5th note in the scale). 1st, 4th, and 5th; or I, IV, and V.

Recapping: key of "G"....a really easy song will use the following three chords: G major, C major and D major. Why? Because typically, a song will utilize the 1st, 4th and 5th chords of the scale. (NOT ALWAYS!)

How do we use them, though? How do we know when to change and to which chord at what time? Good questions, Joe! There are no fixed rules, but there are patterns that you will see repeatedly. Let's take the song "Pack Up Your Sorrows" by Richard Farina (hopefully you know!!)

We can play this in the key of G and use our 3 friendly chords G, C, and D to play the whole song. Here's how:

G -- No use crying C -- Talkin' to a stranger G -- Namin' the sorrows you've D -- seen

G -- Too many sad times, C -- too many bad times G -- nobody D -- knows what you G -- mean

This pattern is very common. If the key of G is too high or low and you want to use another key, maybe C let's say, just find your 1st, 4th, and 5th chords (I, IV, and V): in the key of C that would be C major, F major and G major.

That's enough for now. Please let me know if this makes sense to you, and I'm sure lots of other people here can chime in with hints and tips to make it all make sense!!

Rosebrook