Have you noticed that in pop music some guitar keys are more common than others?  If  you’re a guitar player with a guitar based band you’re likely going to play in only  a few different keys a majority of the time.  If you’re in a band with horns you might have to stretch a little.  Horn players love the keys that guitarists hate and vice versa.  Any horn has a limited range so a key that might be great for a guitar could be too high or low for the horn section. So I’ll start with the common guitar keys that you should know.

In most any key the I IV an V will be the most common chords, the next most will be the vi, ii, and iii, probably in that order.  After that would come the bVI and bVII.  You should at least learn the I IV V (V7)  vi and ii and iii.  So as far as guitar keys go E and A are probably the two common keys but not the easiest to play in.  Your chords you should know in the key of E are E, A, B, C#m, F#m, and G#m.  Your chords you should know in the key of A are A, D, E, F#m, Bm, and C#m.  Did you notice there’s some overlap in the chords.  That will happen with lots of other keys too, so it’s not like you have to learn a whole set of chords for every key.  If this is confusing you can check the post on most common guitar keys.

The next most common guitar keys are D and G.  D is pretty easy, G is probably the easiest of all.  Your chords in the key of D are D, G, A, Bm, Em, and F#m.  Pretty easy but still not as easy as G.  the chords for G are G, C, D Em, Am, and Bm.  Everything’s pretty easy except for that Bm.  Your next most common guitar key would be C and F.  The chords for the key of C are C, F, G, Am, Dm, Em.  That F barre chord is tricky for a lot of people.  In the key of F your common chords would be F, Bb, C, Dm, Gm, Am.

If you can learn all the chords mentioned you can play your way through almost anything.  If you learn your major and minor barre chord starting on the 6th (low E) and 5th (A) strings then you can play anything.  Lets take a look at some songs that use some of these chords.

Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da by The Beatles

Key of Bb

the chorus goes: Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da life goes on bra, the chord progression is Bb to Dm to Gm, which is I iii vi

Soak up the Sun by Cheryl Crow Key of E 

The chorus goes” I’ve got no one to blame every time I feel lame I’m lookin’ up.  The chord progression is E, B F# G# A B, the progression is I V ii, iii, IV, V

Let It Be by The Beatles key of C

When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me, C, G, Am F.  I V, vi, IV.  This chord progression is used in so many different songs, I’m Yours by Jason Mraz, Love Story by Taylor Swift and more. 

So you can see how learning a set number of chords can let you play in most of the major guitar keys.  Learning how those chords fit and the relationship of each can help you transpose songs, they can even help you figure out chord progressions much faster.