5 pop progressions x 2 plays: axis (I-V-vi-IV), '50s doo-wop, Canon pop line,
Mixolydian bVII, minor loop (i-bVI-bIII-bVII). Open campfire + movable/barre play each;
sus taught as fills (chords voiced plain). KB now 10 styles / 50 progressions / 100 plays.
Critic PASS (voicings hand-verified, no duplicate ids).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
'Pop guitar is built from a handful of open "cowboy" chords and a capo. Most chart hits live in flat or sharp keys, but the guitarist plays familiar open shapes and slides the capo to the singer\'s key — so the same G–D–Em–C grips power a thousand songs. The colour comes from sus2/sus4 hammer-ons and add9 ring, not from harmonic complexity; the loop stays simple and the strum, dynamics, and one well-placed suspension carry the part.',
comping:[
{
label:'Eighth-note pop strum',
rhythm:'D D U U D U (the "old faithful")',
description:'The default acoustic-pop pattern: steady down-up eighths with a gap where the third downstroke would be, accent on the backbeat. Keep the wrist loose and constant even through the muted gap.',
},
{
label:'Sus hammer-on figure',
rhythm:'strum chord → hammer to sus4 / pull to sus2 within the bar',
description:'The signature pop-guitar decoration: hold the open chord and wiggle one finger to a sus4 and back (or pull off to sus2). It animates a single static chord without changing the harmony — Tom Petty / Mr. Big territory.',
},
{
label:'Palm-muted eighths (pop-rock)',
rhythm:'chugged straight eighths, edge of the palm on the bridge',
description:'For the driving pop-rock loops: muted downstrokes on the low strings, opening up on the chorus. The dynamic jump from muted verse to open chorus is the arrangement doing the work the chords don\'t.',
},
],
plays:{
'pop-axis':[
{
label:'G–D–Em–C campfire (capo to taste)',
level:'intermediate',
chords:[
{shape:OPEN_G,note:'I — big ringing G'},
{shape:OPEN_D,note:'V — open D'},
{shape:OPEN_EM,note:'vi — Em, the only minor in the loop'},
{shape:OPEN_CADD9,extensions:['9'],note:'IV — Cadd9 keeps the top two strings ringing through the change'},
],
tips:'This is the canonical pop guitar set: in G it is G–D–Em–C, and any key is just a capo move (A = capo 2, B♭ = capo 3…). Voicing the IV as Cadd9 lets the open B and e strings drone across all four chords — the modern-pop "wash".',
},
{
label:'Barre shapes (capo-hostile keys)',
level:'intermediate',
chords:[
{shape:BARRE_MAJ_6,note:'I — E-shape barre'},
{shape:BARRE_MAJ_5,note:'V — A-shape, same fret region'},
{shape:BARRE_MIN_6,note:'vi — Em-shape barre'},
{shape:BARRE_MAJ_5,note:'IV — A-shape barre'},
],
tips:'When no capo position gives you open strings (or a second guitar already owns the jangly part). I and vi share the 6th-string root; V and IV share the 5th — the hand rocks between two anchor frets. Lighten the barre between strums so it breathes.',
},
],
'pop-50s-doowop':[
{
label:'C-family doo-wop (Stand By Me grips)',
level:'intermediate',
chords:[
{shape:OPEN_C,note:'I — open C'},
{shape:OPEN_AM,note:'vi — Am, the wistful drop'},
{shape:OPEN_F,note:'IV — small F, top four strings'},
{shape:OPEN_G,note:'V — open G'},
],
tips:'In C this is the literal Stand By Me / "ice-cream changes" set. The whole feeling is the C → Am drop in the first two bars — let that ring before the F–G turns it home. Slow triplet-feel strum, not eighths.',
},
{
label:'Barre doo-wop, upper register',
level:'intermediate',
chords:[
{shape:BARRE_MAJ_5,note:'I — A-shape barre'},
{shape:BARRE_MIN_6,note:'vi — Em-shape, two frets down on the 6th string'},
{shape:BARRE_MAJ_6,note:'IV — E-shape barre'},
{shape:BARRE_MAJ_5,note:'V — A-shape, up the neck'},
],
tips:'A closed, vocal-group reading: roots walk between the 5th and 6th strings, so the hand never travels far. Mute the highest string and the four-voice grip starts to sound like the backing singers it came from.',
},
],
'pop-canon':[
{
label:'Open Canon line (descending bass)',
level:'intermediate',
chords:[
{shape:OPEN_G,note:'I — bass G'},
{shape:OPEN_D,note:'V — bass D (the line: 1 → 7 sits in the inner voice)'},
{shape:OPEN_EM,note:'vi — bass E'},
{shape:OPEN_AM,note:'iii — Am as the diatonic iii; bass B/A keeps the stair descending'},
{shape:OPEN_C,note:'IV — bass C, ready to loop back to G'},
],
tips:'The point of this line is the descending bass stair — pick the lowest string of each open shape as a bass note before strumming and you hear Pachelbel inside the pop. Five open chords, no barre, no capo needed in G.',
},
{
label:'Barre Canon, even register',
level:'intermediate',
chords:[
{shape:BARRE_MAJ_6,note:'I — E-shape'},
{shape:BARRE_MAJ_5,note:'V — A-shape'},
{shape:BARRE_MIN_6,note:'vi — Em-shape'},
{shape:BARRE_MIN_5,note:'iii — Am-shape barre'},
{shape:BARRE_MAJ_5,note:'IV — A-shape'},
],
tips:'Closed shapes keep every chord the same density — useful under a busy vocal where the open version\'s ringing strings would clutter. Keep the top-string melody note audible; that moving top line is the second half of what makes the Canon line sing.',
},
],
'pop-mixo-bVII':[
{
label:'Open Mixolydian vamp with sus colour',
level:'intermediate',
chords:[
{shape:OPEN_D,note:'I — open D; wiggle to Dsus2/Dsus4 and back for the pop-rock "ring"'},
{shape:OPEN_C,note:'♭VII — open C, the borrowed flat-seven'},
{shape:OPEN_G,note:'IV — open G; hammer the sus4 and pull back as the fill'},
],
tips:'In D this is D–C–G, the brightest open-string Mixolydian shape set. Decorate the held I and IV with sus2/sus4 hammer-ons (the verse decoration in countless pop-rock loops) — the chord stays major, your finger wiggles. Let the open strings ring through the C.',
},
{
label:'Barre power-vamp (pop-rock drive)',
level:'intermediate',
chords:[
{shape:BARRE_MAJ_6,note:'I — E-shape, palm-muted in the verse'},
{shape:BARRE_MAJ_5,note:'♭VII — A-shape two frets below the I root'},
{shape:BARRE_MAJ_5,note:'IV — A-shape, slides up from the ♭VII'},
],
tips:'The driving reading: palm-muted E-shape on the I, then the two A-shape majors share a grip and just slide — ♭VII to IV is a two-fret move. Open the palm mute on the chorus for the lift; the dynamic, not a new chord, is the chorus.',
},
],
'pop-minor-loop':[
{
label:'Em campfire loop (Save Tonight grips)',
level:'intermediate',
chords:[
{shape:OPEN_EM,note:'i — Em, the lone minor'},
{shape:OPEN_C,note:'♭VI — open C'},
{shape:OPEN_G,note:'♭III — open G'},
{shape:OPEN_D,note:'♭VII — open D, leans back to Em'},
],
tips:'In E minor this is the literal Em–C–G–D of Save Tonight / Numb. After the single minor i, three open majors cascade home — keep the strum constant and let the all-major run feel anthemic against the minor tonic. Capo to move it to any minor key.',
},
{
label:'Barre minor loop, even and driving',
level:'intermediate',
chords:[
{shape:BARRE_MIN_6,note:'i — Em-shape barre'},
{shape:BARRE_MAJ_5,note:'♭VI — A-shape'},
{shape:BARRE_MAJ_6,note:'♭III — E-shape'},
{shape:BARRE_MAJ_5,note:'♭VII — A-shape'},
],
tips:'The closed reading for a fuller, rockier feel. The three majors alternate E-shape / A-shape so the hand stays in one neighbourhood; palm-mute the i for tension and release it across the three majors for the climb.',
},
],
},
improv:{
scales:[
{over:'I (major loops)',scale:'major',why:'Major pentatonic is the safe melodic home over the axis and doo-wop loops; add the full major scale for passing tones between chord tones.'},
{over:'vi / iii / Am (the minor chords)',scale:'minor',why:'Over the vi (the relative minor) the natural-minor / minor-pentatonic shape sits right under the major-key notes — same fingering, darker target tones.'},
{over:'I / IV (Mixolydian vamp)',scale:'mixolydian',why:'The ♭VII in the loop is the ♭7 of the key — Mixolydian builds it in, so a single scale covers the whole I–♭VII–IV vamp.'},
{over:'i (minor pop loop)',scale:'minor',why:'Natural minor over the i–♭VI–♭III–♭VII loop; every chord in the loop is diatonic to natural minor, so one scale covers all four.'},
],
targetNotes:
'In looping pop the melody usually lands on a common tone held across the changes — find the one or two notes that belong to all four chords and lean on them (the high open strings in the open-shape plays are doing exactly this). On the doo-wop loop, voice-lead the top note down I→vi (root to its own 3rd) for the signature sweetness.',
licks:[
{
over:'pop-axis',
description:'The "drone" decoration: keep the open B (and high e) ringing across all four open chords — G, D, Em, Cadd9 all contain or tolerate those open strings, which is why the Cadd9 voicing is chosen over plain C. The unchanging top notes are the modern-pop wash.',
source:'justinguitar.com — "Cadd9 & the G–D–Em–C trick"; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Axis_of_Awesome',
},
{
over:'pop-mixo-bVII',
description:'The sus hammer-on fill: over the static I, strum the chord then hammer the sus4 and pull to sus2 in a steady eighth pulse (e.g. D → Dsus4 → D → Dsus2). It implies motion over one held chord — the standard trick for filling bars in a slow pop-rock loop.',
character:'A handful of diatonic chords looped without apology — the four-chord "axis", the doo-wop turn, the Canon line — where the arrangement and the hook, not the harmony, carry the song.',
// tunableapp.com chord-progressions (i–♭VI–♭III–♭VII minor loop).
// Deliberately differentiated from the rock pack: rock-axis already owns the
// I-started axis and rock-mixo-vamp the I–♭VII–IV vamp; here the axis is framed
// for capo/open pop guitar, the Mixolydian move gets honest pop songs, and the
// minor loop is the relative-minor (vi-started) reading, not rock's i–♭VII–♭VI–V.
exportdefault[
{
id:'pop-axis',
name:'Four chords (I–V–vi–IV)',
rn:['I','V','vi','IV'],
degrees:[0,7,9,5],
qualities:['maj','maj','min','maj'],
bars:[1,1,1,1],
mode:'major',
songs:['No Woman No Cry — Bob Marley','Someone Like You — Adele (verse loop)','Let It Be — The Beatles'],
tip:'The single most-used loop in modern pop (the Axis of Awesome "four chords"). On guitar it is really a capo decision: pick the capo position that lets you play it as open G–D–Em–C shapes and the whole song rings.',
},
{
id:'pop-50s-doowop',
name:"'50s / doo-wop (I–vi–IV–V)",
rn:['I','vi','IV','V'],
degrees:[0,9,5,7],
qualities:['maj','min','maj','maj'],
bars:[1,1,1,1],
mode:'major',
songs:['Stand By Me — Ben E. King','Earth Angel — The Penguins','Blue Moon (the Marcels, 1961)'],
tip:'The "ice-cream changes": dropping from the bright I straight to vi is the sweet, wistful doo-wop gesture. It loops forever — Stand By Me never leaves these four chords.',
},
{
id:'pop-canon',
name:'Canon pop line (I–V–vi–iii–IV)',
rn:['I','V','vi','iii','IV'],
degrees:[0,7,9,4,5],
qualities:['maj','maj','min','min','maj'],
bars:[1,1,1,1,1],
mode:'major',
songs:['Memories — Maroon 5 (Pachelbel, set in B)',"Don't Look Back in Anger — Oasis",'Graduation (Friends Forever) — Vitamin C'],
tip:'Pachelbel\'s Canon wearing pop clothes — the axis with an extra iii inserted between vi and IV. The bass walks down a clean diatonic stair (1–7–6–5–4), which is what makes the line feel "classical".',
tip:'Swap the polite V for the borrowed ♭VII and the loop turns anthemic without a single minor chord. Every chord is major, so a single open or capo position covers all three with one hand shape moved twice.',
},
{
id:'pop-minor-loop',
name:'Minor pop loop (i–♭VI–♭III–♭VII)',
rn:['i','♭VI','♭III','♭VII'],
degrees:[0,8,3,10],
qualities:['min','maj','maj','maj'],
bars:[1,1,1,1],
mode:'minor',
songs:['Save Tonight — Eagle-Eye Cherry','Numb — Linkin Park',"Self Esteem — The Offspring"],
tip:'The axis read from its relative minor: start on vi and the same family of chords turns dark and anthemic. After the lone minor i, three major chords cascade home — an all-major run inside a minor key.',
},
]
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