Full Practice: Play Your First Passage
String together everything you've learned and play a full passage over a simple chord progression — you can already accompany yourself!
You're on lesson 5 / 5 in this stage
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- Your First Chord: Em6 min
- Your Second Chord: Am7 min
- Chord Change: Em ↔ Am8 min
- Add a Strum: Your First Accompaniment8 min
- Full Practice: Play Your First Passage9 min
A simple progression that sounds good
Loop this progression, a full bar (4 downstrokes) on each chord: ‖: Em | Em | Am | Am :‖. This is the seed of countless folk-song accompaniments.
Once it's steady, try swapping the plain downstrokes for the “down, down-up, down, down” pattern from the last lesson, and it instantly grooves more.
Keep the beat steady as you play
Try counting “1 2 3 4” as you play, or humming a simple melody. The point is that at the moment you change chords, the right-hand rhythm doesn't stop or fall apart.
Record it and listen back
Record a short clip of yourself playing on your phone, then play it back and check two things: is the rhythm steady, and are the chords ringing. This is the fastest self-check there is.
- 💡 A copyright-friendly note: practice with this kind of simple chord progression, public-domain old songs, or original melodies first. When you want to play a specific pop song, look for a “chord chart” to play along with, rather than copying out a copyrighted score.
Chords in this lesson
Tap the 🔊 under each diagram to match every chord's sound to its shape.
⏱️ Cycle this lesson's chords to a beatPractice switching without stopping (one-minute changes) — first learn each chord by ear and shape, then drill clean changes between them.Expand Collapse
Switch back and forth between this lesson's chords to the beat below.
One bar of count-in first, then the chord changes automatically each bar. Get it smooth slowly, then speed up bit by bit.
Want to count how many changes you can do in 60 seconds? Head to the one-minute changes drill.
Go play these
Songs that fit this lesson's technique and chords — pick one and practice in the library:
Practice checklist
- Loop the full Em–Em–Am–Am progression for 2 minutes, getting the rhythm steady and the chord changes smooth.
- Record a clip, play it back, and pick one thing to improve next time.