At a jam you might hear someone say, “Ok, this next song is a just a 1, 4, 5 in C.” When guitarists say “1, 4, 5” we’re referring to the basic chords in a given musical key. Learning these chords will allow you to play a huge number of songs that you will encounter at jams.
While it may seem silly — and I’m okay with silly — when confirming the chords for a key I frequently put up my hand and count the musical alphabet on my fingers starting with the first chord at my thumb. This helps me figure out what the 1, 4, and 5 chords are for that key. For example, in the key of A, I’d assign my thumb the letter A and then count “A, B, C, D, E.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, the D ends up at my ring finger, and the E on my pinky.
Fun fact: when writing about these chords, they’re frequently written in Roman numeral style as I, IV, and V chords, as I’ve done in the header for the following table. If you’re familiar with the Circle of Fifths you can of course use that as a reference too. I don’t always have a copy of the Circle with me, while I usually remember to bring my hands along to the jam.
Bonus fun fact: the table below shows 1, 4, and 5 for some minor keys. Using Roman numerals, minor chords are expressed with lower case letters. Instead of “I” for “one”, it’s “i” for “one minor.” Also note that in the minor keys the V (5) is never a minor chord, it’s always major.
