Learn 14 Chord Progressions for Guitar in 14 Days: Extensive Resource for Songwriters and Guitarists of All Levels

by Troy Nelson

Guitar instructor and seasoned author Troy Nelson takes you step-by-step in this easy-to-follow guitar chord book. For songwriters and guitar players, knowing chord progressions is the foundation for crafting unforgettable harmonies and rhythms. Learn 14 Chord Progressions for Guitar in 14 Days seems pretty self-explanatory, but there’s so much more to it than just progressions, Roman numerals, and the Nashville Number System. Learn how to play each progression in 6 different keys and 6 different music styles with this helpful chord book. Plus, all of the “real world” music examples are presented in rhythm guitar tab so you can quickly get them off the page and onto your fretboard! Make songwriting on guitar fun when you know just which chord progressions to use. Step one in learning how to write songs is guitar chords and chord progressions. This makes a perfect songwriting book for beginners. Learn rhythm guitar and quick strumming patterns in dozens of major and minor triads and seventh chords. Music examples are presented in notes and tab. This practical, step-by-step guide to chord progressions for guitarists and songwriters includes quick-and-easy access to audio tracks via download or streaming—right from troynelsonmusic.com. No signup required! Free access to instant audio downloads from Troy’s website included. Includes customer support! Questions during practice? Email us from our website, and we'll happily help you. Learn 14 Chord Progressions for Guitar in 14 Days is written how Troy would want to learn songwriting and guitar chords if he was starting from scratch, in his signature, tried-and-true, sound-great-right-away style. Troy has written 30+ books for the guitar and edited more than 200 others. As an author, Troy Nelson has sold over 300,000 books and received more than a 2,500 reviews. A 35-year guitar player, he's the former Editor-in-Chief of Guitar One magazine, holds degrees in Music and Education, and is the author of the #1 best-seller Guitar Aerobics. Troy's passion is helping others learn to love the guitar as much as he does.

76 pages, Paperback

Published April 4, 2019

About the author

If there’s one thing certain about Troy Nelson—a life-long guitar player and author of top-selling instructional books Guitar Aerobics, Fretboard Freedom, and Rhythm Guitar 365—it’s that he knows how to keep busy.

Born in the small town of Viroqua, Wisconsin (population 4,000), Nelson picked up the guitar at the age 14, after months of begging his parents for an axe. He tapped into his savings account for a Harmony electric, a Fender Strat knockoff from the JC Penney catalogue.

From that moment forward, Nelson would spend hours each day, much to his buddies’ dismay, woodshedding in his bedroom, playing everything from Stevie Ray Vaughan and B.B. King to Dokken and Metallica.

“My friends would come to our front door on the weekends to ask me to hang out, and I’d say ‘no thanks’ and go back to my room to play guitar until dinner. Then, after dinner, I’d return to my room and play until my sister would bang on the wall to make me stop,” remembers Nelson.

When he wasn’t playing guitar, Nelson was the star quarterback of his high school football team. Though he received letters to play football from several of the state universities, Nelson chose music instead, attending Milwaukee Area Technical College, where he earned an Associate’s Degree in Occupational Music.

Following graduation, Nelson spent several years as a freelance editor for Hal Leonard Corporation, the world’s largest music print publisher, where he transcribed and edited many of the top guitar songs of the day. In 1995, jumped at the chance to work on a new magazine Hal Leonard was launching, Guitar One.

In 1999, Nelson moved with the magazine to New York City. For a decade, he worked tirelessly at the magazine, holding the titles of Music Editor, Senior Editor, and, finally, Editor-in-Chief.
“I’m quite proud of what we accomplished at Guitar One. What began as a start-up, evolved into the No. 2 guitar title in the world when I left in 2005,” remembers Nelson fondly.

After a decade of success in the music business, Nelson decided to pursue a career in his other love—football. After a stint in the media department of the New York Jets, Nelson headed south, to the University of Georgia, where received a Bachelor’s Degree in Sports Management in 2009, graduating with top honors (summa cum laude). While attending UGA, Nelson somehow found time to write his first book, Guitar Aerobics, which has become a #1 bestseller, with nearly 100,000 copies sold to date.

“As a guitarist, I wanted to write a technique book that would appeal to me; that is, a book that had a practical structure and music examples that didn’t sound like warm-up exercises. I wanted to compose music examples that guitarists could incorporate into their own music while, at the same time, improving their chops,” says Nelson.

After UGA, Nelson went on to work for several football entities, including the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the All-American Football League, Gardner Webb University, and BLESTO, a football scouting coop owned by seven NFL teams. It was during his time at BLESTO that Nelson had another book idea. The result was Fretboard Freedom, a book Nelson authored after work and on the weekends. Fretboard Freedom is a novel approach to visualizing and navigating the neck of the guitar—a concept that initially struck Nelson while he wrote Guitar Aerobics back in 2007.

Although life as a football scout was difficult to put on hold, music eventually pulled Nelson back into its clutches. He took a breather from other career pursuits and spent the better portion of 2012 authoring Rhythm Guitar 365 (Hal Leonard), the follow-up to Guitar Aerobics and Fretboard Freedom.

“Like my other books, Rhythm Guitar 365 contains daily music exercises—one for every day of the year—with this book focusing on rhythm-guitar playing, which doesn’t get nearly the attention that lead playing does,” says Nelson of his latest title.

Nelson currently lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with hi