If musicians never broke any rules, then everything would sound the same! I – IV – V – I Throwing in a weird chord here or there is what makes music unique and fun to listen to. Tested progressions are a good place to start, but are not ‘rules’ you have to play by. However, as with all things musical, let your ears be your guide. These are tried-and-true examples of chords that sound great together in any key. With fundamental music theory squared away, we can talk about some of the most-used progressions in music. Getting to Know Popular Chord Progressions RELATED ARTICLE: The Best Chord Generator VST.RELATED ARTICLE: Tunebat BPM and Key Finder Review.Relative minors share all of the same notes as the major scale, but in a different order.Īs with major, you can apply this pattern to any minor key! We’ll take a look at C Major’s relative minor key, A minor. On the other hand, all 12 minor keys use the same number of major, minor, and diminished chords, but in a different sequence. So using Roman numerals instead of chord names means you can write a progression and transpose it to any key you’d like! Diminished chords get lowercase numerals and a superscript circle.Īgain, every major scale follows this pattern. You’ll see an uppercase numeral for major chords, and a lowercase numeral for minor chords. Non-diatonic chords are borrowed from other keys, but we won’t get into that just yet!įinally, music theory uses Roman numerals to label and quickly identify chords in a given key. You’ll sometimes hear these called diatonic chords, which means they belong to the key/scale. Plus, this pattern - 3 major chords/3 minor chords/1 diminished chord - is the same for all 12 major keys. You can create any progression you want using any combination of these 7 chords. These are the chords available in the key of C Major. C Major scale: C – D – E – F – G – A – BĪnd there are 7 chords made using only the notes from the scale:.We’ll dive into some fundamental music theory using the key of C Major - all white keys on a piano. They’re made up of a combination of notes from the given key, or scale. If you’re wondering how to write a song and feel overwhelmed, finding chords that go together is a great place to start! So how do we do that? Music Theory Basics: Chords in a KeyĬhords in a progression sound good because they’re in the same key. Lead lines and melodies naturally reveal themselves depending on the chords you’ve put together. Using a solid progression as a foundation, you can more easily build a complete song around it. But sequencing chords together lets us express more complex emotions and ideas. They can very simply be major, or minor, or diminished…they can convey a vague tonality and emotion. Individually, chords don’t ‘say’ a whole lot. For singer-songwriters, a chord progression played on an acoustic guitar or piano with a vocal melody on top is the whole song! They form the backbone and harmony of a full arrangement, or sometimes stand alone. What Is a Chord Progression?Ĭhord progressions are simply a series of 2 or more chords played in a piece of music. Understanding these patterns is the key to expanding your chord knowledge and writing progressions that ‘work’ more easily. Luckily, the majority of progressions tend to follow established patterns that songwriters and listeners know and love. This can be overwhelming, especially when we’re not yet comfortable finding chords that go together right away. Even though we only have 12 notes, there are hundreds of possible chord progressions.
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