Chord Progressions

Make it interactive

Live — tap any fret to hear itLive — tap any fret to hear it · drag the dot on the right (you are at Progressions)Still image — activate it to playprogressions live below the neck

Rotate the loop

I–V–vi–IVV–vi–IV–Ivi–IV–I–VIV–I–V–vi

Other big ones

I–IV–VI–vi–IV–Vii–V–I

In a minor key

i–VI–III–VIIi–VII–VI–V

One set of chords, four different songs

The Rotate the loop buttons above hide the single most useful thing to understand about pop harmony: C, G, Am and F — just four chords — become four different-feeling progressions depending only on where you start the loop. Bright and anthemic (I–V–vi–IV), or wistful and emotional (vi–IV–I–V): identical chords, opposite moods.

Try it: press a rotation, then the ▶ on its row. Switch rotation and press ▶ again — the mood changes completely. Now drag the bar on the right-hand edge upwards (the line under the frame tells you where you are: Controls, Neck, Chords, Progressions) as far as Neck: it is the same pattern of lit notes whichever rotation you picked. All four use the same seven notes; only the order changes. That one insight explains why so many songs sound both familiar and distinct at once.

Four rotations, four characters:

• I–V–vi–IV — the pop loop. Bright and anthemic with a bittersweet edge; the most common four-chord loop there is.
• V–vi–IV–I — the delayed drop. The same chords, but it finally lands on home at the end.
• vi–IV–I–V — the wistful one. Starts on the minor chord. Heard as a minor key it is i–VI–III–VII.
• IV–I–V–vi — the lift. Opens on the subdominant for a suspended, rising, "here-it-comes" feel.

The other progressions worth knowing

Beyond the four-chord family, a handful of patterns turn up everywhere. They are all in the same panel, Common progressions: the Other big ones and In a minor key buttons jump straight to each, and the ▶ on its row plays it on a real guitar. Drag the bar up to Controls, change the Root, then drag back down to Progressions: every row has re-spelled itself into that key. They're written below in C major (and A minor), but the Roman numerals mean the same thing everywhere. (New to them? Capital = major, lowercase = minor, ° = diminished — the number system has the full story.)

• I–IV–V — the three-chord backbone. Blues, folk, country and rock live here. The three major chords of the key contain all seven of its notes, and the V pulls hard back home to I.
• I–vi–IV–V — the 50s / doo-wop changes. Nostalgic and sweet. Same four triads as the pop loop but re-ordered so it ends on the V — every cycle is an authentic-cadence setup pulling home.
• ii–V–I — the jazz cadence. The smoothest way home in music. The roots fall by fifths (D→G→C) while a guide tone holds and the other resolves down a half-step — pure pre-dominant → dominant → tonic. Jazz nearly always plays it with sevenths (Dm7–G7–Cmaj7), which is where that voice-leading is actually audible; the tool plays it as plain triads, so to hear it go to seventh chords.
• i–VI–III–VII — the epic minor loop. The modern minor-key anthem. Every chord but the tonic is major, so it glows even while it broods — and with no leading tone it loops forever without needing to resolve.
• i–VII–VI–V — the Andalusian (flamenco) line. That dramatic Spanish sound. Its heart is the descending bass A–G–F–E (La–Sol–Fa–Mi), and the final V is major — the one chord in the row that steps outside A minor. That E major brings in a G♯: a leading tone pulling up to A, and that note is the whole bite. And it is not an ending: after the E the row starts over on Am, and it can spin like that all night. In flamenco the E ends up sounding more like home than the Am does — which is why it is also called a Phrygian cadence, after the mode that starts on that note.

The 12-bar blues is the other must-know — a fixed 12-bar map of I, IV and V. Hear and drill it in the 12-Bar Blues Lab: go to the tool's Songs mode and open the "12-Bar Blues" song.

Why the chords sound right together

It isn't luck. Chords from the same key are neighbours on the circle of fifths, and each has a job — a function:

• Home (tonic): I (and its stand-ins vi, iii) — rest and arrival.
• Away (pre-dominant): IV and ii — the departure that sets up the tension.
• Tension (dominant): V — it holds the leading tone a half-step under home and pulls hard back to I.

Nearly every progression is a trip around home → away → tension → home. V→I is the strongest move of all — the leading tone strains upward, the 7th of a V7 slides down, and the root drops a fifth — which is why it feels so final. See exactly which chords belong to a key on the chords-in-a-key page.

How progressions end: cadences

The last chords give a progression its punctuation:

• Authentic (V–I) — the full stop; the strongest, most final ending.
• Plagal (IV–I) — the softer "Amen" ending.
• Half (ends on V) — a comma; it leaves you hanging, wanting more.
• Deceptive (V–vi) — the surprise; V sets up home, then swerves to the minor vi. It's the exact move that keeps the pop loop spinning.

Each one is worth hearing next to another — the cadences page lets you A/B any two in any key, and explains why V–I lands and IV–I only half-lands.

Making them your own

Once a progression feels natural, colour it. Swap a chord for one that shares its job (ii for IV, vi for I). Add a secondary dominant to spotlight the next chord (a D7 leaning into G). Borrow a chord from the parallel key — a minor iv is the classic tear-jerker. And the other way round, in a minor key: raising the v chord's third by a half-step to turn it into a major V — the E in the Andalusian above — is the same move in the opposite direction. Or just change the rhythm and use slash chords to walk the bass. Small changes to a familiar loop are how songwriters keep it fresh.

Hear all of it in the Jam tool, which plays any progression with a full band and lights the notes to solo with — or the Harmony walkthrough, which colours every chord by its job (that last one is a Pro feature).