Chord progression explorer

A progression is a pattern, not a list of chords

A chord progression is the order chords come in. The same few orders turn up in song after song, in every key, which is why musicians describe them by position in the key rather than by chord name. I–V–vi–IV is C – G – Am – F in C major and G – D – Em – C in G major: different chords, the same pattern, and it sounds like the same progression in both.

Roman numerals

Each chord in a key is named by the scale degree it is built on: I on the first note, V on the fifth. Upper case means a major chord, lower case minor, and ° diminished. In C major that gives these seven chords:

Roman numerals explains the notation in full, and diatonic chords shows where the seven chords come from.

Tonic, predominant and dominant

The label under each chord is its harmonic function — what it does rather than what it is. Tonic chords (I, and vi and iii that share most of its notes) feel settled. Predominant chords (IV and ii) lead away from home and prepare the next move. Dominant chords (V and vii°) hold the leading note, a semitone below the tonic, and pull back to it. Most progressions are some tour of that circuit: I–IV–V–I goes home, prepare, pull, arrive. The harmonic function lesson goes further.

The progressions in the explorer

Major and minor keys

Switch to a minor key and the same scale degrees give different chords. The explorer builds a minor key’s chords from its natural minor scale, so in A minor the first chord is minor (i, Am), the third, sixth and seventh are major (III, VI, VII — C, F, G) and the fifth is minor (v, Em). Much music in minor keys raises the seventh note to make that fifth chord major — E major in A minor — for a stronger pull home; the minor scales lesson explains why.

Transposing a progression

Transposing moves every chord by the same distance, so the pattern survives and only the pitch changes. That is exactly what the Key control does: the numerals stay put and the chord names underneath rewrite themselves. It is the quickest way to move a song into a range that suits a voice, or to learn a progression once and play it anywhere. Transposition covers doing it by hand.

Explorer or analyzer?

This explorer plays the well-known progressions, in any key, so you can hear and compare them. To work out what your own chords are doing — the key they are in and a numeral for each — paste them into the chord progression analyzer.