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Building a Chord Progression

There are many ways to build a chord progression. I alluded to some in my last post. You can simply throw chords together and see what happens. Kind of like throwing everything into a pot of stew. I've never tried that approach. It would probably produce some weird songs. Another way is to copy other popular progressions. This wiki article (the same one from my last post) list several popular progressions. This tutorial (yes, the same as before) goes through the creation of a diagram of popular classical progressions. These were used by Mozart and Beethoven, etc ... You can simply follow the diagram and create a progression.


Chord Progression Diagram


Here is a similar diagram. It might be slightly easier to follow since the arrows tell you where to go. There are a couple of things to keep in mind.



Definitely end your progression with the tonic, and for the beginner, the first chord of the progression should probably be the tonic as well. In the case of C Major (all the white keys on the piano), your first chord would be C Major, and you would end with this chord as well.


A good choice for the chord right before the last chord is the fifth chord of the scale. In the case of C Major, you would choose G Major. The movement from V to I (Dominant to Tonic) is called a cadence. It makes the musical phrase end well, pleasing to the ears.


Another way to create a progression is to use a pattern of your own. At this point I would like to introduce you to a song I did recently. I put it together specifically for this blog.






















It uses a chord progression that I came up with. It is related in a backwards kind of way to the diagram above, but I didn't use the diagram to create it. Here's how I did it: first, I started with the tonic in C Major. I chose each successive chord so that the next chord would have one note in common with the previous chord. So, after the first tonic chord (C Major), I could have chosen E minor or G Major. The purpose I had in mind was to allow the chords to flow from one to another. Another benefit is to allow the use of whole notes that are composed strictly of chord notes, eliminating unwanted dissonant sounds. More on dissonance in a future post.




This diagram is a table showing the chord progression I used in the song Lurking Exhaust. The vertical lines represent measures, so I changed chords every two beats (half note). The top row is obviously the roman numerals referring to which chord of the scale is being used. Upper case roman numerals refer to Major chords, and lower case numerals refer to minor chords. This makes it easy to move this chord progression to another key.

The next row (the upper case letters) shows the name of the chord. The next two rows show the other notes in the chord. I can easily look at this diagram and decide what notes a certain instrument is going to play. More on creating parts in another post.

You don't have to create a diagram like this if you don't want to, but I find it easier if I can see at a glance what notes I have available to me. And, this is a very simple progression. Once you get into more advanced progressions, a simple diagram may only confuse you. I don't know because I usually stick to simple stuff.

Once you have a diagram like this one, what can you do with it? Let's talk about that next time.


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