A chord progression, in its most basic definition, stands as an antonym for retrogression. As its name implies, a chord progression is more popularly considered a series of chords played in some temporal order. Chords often relate to each other in some phenomenological, tonally-coherent way—though this may not always be the case, especially when discussing more complex tonal music after 1840. Chord progressions are central to most modern European-influenced music. Generally speaking, a chord progression will invariably share some notes (assuming equal temperament), which provides linear (i.e., voice leading) continuity to the passage.

In the common-practice period, chord progressions are usually associated with a scale and the notes of each chord are usually taken from that scale (or its modally-mixed universe).

Common progressions

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The most common chord progressions, especially in popular music, are based on the first, fourth, and fifth scale degrees (tonic, subdominant and dominant); see three chord song, eight bar blues, and twelve bar blues. The chord based on the second scale degree is used in the most common chord progression in Jazz, II-V-I.

The circle of fifths progression is generally regarded as the most common progression of the common practice period, involving a series of descending perfect fifths that often occur as ascending perfect fourths. The circle of fifths makes up many of the most commonly used progressions, such as II6, V, I in major.

Table of common progressions during the common practice period

Table of Common Progressions
I, i	May progress to any other triad. May interrupt any progression.
Major keys		Minor keys
ii	ii-V, ii-vii6°	ii6°	ii6°-V
		ii*	ii-V, ii-vii6°
iii	iii-ii6, iii-IV, iii-V, iii-vi	III	III-ii6°, III-iv, III-VI
IV	IV-I, IV-ii, IV-V, IV-vii6°	iv	iv-i, iv-ii6°, iv-V, iv-VII
		IV*	IV-V, IV-vii6°
V	V-I, V-vi	V	V-i, V-VI
		v*	v-VI
vi	vi-ii, vi-IV, vi-V, vi-iii-IV	VI	VI-ii6°, VI-iv, VI-V, VI-III-iv
vii6°	vii6°-I, VII6°-V	vii6°/VII	vii6°-i/VII-III
* ii and IV in minor used with an ascending #6; v in minor used with a descending 7. See the article Chord (music)#Quality and Triads for a brief explanation of the notation used in this table.

Rewrite rules

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Steedman (1984) has proposed a set of recursive "rewrite rules" which generate all well-formed transformations of jazz, basic I-IV-I-V-I twelve bar blues chord sequences, and, slightly modified, non-twelve-bar blues I-IV-V sequences ("I Got Rhythm"). Important transformations include:

• replacement or substitution of a chord by its dominant or subdominant, example:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 I/IV/I/I⁷//IV/VII⁷/III⁷/VI⁷//II⁷/V⁷/I/I//

• use of chromatic passing chords, example:

...7 8 9... ...III⁷/bIII⁷/II⁷...

• and chord alterations such as minor chords, diminished sevenths, etc.

Sequences by fourth, rather than fifth, include Jimi Hendrix's "Hey Joe": 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 bVi, bIII/bVII, IV/I/I//bVI, bIII/bVII, IV/I/I//bVI, bIII/bVII, IV/I/I// These often result in Aeolian harmony and lack perfect cadences (V-I). Middleton (1990, p.198) suggests that both modal and fourth-oriented structures, rather than being "distortions or surface transformations of Schenker's favoured V-I kernel, it is more likely that both are branches of a deeper principle, that of tonic/not-tonic differentiation."

References

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• Middleton, Richard (1990/2002). Studying Popular Music. Philadelphia: Open University Press. ISBN 0335152759.
  • Steedman M.J., "A Generative Grammar for Jazz Chord Sequences", Music Perception 2 (1) (1984) 52-77.

See also

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• Chord (music)
• Three-chord song

External links

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• Olav Torvund's Chord progressions for Guitar website
• Guitarz Forever's Three Chord Progressions For Guitar website

Musical techniques | Chord progressions | Chords

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