2.3. Chord Progressions – Part 1

To compose music, songs or something of that kind you can’t just smash random chords on your piano 😅. You have to put them in the right order.
That order is named Chord Progression.

Actually, there is no straightforward rules on how to make chord progressions that will catch your ear. Practice and trying is the answer. It’s perfect time to start actually playing the piano(not only reading my site 😝) if you still don’t 😏.

Nice chord progression is always built on primary and secondary chords. Because some chords are more important. And others fill the space between those primary chords in interesting ways.

To keep going we should glue Scales, Chords and Key(new concept) together.

Previously we implied keys as the keys on the piano keyboard. But Key in music is something more than just a button 😜.

Key is somewhat similar to Scale but it is not. Sometimes they refer to the same group of notes. Key describes the harmonic center of the song, while the song can use different from Key Scales 😱. Confusing for me, too 😝.

Important! Let’s look at C Major Key(actually the C Major Scale). If we build the triads from the scale notes (with the interval of 1 note from that scale) we get pack of the chords in this key (diatonic triads).

Admit, that all notes from these chords are in C Major Scale:

It is extremely easy to do with C Major because of only white keys.

Well, how does that refer to the Chord Progressions 🤔?

Using the diatonic chords of the exact Key helps you find Primary chords for your music.

Some typical chord progressions contain diatonic chords only.
For example: C Am F G. And you make a song 👍! Just Brilliant 😂😂😂!
Or C F G G
Or C F Em G
Even Am Dm G C

This gives you a ton of possibilities to experiment.

It is handy to learn diatonic triads for Major and Minor keys, because the patterns are the same for different keys.

Major Key:
Maj Min Min Maj Maj Min Dim

Minor Key:
Min Dim Maj Min Min Maj Maj

To clarify, we already know C Major Key diatonic chords(check the pattern):
C Dm Em F G Am Bdim

Another example is C Minor Key diatonic chords:
Cm Ddim Eb Fm Gm Ab Bb

One more example with F Major Key:
F Gm Am Bb C D Edim

And F Minor Key:
Fm Gdim Ab Bbm Cm Db Eb

If you do not understand what is going on here – rewind the basics: Notes, Scales and Chords.