chord progression

Chords are sets of notes played simultaneously, while chord progressions are a particular pattern of chords that are dependent on the key that a piece of music is played in. Major chords and minor chords can follow similar progressions, but each has a different balance between consonance and dissonance.

To do this we:

1. Determine the key. Find the Key Signature. Find Cadences at end of phrases and sections. Look for ii-V-I's, V-I's, and ii-V's (incomplete cadences that resolve to the I chord at the beginning of the next section)
2. Label all chords with Roman Numerals based on their relationship to the I chord.

Every song will have at least one chord progression, but usually there will be at least two. That makes sense if you think about what most songs include. Unless you listen to more experimental music, most of your favorite tunes probably go something like this: intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus.

Because of this limitation, chords are considered part of the common stock of musical raw material, and are not copyrightable. Similarly, useful successions of chords - called “chord progressions” - because of their scarcity - are not copyrightable.

What's the most overused chord progression? I–V–vi–IV, probably. It's been used in a significant number of chart-topping pop songs. It's so common that a comedic rock band called Axis of Awesome wrote a song called “Four Chords”, using snippets of lyrics from a few dozen well-known pop songs utilizing I-V-vi-IV.

Finding chords for your melody, steps to follow:

1. Try to transpose the melody to a scale you know well.
2. Try to find your bass notes first.
3. Start with the root note (of the scale).
4. Many progressions start or end with the root note (tonic).
5. After finding a fitting bass progression, build chords on it.

Chord progressions are the skeleton that give your songs their basic outline. Choosing the chords you'll use and arranging them into satisfying progressions is one the most important jobs when writing a song.

I – vi – IV – V progression The I – vi – IV – V progression is one of the most common chord progressions in music history, found in hit songs across various genres. It's a progression consisting of the tonic, submediant, subdominant, and dominant chords.

Like the Beast, it goes by many names: Diabolus in musica (devil in music), the devil's interval, the tritone, the triad and the flatted fifth. As its Latin moniker suggests, it's an evil sounding combination of notes that's designed to create a chilling or foreboding atmosphere.

Chord progressions are one of those song elements that aren't usually protected by copyright, so it's fine to take progressions that you like in other songs and use them in your own.

The I–V–vi–IV progression is a common chord progression popular across several genres of music. It involves the I, V, vi, and IV chords of any particular musical scale. For example, in the key of C major, this progression would be: C–G–Am–F.

The famous four chords used in many pop song progressions are the I, V, vi and IV chords of a major key. The roman numerals represent the numbers of the major scale we begin a chord from (1, 5, 6, 4) so in C major this would be C, G, Amin, F or in G major it would be G, D, Emin, C.