How to Write a Chord Progression in 5 Steps

To write a chord progression, pick a key, start on its home chord (the I), move to one or two chords that feel further away, and finish on a chord that pulls you back home, usually the V. Loop the result, one chord per bar, and you have the backbone of a verse or chorus. In C major that can be as plain as C, Am, F, G, and the six changes further down make it sound like yours.

How chord progressions work

Every major key has seven notes, and stacking every other note of that scale gives you seven chords that already fit together. In C major the scale is C D E F G A B, so the chords are:

In Roman numerals, uppercase means major, lowercase means minor and ° means diminished. The pattern (I ii iii IV V vi vii°) is the same in every major key, so a progression written in numbers works anywhere: I V vi IV is C, G, Am, F in C major and G, D, Em, C in G major.

A progression works because its chords take turns at three jobs, which theory books call tonic, subdominant and dominant. Home chords (I, and to a lesser degree vi and iii) feel settled. Away chords (IV and ii) feel like stepping out the door. Tension chords (V and vii°) want to go somewhere, and the somewhere is I. The pull comes from half steps: G major contains B, a half step below C, and G7 adds F, a half step above E. After a G your ear expects C, and songwriters either give it C or dodge it.

How often the chords change is called the harmonic rhythm, and one chord per bar is the default. The chord move that ends a phrase is a cadence: V to I is the strongest, IV to I is the softer “amen” ending, and stopping on V leaves the phrase hanging like a question.

How to write a chord progression for a song, step by step

This method builds a four-bar loop in C major, which is all white keys on a piano. On guitar, G major is friendlier (G, Am, Bm, C, D, Em, F#dim, five of them open chords), and the numerals carry over: C, Am, F, G (I vi IV V) in C is G, Em, C, D in G. Later you can move the loop to a key that suits your voice.

1. Pick a key and write out its chords. For C major, use the table above. Leave Bdim out for now; it is hard to use well.
2. Start on the home chord. Put C in bar 1. Starting on I tells the listener where home is. For a sad song, start on Am (vi) and the same chords lean minor.
3. Move away with one or two chords. Fill bars 2 and 3 from Dm, Em, F and Am. Roots a third apart share two notes (C and Am share C and E), so the change is gentle. Roots a fourth or fifth apart share one (C and F share C), so the change is firmer. Roots a step apart share none (F and G), so the change sounds like a push. C, Am, F, G goes gentle, gentle, push, then a firm fifth back to C.
4. End on a chord that leads home. Bar 4 is the turnaround, the chord that sends you back to bar 1. G makes the return feel certain, and G7 makes it more certain still. F makes it softer. So C, Am, F, G has a firm return, while C, G, Am, F uses the same chords and lands more gently, because F to C is the amen move.
5. Loop it and listen with a melody in mind. Play the four bars four times at 80 to 110 BPM and hum over them. If one change sounds wrong, swap that chord for one that shares two notes with it: Am for C, Dm for F, Em for G. You can try every step without an instrument on the online chord player: choose C major and tap the chords in order.

Four loops these steps can produce in C major:

What makes a good chord progression?

A good progression is one that does its job under a melody. Five things help:

• A home you can feel. The listener should sense which chord is I, even if you rarely land on it. Progressions that avoid I on purpose sound floaty, which is fine when floaty is the goal.
• Some pull. At least one chord should want to move, usually V, sometimes IV or ii. A loop of only C and Am never goes anywhere, which suits a vamp but can wear thin over a whole song.
• Short moves between chords. Good voice leading means each note in one chord takes the smallest step to a note in the next. From C (C E G) to F (C F A), the C stays put, E steps up to F and G steps up to A.
• A bass line that goes somewhere. The bass is the second tune in any song. A bass that steps (C, B, A, G) often sounds more deliberate than one that leaps between roots.
• Room for the melody. Wordy lines want slower chord changes, and a long held note wants a chord that contains it.

Originality is not on the list. I V vi IV and its rotations sit under an enormous number of songs, and listeners tell those songs apart by melody, rhythm, tempo and sound. Use a common progression without guilt, then make it yours.

How to make chord progressions more interesting

Once the loop works, change one thing at a time and keep what you like. Six ways to spice up a chord progression, each shown on C, G, Am, F:

1. Add 7ths and add9s. Cmaj7, G7, Am7, Fmaj7 is the same progression with a softer, jazzier color. Cadd9 (C E G D) adds color and keeps the chord bright.
2. Use an inversion to walk the bass. An inversion keeps the chord and puts a different chord note at the bottom. Play G with B as its lowest note (written G/B) and the bass line becomes C, B, A, F instead of C, G, A, F. Split bar 3 between Am and Am/G and the bass walks C, B, A, G, F.
3. Borrow a chord from minor. Swap F for Fm, a borrowed chord from C minor, or play F for two beats and Fm for two. Its Ab slides down to G as you return to C, and the moment turns bittersweet. Ab and Bb are other common loans, and Ab, Bb, C makes a big, triumphant ending.
4. Put a chord’s own V in front of it. Replace G with E7: C, E7, Am, F. E7 (E G# B D) is the V of A minor, and its G# leans hard into the A of Am. That is a secondary dominant. A7 before Dm and D7 before G work the same way.
5. Change the harmonic rhythm. Hold C for two bars, squeeze G and Am into bar 3 at two beats each, and give F bar 4. Or move each change half a beat early, onto the “and” of beat 4, so the chords arrive before the downbeat and the song leans forward.
6. Suspend, then resolve. In bar 2, play Gsus4 (G C D) for two beats, then G (G B D). The C falls to B, and the pull toward home gets stronger. Csus2 (C D G) in bar 1 does the opposite job, blurring home so it feels less final.

Stack two or three of these and the plain loop becomes Cadd9, G/B, Am7, then F into Fm: the same four-bar plan with a bass that steps down C, B, A and a bittersweet turn at the end.

How to start a chord progression when you’re stuck

A blank page usually means too many choices. These tricks remove most of them:

• Start somewhere other than I. Open on F, the IV: F, G, Am, C. Or open on Am: Am, F, C, G. Starting away from home makes the first arrival at C feel earned.
• Change one chord in a progression you already like. Take C, G, Am, F and swap G for Em: C, Em, Am, F. With no V left in it, the loop floats instead of pulling home.
• Write the bass line first. Pick a line that steps down C, B, A, G, F, E, D, then jumps to G, and give each note a chord that has it as the root or as the bottom of an inversion: C, G/B, Am, Em/G, F, C/E, Dm, G. That is a close cousin of Pachelbel’s Canon, whose eight chords run I V vi iii IV I IV V.
• Roll a die. Number the chords I to vi from 1 to 6, roll for bars 1 to 3, and make bar 4 a G. Every chord comes from the key, so nothing clashes; reroll any bar you dislike.
• Wander through the key. Play the chords of your key in any order and stop when two changes in a row catch your ear. Gelato Chord puts the seven chords of your key on seven keys labeled with chord names, so you can slide across them hunting for an order you like. Its color wheel (labeled VOICING) adds 7ths and 9ths, or opens the chord toward sus sounds, without changing which chord you are on.
• Walk down in fifths. Roots that fall by a fifth make the strongest moves in harmony, and in C major they chain: Am, Dm, G, C (vi ii V I). Add 7ths (Am7, Dm7, G7, Cmaj7) and the last three chords are a ii V I, the most common chord move in jazz.
• Hum first. Record a melody as a voice memo, then find the chords for your melody by matching its longest notes to chords that contain them.