Chord progressions

Choose a key and see the seven chords that belong to it, each with a diagram, what each one does and where it usually goes next. Below are progressions many songs are built on and the ways a line of a song can end, written in your key, ready to hear and to strum.

Instrument
Note names
Key
Scale
SeventhsSmooth bass
Each chord

The chords of G major

Tap a chord to hear it.

Under each chord, its job. Home (the tonic) is where songs rest. Pull home (the dominant, V and vii°) leans hard back to it. Lead-in (the predominant, IV and ii) prepares that pull. Between (vi and iii) leads on to the lead-in. Songs mostly move in that order, toward home.

Progressions in G major

Songs in every style are built on these. Each plays once, one bar for each chord.

I – V – vi – IV
GDEmC
Strum it
I – vi – IV – VEnds open, on V
GEmCD
Strum it
vi – IV – I – VEnds open, on V
EmCGD
Strum it
I – IV – V – IV
GCDC
Strum it
I – IV – vi – VEnds open, on V
GCEmD
Strum it
IV – V – iii – vi
CDBmEm
Strum it
ii – V – IEnds at home
AmDG
Strum it
I – IV – I – VEnds open, on V
GCGD
Strum it
I – V – vi – iii – IV – I – IV – VEnds open, on V
GDEmBmCGCD
Strum it
I – I – I – I – IV – IV – I – I – V – IV – I – VEnds open, on V
GGGGCCGGDCGD
Strum it
I – IV – V – IEnds at home
GCDG
Strum it
I – vi – ii – VEnds open, on V
GEmAmD
Strum it

Endings in G major

How a line of a song can end. A full close sounds like a full stop; a half close like a comma, waiting for more. A good plan: end the first line on V and the last line on I.

V – I
Full close:DG
V to I, both with their root in the bass: the strongest ending (authentic cadence).
I6/4 – V – I
Full close through the 6/4:G/DDG
The home chord with its fifth in the bass, then V, then home: the bass sings 5, 5, 1.
IV – V
Half close:CD
Any chord to V, and stop there: a comma, the song goes on (half cadence).
IV – I
Amen:CG
IV to I: the soft close sung at the end of many hymns (plagal cadence).
V – vi
Surprise:DEm
V to vi: the ear expects home and lands somewhere else, so the song goes on (deceptive cadence).

Chords and progressions are worked out in your browser; nothing is sent.