Circle progressions are useful because they show us the general flow of chords in a song. From one chord to the next, we can see where things are going. And while each pattern may be unique, one rule always holds true—every song has a definite sense of movement and direction. In other words, good music

In our last song, “Pachelbel’s Canon,” we added even more chords to a progression to create some very cool sounds. By rearranging the major scale pattern, we ended up with something beautiful. And it’s a simple trick, really. All we did was take a few major and minor chords, switch them around a bit, and

When we say the primary chords (I, IV, V) are popular, we ain’t kidding. They show up all the time in music. And while a lot of simple folk and pop songs use these triads, the most common example of a primary chord progression is what musicians call the “12-bar blues.” Without a doubt, you’ve

In music, primary chords are so popular it’s almost a cliché. In fact, a lot of musicians live on a simple diet of just those three chords—the tonic (I), subdominant (IV), and dominant (V). Like a nice plate of rice and beans, we can serve these three triads up in a variety of ways … and

You’ve got to admit, the flow between the tonic chord (I) and the dominant chord (V) is nice. And that’s because the movement from one triad to the next is like a short visit with a good friend. But after a while it’s fun to with hang out with other friends, too. So musicians like

After playing through each major scale progression, you might have noticed something cool. For some crazy reason, Mother Nature totally loves us. Instead of throwing us some curveball, she decided to make things easy. When it comes to chord progressions, we don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Because they’re really just based on the same,

It’s fun to add chords to a song. Because each one helps “fatten out” the melody and propel the music forward. But at some point, you may be wondering how we decide on which chords to use. In other words, do we just randomly throw chords into a song … or is there some logic

Musicians are always creating cool, new sounds by using different chord patterns in a song. Together with scales and melodies, chords and progressions are like the nuts and bolts of music. All we have to do is combine these patterns, and we really start to see the payoff of everything we’ve learned so far. You see, it

The nice thing about seventh chords is that they have just four notes … which means they’re as easy to play as our old friends, the basic triads. And while you’ll sometimes see different types of seventh chords in music, the most common one is definitely the dominant seventh chord. For some reason, notes “1-3-5-b7” just sound good together.

In most of the music you’ll play, each chord will have only three notes. The average song includes only basic major triads and minor triads. And occasionally, you might see a few augmented triads and diminished chords. But for the most part, musicians keep it simple … and they stick with the major chords and minor