“What Chords Come Next?” A Beginners Guide To Chord Progressions

This is a continuation of my beginners’ guides for guitar and music theory. If music theory is new to you and you still don’t fully understand the basics of theory yet, please read my guides on scales and modes, then read my article on chords and keys. If you have a strong understanding on those, feel free to dig in!

Understanding Harmonic Functions

If you’ve never heard of the word “Harmonic Functions”, this is going to be your best friend. It’s so simple, and will take away a lot of guess work when you start to create music.

Essentially, every single chord has a function. They all play a part in a key and help a progression in their own way. You can see each of their names in the photo below.

Don’t worry about memorizing the names above, because there’s an even easier chart that not just tells you each chord’s function, but is easier to utilize for your own progressions.

All 7 chords could be divided into 3 categories: Tonic, Subdominant, and Dominant.

A Tonic chord is one that feels safe and comfortable. You don’t have to move as it feels like home.

The most loved Tonic chord is the I (1) chord, aka the chord of the Key. While I is the best and strongest Tonic chord since everything else is based on that chord, there are actually 2 other Tonic chords, the iii (3) and vi (6). If you look at these chords carefully, you’ll notice that both the iii and the vi share 2 notes with the I chord. While having the I note in it is nice, the iii is equally as important, if not more important since that is the note that makes the key major or minor.

In the Key of C, the I chord (C Major) has C E G. The iii chord (E minor) has E G B, and the vi chord (A Minor) has A C E. You’ll see that E minor shares E and G with the I chord, and A minor shares C and E with the I chord. The only note that they all share is the 3rd/iii note in the scale, E. As we continue on, you’ll see that no other chord has this note in it. Thus, while these minor chords may sound a little sad or uneasy, they still sound stable since they share a lot with the home chord.

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A Subdominant chord creates movement. It has a floating or fleeting kind of feeling.

Subdominant chords are represented by the ii (2) and IV (4). If a Tonic chord is similar to someone relaxing and chilling at home, the Subdominant chord is similar to someone packing up and leaving home to begin an adventure. These chords want to move to something bigger, a big event or a strong boss, and that would be the Dominant chord.

In the Key of C, the ii chord (D Minor) has D F A, and the IV chord (F Major) has F A C. If you look closely, the ii chord shares no note with I chord. Every note is I note higher than those in the root chord, so resolving back to I so soon isn’t that satisfying. You’ll want to move forward to bigger things…you JUST left home! The IV does have the I note (C) at the end of the chord, but it’s still quite some distance away. So while the IV can resolve beautifully to I, you can still push a little more to create more tension before going back to I.

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The Dominant chord is the climax of a progression. It has a lot of tension that wants to be resolved by going back to a Tonic, specifically the I.

Dominant chords are represented by V (5) or vii (7). These chords have a bold and prominent sound that is quite uneasy to stay on for long.

In the key of C, the V (G Major) has G B D, and the viio (B Diminished) has B D F. Both these chords have 2 notes that are surrounding the I (C) note, the most important being the vii (B) which is dubbed the “Leading Tone” as it is only a half step away from the I (C).

Thus, using these chords create a lot of friction and pressure that eagerly wants to resolve to the tonic. If and when you do, it will have the most satisfying ending one can imagine. Though, you have the option to tease by using another tonic chord (iii or vi) instead.

Exploring The Infamous I – IV – V Progression

In Western music, the most talked about progression is I – IV – V. The blues, which is where the majority of western music derives from, is based on this progression. You’ll also notice a lot of rock songs and pop songs love it.

At a quick glance, you’ll notice that all the chords in this progression is Major. People love major chords. Not only do they sound happier, but they are bold and high energy. But based on the information in the previous section, you’ll notice it is a ‘perfect’ progression:

We start on the tonic I, we create movement with the subdominant IV, then we create a lot of tension with the dominant V, and then it would resolve back to I, which is the most satisfying ending.

Exploring Other Common Progressions

Let’s explore some common chord progressions. We already explored the I – IV – V (- I), so let’s jump into the second.

2. I -> ii -> V -> I
Tonic -> Subdominant -> Dominant -> Tonic

3. I – vi – IV – V
Tonic -> Tonic -> Subdominant -> Dominant

4. I -> vi -> ii -> V
Tonic -> Tonic -> Subdominant -> Dominant

5. I -> IV -> vi -> V
Tonic -> Subdominant -> Tonic -> Dominant

6. I -> V -> vi -> IV
Tonic -> Dominant -> Tonic -> Subdominant

What Are The Rules For Creating Your Own?

Honestly, while there are tips for creating a good progression, and you can easily just reuse a progression that hundreds of songs have used before, there are no real rules.

The main reason I dug so deeply into music theory was to not just to play guitar better, but because I wanted to create Japanese-inspired music one day. I’ve been listening to Japanese and anime music since 2006, and I always noticed it sounded different from regular pop music and had a way of evoking emotions, but I didn’t consider the theory until I picked up guitar a couple years ago. When I would use western music theory, it didn’t even come close to how anime music sounded.

It took a very long time with little clues to get me on the right path, but the famous ‘anime progression’ (aka the Royal Road progression) “IV-V-iii-vi” opened my eyes. Every single western progression lesson would tell me to start and/or end on I, but then I saw this and was like…that doesn’t always have to be the case.

Adding on, as I dug deeper, I learned that they use a lot of other tricks like borrowed chords (changing a major to a minor chord and vice versa), secondary dominants (while V is the main dominant, any other chord could be a dominant too and drive the progression towards a different chord), and even modulation (changing the key in the middle of the song).

One thing that I also really love about Japanese music is that their progressions can be a lot longer than 3 or 4 chords cycles, even being 6 or 8 or 12 chords! They have actually incorporated the Canon progression (I-V-vi-iii-IV-I-IV-V) into a lot of pop songs too. I didn’t even realize this until recently, but the very first Japanese song I heard (and learned the lyrics to) back then, Butterfly by Kouji Wada from Digimon, actually uses this progression during the chorus!

If Japanese music is new to you, I think Marty Friedman does a great job at displaying the differences between American and Japanese music here. Feel free to check out my Japanese Music Resources page as well for more lessons and information 🙂

But that all goes to show that just because something is common or preferred, doesn’t mean you have to stick to that. Heck, I can’t tell you how many western lessons I’ve seen that told me to ignore and neglect diminished chords, but Japanese artists don’t shy away from them. They’ll use both diminished and half diminished chords as they see fit.

So play around with the chords and see what kinds of chords you like beside each other. Even if it sounds a bit weird, it’s just because you’re not used to it. With additional instruments or a unique solo, anything could work. A song is a story, and not all stories are predictable or pleasant.

So check out some common progressions, see what you can add or change, experiment with your own progressions and just have fun. See what progression would work best for the story you want to tell.

Conclusion

I hope this guide has helped you understand chords a bit more and get started with song writing. As long as you pick chords within a key and follow these guidelines, making a song on the spot is quite easy to do. If you want a great place to start, check out my Guitar eBook with 15 chord progressions and strumming patterns, with 5 keys each!

Once you get comfortable with the basics, you will feel more confident using extended chords or borrowing chords from outside the diatonic scale. You can also create longer progressions and play around with key changes and/or modulation.

As mentioned above, the main reason I started digging more into theory and progressions was because of Japanese music sounded so different and western music theory wasn’t helping. For more insight into the genre, you can check out my article Why Japanese Music Sounds So Different, or check out my eBook which has 10 progressions plus many tips that you can incorporate into your music.

If you liked this article, be sure to subscribe and/or like my Facebook page. You can also leave me a tip on Ko-Fi! Any donations are greatly appreciate and allow me to keep writing articles like this one ^_^

To finish this off, I’m going to leave you with a couple videos from David Bennett Piano. He has quite a few videos where he goes over progressions and explain what is happening in songs. Definitely worth subscribing to!