Chord progressions come in a variety of shapes and sizes, ranging from simple major and minor chord progressions to more complex ones like those used in jazz. Simple chord progressions in any key usually revolve around the first, fourth, and fifth chords, while more complex progressions include notes like the seventh. Chords like suspended chords and diminished chords can be used in more complex chord progressions.
Music theory, which is a purely theoretical way of composing and thinking about music, is used to create chord progressions. The notes in a key are numbered from one to seven in music theory, and this numbering system can be applied to any key. For example, the key of C major is numbered one through seven in that order. For a chord progression, the first, fourth, and fifth notes are generally thought to sound good together.
Musical chords can be classified into a variety of categories. Major and minor chords are the most common chord types, and they sound “happy” and “sad,” respectively. Major chords are made up of the first, third, and fifth notes, with a higher first note added on top.
The third in minor chords is flattened. There are also seventh chords, which use the musical seventh note, and suspended chords, which use a second or fourth in place of the third. There are numerous other types of chords.
The first, fourth, and fifth chords are major chords in most chord progressions, while the second, third, and sixth chords are minor chords. A diminished chord is the seventh chord. From the first to the fourth and then to the fifth is the most basic of all chord progressions. From the sixth to the second, then the third, is a simple minor chord progression. However, these can be mixed; for instance, a chord progression could go from the first to the sixth, then the fourth and fifth.
In more complex progressions, the fifth can be replaced with the seventh, and the first with the third. These produce a variety of sounds that can be used to make more interesting songs. In jazz chord progressions, for example, replacing the first with the third is common.
The “12 bar blues,” which consists of four bars of the first, two of the fourth, two of the first, one of the fifth, one of the fourth, and two of the first, is the most common blues chord progression. The use of seventh chords is also common in blues. It’s also worth noting that, while music theory is frequently used to create chord progressions, the rules can be bent the musician.