Basic Chord Progressions Every Songwriter Should Know
A small set of chord progressions covers most of what you hear in popular music, and learning to read them with roman numerals makes them usable in any key.
Harmony and Chord Progressions
Harmony is the backdrop a melody moves against, and the choices underneath a line change how it feels without changing a single note of it. This category introduces chord progressions, diatonic harmony, and simple harmonic color in plain language, built for writers who think in feel first and theory second.
Understanding Diatonic Harmony
Diatonic harmony describes the seven chords that live naturally inside a single key, and understanding how they relate to each other is the foundation of writing confident chord progressions.
Borrowed Chords and Simple Modal Color
Borrowed chords bring a touch of color from outside your song's main key, and a single well-placed one can add emotional depth without disrupting the progression around it.
Harmonic Rhythm: Pacing Your Chord Changes
Harmonic rhythm describes how frequently chords change in a song, and adjusting that pace is one of the simplest ways to shape energy from section to section.
Writing Chord Progressions That Support a Mood
The chords beneath a lyric carry their own emotional weight, and learning to read that weight helps a songwriter choose progressions that support, rather than fight, the mood they're going for.