Chord Movement Chart
How chords pull toward each other · tap a chord to see where it wants to go
How to play
- Tap any chord in the map. Its typical destination chords light up in green and arrows point to them, and you hear the two-chord move.
- Chords are grouped by function: Tonic (home — I, iii, vi), Predominant (departure — ii, IV), Dominant (tension — V, vii°). Music flows Tonic → Predominant → Dominant → Tonic.
- Play cycle runs I → IV → V → I so you can hear the whole functional loop. Change key to hear it anywhere.
- V → I is the authentic cadence; V → vi is the deceptive one; IV → I is the plagal (“Amen”). Vol sets volume.
- Keyboard — Tab to any chord or control, Enter/Space to activate.
The interactive chart above illustrates how chords is naturaly attracted to other chords in music. You can choose chord you wish to explore by using your computer keyboard. You can also move your mouse around nodes of each chord.
Each harmony tends to move toward certain places within a progression; these is grouped together visually by their function. At the top of the widget, you will find a row of buttons for different musical keys. Clicking on any key will transpose whole chart so you can listen to these chord changes as they might sound in that new key, which not only gives you an opportunity to play through the progression in several keys but also lets you match the widget to whatever song you’re practicing.
How to Use This Tool
Seven circular nodes represents each of the diatonic chords within your chosen major scale. They is positioned by function from left to right across main area. This presents a clear structure that flows from tonic home areas through tensions and departures in the predominant and dominant towards home again. It highlights chord name for that node in your chosen key, as well as its roman numeral analysis (i.e., V or I).
The chosen chord will light up and lines will be drawn connecting it to most commonly expected next chords. If you click on one of these nodes, you’ll hear that chord plus a short two-chord sequence. This shows how the harmony are pulled in that direction and gives you an instant audio example of what the theory describe.
Just below the map is a text display that translates into plain language what’s currently selected. It also lists chords it normally moves towards based off traditional voice leading rules. It tells you what chord you tapped to reinforce what you’re hearing, this helps link the visual connections with their musical names.
This has a run-through of a typical series of chords in a continuous loop (use play cycle button). This allows you to see the full journey from tonic to pre-dominant to dominant and back to tonic. It shows the full arch of tension and release, this means you can start to understand how each chord progression forms part of a pleasing phrase.
Below that there’s a volume slider which control the audio output. This can be handy if you want to listen quietly or perhaps you have a noisy room where you use piano. After you set it, the volume stay the same when you choose new chords, keys, or sounds so you should of not have to keep resetting it.
To make chord nodes bigger and easier to tap on smaller screens, there’s a fullscreen button in top corner you can click that expands the widget to take up your whole browser window if you want more screen space. Click it again to exit fullscreen mode.
There is also a little guide that explains what each group of function mean as well as the colour coding for destination and source chord so click the how to play button to open the help panel for a handy reminder if you need it. This closes whenever you like and returns you to the chart.
For example, select a dominant chord and listen to possible resolutions. Note that although they are both shown as valid moves, the authentic cadence sounds different than the deceptive one. It’s also worth trying changing key to discover that same roman numeral relationships still works no matter what the pitch level.