Harmonic Chord Progression Chart
Common progressions with their harmonic function · pick a key, hit play, watch the chords move home
How to play
- Every chord in a key has a harmonic function — a job in the push-and-pull toward home. Tonic (T) is home & rest; Subdominant (S) moves away; Dominant (D) creates tension that pulls back to the tonic. Most progressions cycle T → S → D → T.
- Pick a key and major/minor, then tap a progression to load it. The strip colours each chord by function.
- Play steps through with a moving highlight; turn on Loop to repeat. Drag Tempo to change speed. Tap any chord in the strip to hear it on its own.
- Roman numerals name each chord by scale degree, so the same progression transposes to any key. Vol sets volume. Keyboard: Tab + Enter/Space.
You might be interested in learning about harmony, exploring your own compositional ideas, or simply wanting to hear how chord progressions work across keys. This interactive chord progression chart will allow you to play around with various chords and learn more about how they interacts.
You can move around the application using keyboard on your computer, or click buttons and controls with your mouse. Begin by selecting a tonal center and mode. Use a key selector to choose any key from C, F. Then, you can explore different scales that does not change how the chords relate to each other. Then change between major and minor modes to listen to the changes in harmonic color. When you change the mode/key it will update chord strip to show new chord qualities relative to the new scale degrees.
How to Use the Chord Progression Chart
After you’ve picked out your key, pick a pattern (or choose one from the list of popular progressions). You’ll have some familiar options such as I… IV, V for both rock and blues; I, V; vi (IV for pop standards); and ii, V, I for jazz classics. After you tap a button it will load corresponding pattern into the visual strip below.
This strip shows name of each chord in the selected key. It also shows the Roman numeral and the chord’s harmonic function in color. In this way, the colour coding give you an idea of what function each chord has in the progression.
Tonic (blue) are those chords that give us a feeling of home and stability. Subdominant (green) is chords that propel us towards the tonic. Dominant (orange) is chords that have tension and want to naturaly pull back to the tonic. Watching these colors change in different patterns can help you hear why some progressions sound resolved while others do not.
Simply click on play button below and let it run automatically to hear the music. As it progresses through sequence, currently active chord will be indicated, so you’ll always know what part of the progression you’re on. Use the slider to control how fast pattern plays so that you can slow more difficult passages, or speed up things that you might already know. To have pattern play continuously, turn on loop button.
The chords is audible without having to play them back. Each button on the strip can be clicked to sound just that single chord. This makes it possible to isolate a change and also to feel how the dominant chord sounds before it is resolve.
There’s also a volume slider so you can control overall output level to match your space. Click the fullscreen button to open widget to full size. On small screens this is particularly useful for seeing more of the chord strip. It also opens up the chart so it’s even bigger and easier to read.
The help button will toggle a guide panel that quickly explains how everything work and reminds you what each color means. You can use tab key to move around all the interactive parts, and then hit space or enter to activate buttons.
Try using these chords together. This trains your ear to pick out progressions more easy. Try playing a major progression and then switching to minor to hear how the subdominant and dominant functions changes character. Also, spend some time learning one progression by playing it on repeat (loop). That way you’ll get the feel for the flow of that particular progression.
Alternatively, you could of tap your way through a progression manually so it isn’t automated for you. It is not meant to replace notation, but rather to serve as a listening aid and a quick reference guide. By stripping out all the clutter it focuses on functional relationship between chords.
Whether you are a beginner or an experienced player, the chart will immediately give you sound feedback and allow you to check your understanding or learn those first progressions. Just choose a key that you are familiar with and hit play. See how colors and sounds align.