What are popular chord progressions?
Popular chord progressions are simply combinations of chords that have been used in the same order, many times, in a vast range of music across different genres.
One can only speculate why these particular chord progressions are so commonly used. Perhaps it is because they resonate emotionally with listeners, or perhaps it is simply that in the context of Western tonality and keys, certain notes tend towards each other naturally.
Regardless of the reason, understanding these progressions and being able to incorporate them into your music is a great way to evoke particular moods.
You can think of popular chord progressions as a part of the “grammar” of music. Just like how sentences follow grammatical rules to make sense, chord progressions follow certain patterns that listeners recognize as musically satisfying.
Check out this guide to learn more about the basics of music theory.
Remember that no one has any ownership over chord progressions. You can, and should, use the same chord progressions as any of your favorite songs.
What are chords?
Before we start looking into actual chord progressions, we should understand what chords themselves are. A chord is simply a combination of two or more notes played simultaneously. More often though, chords are made up of three notes, forming what we call a “triad.” Triads typically include a root note, a third, and a fifth note.
The numbers we are referring to here are degrees of a scale. So when we say something like a “third” we are referring to the third note in a scale. Check out this article if you’d like to wrap your head around the degrees of the scale and how they form different chords.
Triads can be categorized into a few basic types. A few of those types are:
1. Major triads – these have a bright sound which some people describe as “happy.”
