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Chord Progression Lesson

This document provides information about chord progressions for piano players. It explains that chord progressions are a series of chord changes that occur throughout a song and flow with the melody. It emphasizes the importance of learning basic chords like major, minor, augmented and diminished chords before studying progressions. The document then discusses how progressions are built using the notes in a scale, and provides examples of common progressions like I-IV-V and I-VI-II-V-I using Roman numerals and the C major scale. It lists several popular chord progression types and shows a table of the 1-4-5 progression in all 12 keys.

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Monica Sanchez
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350 views

Chord Progression Lesson

This document provides information about chord progressions for piano players. It explains that chord progressions are a series of chord changes that occur throughout a song and flow with the melody. It emphasizes the importance of learning basic chords like major, minor, augmented and diminished chords before studying progressions. The document then discusses how progressions are built using the notes in a scale, and provides examples of common progressions like I-IV-V and I-VI-II-V-I using Roman numerals and the C major scale. It lists several popular chord progression types and shows a table of the 1-4-5 progression in all 12 keys.

Uploaded by

Monica Sanchez
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Chord Progression Lesson

for Piano Players


A chord progression can be described as a series of chord changes that are played
throughout a piece of music. When you listen to music of different genres you will notice
that there are several changes that occur. These changes normally flow with the melody of
the piece. The changes that you hear taking place in music are musical progressions.
Whether you play the guitar, organ or piano in a band you will have to make some form of
relative movements that falls within the structure of the song.
Important Notice - Before you approach the concept of chord progression, it is very
important that you learn to play all the basic chords on your piano or keyboard. Some of the
basic chords you need to know are major, minor,augmented and diminished. All other
chords will fall into place as you learn more about the piano.
Click here for more information on piano chords!

The main idea behind progressions


Progressions are built based on the position of notes in a scale. Each note within a major
scale is used to form a specific chord. The notes in a scale are represented by numbers
called intervals.
Here is an example below:

Roman numerals are traditionally used in music to represent note positions, but
contemporary musicians have used the universal numeral system.
Here is an example below:

Each position of a note within a major scale is used to form a chord. Below is an illustration
that will explain more.

In the illustration above the 1st or tonic note forms the tonic or main chord which is a
major. You should notice that the 1st, 4th and 5th notes of the scale are all major chords
while the 2nd, 3rd and 6th notes are minor chords. The 7th note forms a diminished
chord which will be discussed in another lesson. This method applies to all major scales.
Chord progressions are normally represented by numbers. For example 1,4,5 or I-IV-V.
This type of progression is called the one-four-five progression. If this type of movement is
done in the C major scale then you would play C major chord, F major chord and G major
chord.
Types of progressions
There are different types of chord progression in music. Here is a list of some popular
progressions that are played on the piano, organ or synthesizer.
1-4-5 (I-IV-V)
1-3-4-5 (I-III-IV-V)
1-2-5-1 (I-II-V-I)
1-4-2-5-1 (I-IV-II-V-I)
1-6-2-5-1 (I-VI-II-V-I)
1-3-6-2-5-1 (I-III-VI-II-V-I)

Take a look at how these progressions are apply in the key of C major.

There are some songs that use the 1-4-5 or 1-5-4 progressions throughout the entire
music. However, most popular musical styles such as rhythm and blues, funk, rock, gospel
and jazz use two or more different progressions.
It is very important that you know how to play all the progressions listed above in every
key, so you will need to practice. However, it is very important that you take them one step
at a time.
Below is a table showing all the chords for the 1-4-5 progression in all 12 keys on the piano.

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