Piano Chord Progressions

Hi everyone,

So, you want to understand piano chord progressions?  That can be an intimidating undertaking even for a music major.  There are some general rules, though, that if followed can help you stay within the boundaries of the common practice period rules. 

The common practice period covers the Baroque, Classic and Romantic periods of music history and most of our modern day music is based on the rules from this three hundred year time span.  Most of the ‘rules’ for modern day music come from this era via the likes of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart etc.

While this discussion is designed to talk at a high level we’ve reviewed some online courses that will help you ‘get down in the weeds’ of piano chord progressions.  We do not attempt to go, in this undertaking, to the performance level of understanding but we review courses that do.

Click for Piano For All Course

Let’s proceed with some of the basics at this point to at least get you started with a baseline understanding of piano chord progressions.  We make the assumption that you can read music and understand basics of key signatures. 

If you don’t we would strongly recommend page one of this article for more information about basic chord structures.   If you do have the basics down then later you can transition to more hands on application courses to continue your study.

First of all let us clarify that chord functions such as I, II, III, etc. refer to the number 1, 2, and 3 chords in a given key.  In other words, using the ‘F’ scale the I would be an ‘F’, the II is a ‘G’ and the III an ‘A’.

Now, based on some of the basics of harmony we will look at 3 traditional functions for a piano chord progression.  First of all we have the tonic function chords (I, III, VI) which function as places of rest.  Next we have the dominant function chords (III, V, VII) serving as leading toward tonic function chords.  Third, we have the sub-dominant function chords (II, IV, VI) which are more or less somewhere between the other two.  While the tonic is stable and the dominant a leader, sub-dominants can go either way depending on how they are used in the music.

Looking at progressions from a tonic chord we find they may be followed by either dominant or sub-dominant.  Dominant chords are usually leading toward a tonic and a sub-dominant is usually followed by a dominant or sometimes a tonic.  Piano chord progressions follow these same rules of course.

So thinking linearly:  Tonic—Subdominant—Dominant—Tonic is a typical progression although the subdominant can sometimes be omitted.

Now, to determine which of the 3 chords in each category you should use there are 4 rules for the root of the chord to typically follow (others are possible):

  1. Up a 4th (or down a 5th)
  2. Down a 3rd
  3. Up a 2nd
  4. Up a 5th (down a 4th)

Combining the above to write a chord progression you would:

1.  Select a sequence of the functions such as:

Tonic—Sub-dominant—Dominant—Tonic—Sub-dominant—Dominant—Tonic

2.  Choose chords under each function:

(I, III,VI)     (IV,II,VI)           (V, VII, III)     (I, III,VI)        (IV,II,VI)          (V, VII, III)   (I, III,VI)  

3.  Select a chord in each function and apply the 4 rules above.  Example:      under the tonic let’s say you pick the ‘I’ chord.  I’m now moving, based on #2 above to the Sub-dominant so I’ll pick (from my list of 4 above) Up a 4th…BINGO….it’s a IV chord.  I then take the IV chord and move to the Dominant function and pick up a 2nd and we have a V chord which is one of our dominant functions….and on and on we go following these rules of composition.

If you follow the steps above you will have a workable piano chord progression or of course for a composition.  The way you voice that will be a difference maker, though, in the way it sounds and we would recommend a course like Rocket Piano to help you work that part of the progression puzzle out.  Happy chording!

Click the link to the right if you would like to return to page one of How To Play Piano Chords and read more about chord basics as they rate to piano chord progressions.

While we recommend Power Piano Chords on page one for chording basics such as chord building, for a more advanced and robust set of curriculum on progressions, we strongly recommend Piano For All.

Click for the Piano For All course

UA-16026774-1