Chord progressions

I need some common chord progressions that is good for learning. Can anyone share some good progressions, or a nice resource perhaps?

 

I would recommend the Jazz Piano book by Mark Levine. Also the Jazz theory book by the same author.
These books go through not only good chord progressions but also described how one would practice it.
They also sort of show how complex chord progressions can be derived from simpler ones.

I really think these books are sort of the 101 book for jazz pianists (though I am sure you can find others.) I would give yourself time to read these 2 book.

Also the best way to discover chord progressions is to play lots of songs! Find a few of you're favorite songs and learn to play them in all 12 keys (something I need to do more of) With any luck you will start to notice common elements between these songs. Just a few crazy ideas ...

 

I too wanted recently to learn a chord progression so i made a list of some chords that i like

personally i like jazzy chords

e.g. m7s , M7s , half diminished 7s, +7s,

so i came up with this progression

CM7 , Dm7 , FM7 , D half diminished 7th ,

CM7 , Am7 , B augmented , G .

with these simple chords and some imagination you can improvise for hours!!!
(you could also make your own list with chords that u like and mix them up )

if you want any help with these chords just visit my blog and ask me about anything

http://piano-discussions.blogspot.com/

(also check out this simple improvisation i did with some of the chords i mentioned)

 

Thank you. The reason I asked was to improve my website with good chord progressions for practice. I would love some feedback and suggestions on more chord progressions to add!

http://www.chordpractice.com

 

http://www.wikifonia.org/ is a website archive of a huge collection of chord charts (mostly jazz standards I think). If you don't want to play a whole 32 bar chord sequence then you'll often find that the jazz charts can be broken down into 4 or 8 bar sections, each providing quite a satisfying chord progression in it's own right.

If you don't already know it, the blues chord progression is a must. NB the dominant 7 chord is the fundamental harmony here, any of the chords can be extended or altered with pleasing results. (eg dom9 dom#9 etc..)

| I7 | IV7 | I7 | I7 |
| IV7 | IV7 | I7 | I7 |
| V7 | IV7 | I7 | V7 ||

Then you get a variant on this, the jazz blues progression. NB if you don't know already, upper case roman numerals indicate major and lowercase indicate minor. I'll also add extended chords in this but again these can be plaid with and varied.

| I9 | IV9 | I9 | v9(minor) I9|
| IV9 | IV7b9 | I9 | VI7b9 | NB the VI chord always sounds especially good when altered. Both the b9 and the #9 work very well.
|ii9 | V13 | I9 VI7b9 | ii9 V13 || and repeat.

Anyway, that second one is awesome. Have fun.

 

If you are looking for harmony patterns as found in jazz and pop type music, here are a few common ones.

The full cycle of diatonic 5ths (these can be triads or 7th chords):
I IV VII III VI II V I

(This actually contains the basis for any number of chord patterns, simply jump from I to any chord before the final I and continue. If done fully diatonic, I and IV are major, VII is diminished triad or half-diminished 7 (m7b5), III, VI and II are minor, and V is dominant. VII can become minor (7), III, VI, and II can be minor, half-diminished, or dominant. The pattern does not work well with Im.)

From this we get:
I VI II V I -- ("Heart and Soul" or about a third of the music written in the 1950's)
I III VI II V I (III, VI, II dominant -- "Five Foot Two", "Sweet Georgia Brown" or, with some switching between m and dominant on VI and II -- "All of Me")
I IV V IV (another third of the 1950's output -- "Summer Lovin'" from "Grease" is an example as is "La Bamba")
And of course one should know each II V combination (and its equivalents e.g. VI II; III VI, etc.) as it is so basic to jazz)

Then there is "Rhythm Changes" which is the chord pattern in Gershwin's "I've Got Rhythm":
I VI II V | III VI II V | I I7(w/7 bass) IV (w/ 3rd in bass) IVm (w/ b3 in bass)| V V | I --
Bridge: III7 | VI7 | II7 | V7

(There are a lot of variations on this)

Most of the above, particularly the cycle ones can be altered by replacing any chord with its tritone substitute (this is the chord, usually a dominant quality, whose root is a tritone from the original. Thus a VI is replaced with bIII7, II with bVI7 -- these are essentially the augmented 6th / Neapolitan 6ths of the "Classical / Romantic" period.

Hope this gives you some ideas.

Scott

 

There are many different ways to combine chords to form a piece of music. "Combine chords" simply is moving from one chord to another in a harmonic framework. All the chord progressions are based upon major scales and the scale tone chords. This means that the the 1st, 4th, and 5th tones (notes) will always be Major chords, the 2nd, 3rd, and 6th tones (notes) will always be minor chords and the 7th tone (note) will always be a diminished chord. These will be the 3-note or triad chords.

A diminished chord is composed of a 1st, b3rd (flatted third), and b5th (flatted fifth) tones (notes) of a major scale. This means the 3rd and 5th tones (notes) are lowered one half step. Using the key of "C" as an example the B diminished chord (triad) would contain the tones (notes) B, D, and F.

For the 7th chord progression chords, the 1st and 4th tones (notes) will always be Major 7th chords, the 2nd,3rd, and 6th tones (notes) will always be minor 7th chords, the 5th tone (note) will always be a dominant 7th chord and the 7th tone (note) will always be a half diminished 7th chord.

A dominant 7th chord is formed by combining the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and b7th (flatted seventh) tones (notes) of a major scale. This means you would lower the 7th tone (note) one half step. A half diminished 7th chord is formed by combining the 1st, b3rd (flatted 3rd), b5th (flatted fifth), and b7th (flatted seventh) tones (notes) of a major scale. This would let you lower the 3rd, 5th, and 7th tones (notes) one half step.

Using the key of "C" as an example a G dominant 7th chord would contain the tones (notes) G,B,D, and F and a B half diminished 7th chord would have the tones (notes) B,D,F, and A.