Knowing why some chord progressions your’e coming up with sound good while others just don’t work at all is an entire area of study in music schools. For many of you, though, a good chord progression is something you can come up with by improvising and by borrowing ideas from other existing progressions.
In this blog I often list the qualities of good chord progressions, but I wonder if it helps, from time to time, to simply list the things that weaken progressions. With that in mind, here are 5 characteristics of chord progressions that make them more of a hindrance than a help in your songwriting:
1. Try to mostly avoid moving chord roots to adjacent letter names.
This is what I mean: C G F Em Dm C. That progression starts with a leap downward of a 4th (C-G), which is good. But then proceeds after that by step: G-F-Em-Dm-C. The problem with that is that it forces most of the notes of those chords to move parallel to the bass, and that’s something that’s a bit too distinctive.
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There’s nothing wrong with moving a bass line step-by-step, though, as long as you mix in some chord inversions (slash chords). By using inversions, you can have the chord roots moving more by 4ths and 5ths, which makes a more satisfying progression.
So that progression above — C G F Em Dm C — might sound better by changing one of the chords to give you this: C G F C/E Dm C. The bass line is the same, but the chords are stronger. Even just that one change makes all the difference. Occasional movement to adjacent letter names is fine, but avoid more than 2 or 3 in a row.
2. Try to avoid moving the bass by an augmented 4th.
It can work, but its first affect is to startle: C Am G A/C# Dm. The bass note on the 4th chord is G, and the one that follows is C#. That means your bass is moving up by the interval of an augmented 4th. For that progression (assuming you’re not trying musically to startle the listener), it’s better to put that A/C# in root position: C Am G A Dm.
3. Mostly avoid progressions that make the key difficult to hear.
To be clear, I’m not talking about progressions that wander from key to key, or where the key could be debatable; those kinds of progressions can be fascinating and very useful in verses and bridges (These are called fragile progressions… See point #5 below). I’m talking about progressions in which the tonic — any tonic — is nonexistent. Here’s a progression that’s just too weird for most songs in the pop genres: C F#m Gm E A Bb C.
To be creative in your music, I recommend targeting the lyrics and melodies as elements that work really well when stretched and manipulated. With your chords, offer a way for the listener to hear a hint of key, and leave musical weirdness to other elements.
4. Don’t keep using the same key and/or progressions.
If you’ve put an EP together where all the songs are in the same key, the audience can experience a kind of musical fatigue without knowing why. For each song you do, try switching key to keep the audience from feeling the numbness that comes from a never-changing key.
If one or two of your songs use the same or very similar progressions, find ways to use chord substitutions. You’ll also find that reworking the song to be in a different tempo and/or time signature can help divert attention away from a similar progression.
5. Don’t use fragile and strong progressions randomly.
A strong progression is one for which the key of the music is clear and obvious. C Am Dm G C is an example of a strong progression. A fragile progression, on the other hand, has a wandering quality, and it is usually less clear what the actual key is. Those can be fascinating and pleasantly creative when used well: Em F Dm Am.. Is it A minor? Is it C major with a missing tonic? The vagueness is very evocative.
The problem is when they’re used randomly throughout a song. Fragile progressions belong mainly in song verses and bridge sections. Strong progressions work anywhere, but especially are needed in a song’s chorus.
That allows the song to move back and forth between fragile and strong, and that kind of contrast makes a song enticing to listen to.
There are always exceptions.
For each one of the problems listed above, you can find songs that actually do them, and do them successfully. Bill Wither’s “Lean On Me,” for example, famously starts with a progression where the chord roots move to adjacent letter names. But that’s an effect, and not something he’d necessarily do in any other song.
Written by Gary Ewer. Follow Gary on Twitter.
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You might be able to help me. My great passion in the business world is developing leaders who learn to bring out the best in themselves and others. In doing so, I want to use music as a bit of a teaching tool but am struggling to find the tools. I need a short audio sample of good harmony and a short audio sample of bad harmony. This will help me make the point of the power of difference when working in concert and adhering to basic universal laws. Got any ideas as to how I find short audio samples of good vs. bad harmony? I would be tremendously grateful for your help and many others would benefit from your assistance in my develop of leadership teaching tools. Much thanks, in advance.
Hi Michael:
By “harmony”, are you talking about singing in harmony? Or are you referring to chord progressions as harmony? I’m assuming when you say “power of difference” you’re likely referring to vocal harmonies.
Bad harmonies are hard to find now, because any group not able to do them well are probably being pitch-corrected. I just did a quick look on Youtube, but was surprised how hard it is to find bad examples. (I thought they’d be very easy to find. ;)) Florence Foster Jenkins is a famously bad singer (the subject of the recent movie starring Meryl Streep), which you can hear here, but I’m not sure if that’s what you had in mind.
-Gary
I suppose that’s why the I IV V, 3 chord movement is very satisfying then. It allows room for melodic and rhythmic invention as well as arrangement possibilities which all sit atop a harmonically simple yet strong and pleasing progression. In one of your other articles you mention that ultimately, as long as the song works the progression used is of lesser importance. Obviously the progression is important but it’s contextual. Genre based. Ultimately it’s the sum of the parts, the timbres, narrative and the arrangement that can make the song. Most modern songs are certainly examples of using simple progressions. BTW, your site is excellent.
Thanks, great article.