This progression forms the basis for many rock and roll tunes like Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” (Bb – Eb – F in Bb major). In pop music, the four-chord progression reigns supreme. One of the most popular is the I-V-vi-IV progression, which you can hear in numerous hits. In the key of C, this would be C – G – Am – F.Blues sometimes uses this scale too, particularly if that blues starts out with a minor chord. In fact, you can read about the use of the harmonic minor scale’s and harmonic minor chords use in blues in a previous article. Instead of using one of the above styles to use this scale, we will derive the chords used from the scale itself. It
Here are five popular pop chord progressions, all explained in C major or A minor, although you can transpose them into any other key for your own purposes. Steal, remix and augment these chord progressions to create your own spin when writing your pop song. 1. I – V – vi – IV : C major, G major, A minor, F major.
Roman numerals identify the scale degree of the chord’s root, the chord’s quality, and any extensions or inversions the chord may include. Because Roman numerals convey the same information across major and minor key signatures, using them can save time in analyzing Western common practice music. The riff itself uses chords centered around the key of D Minor (A, Dm, F, and C), which draws out a very melancholic atmosphere, even though there’s only one minor chord that serves as the tonic of the progression.