Pick a key and a mood and get a chord progression that works: chords spelled correctly for the key, Roman numerals, borrowed chords labeled, piano playback you can loop, and a MIDI file for your DAW. Free, no signup, and it all runs in your browser.
Most songs reuse a handful of progressions. The table spells each one in C major or A minor; the generator plays them in any key and builds new variations around them.
| Progression | Roman numerals | In C major / A minor | Sound |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pop axis | I–V–vi–IV | C – G – Am – F | bright, anthemic |
| Axis from the vi | vi–IV–I–V | Am – F – C – G | wistful, emotional |
| 50s doo-wop | I–vi–IV–V | C – Am – F – G | nostalgic, sweet |
| Pachelbel's Canon | I–V–vi–iii–IV–I–IV–V | C – G – Am – Em – F – C – F – G | warm, classical |
| Jazz ii–V–I | ii7–V7–Imaj7 | Dm7 – G7 – Cmaj7 | smooth, resolved |
| Royal road (J-pop, K-pop) | IVmaj7–V–iii7–vi | Fmaj7 – G – Em7 – Am | bittersweet lift |
| Minor pop and EDM | i–VI–III–VII | Am – F – C – G | driving, epic |
| Andalusian cadence | i–VII–VI–V | Am – G – F – E | dramatic, Spanish |
| Mixolydian rock | I–♭VII–IV–I | C – Bb – F – C | loose, swaggering |
Every major key has the same pattern of chord qualities: major on I, IV and V, minor on ii, iii and vi, and diminished on vii°. Its relative minor shares the same seven chords starting from vi, which is why C major and A minor use the same notes.
| Degree | C major | A minor |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | I · C | i · Am |
| 2 | ii · Dm | ii° · Bdim |
| 3 | iii · Em | III · C |
| 4 | IV · F | iv · Dm |
| 5 | V · G | v · Em |
| 6 | vi · Am | VI · F |
| 7 | vii° · Bdim | VII · G |
Staying inside the key sounds safe; one outside chord gives a progression its character. Borrowing from the parallel minor (iv, ♭VI, ♭VII in a major key) adds weight and longing, a secondary dominant (V/vi, V/ii) pulls hard toward the chord it points at, and the major V in a minor key (from the harmonic minor scale) makes the return to i feel inevitable. The generator labels each of these under the chord, so you can see why a progression sounds the way it does.
Choose a key, a mood, and four or eight chords. About half the time the generator starts from a well-known loop for that mood, like I–V–vi–IV for pop or i–VI–III–VII for EDM; otherwise it walks through the mood's chord vocabulary, weighting each next chord by how common that move is in the style, and ends on a chord that leads back to the first so the progression loops. Every chord is then spelled from your key's scale and voiced for piano.
Each numeral is the scale degree the chord is built on: I is the first note of the key and V the fifth. Uppercase means a major chord, lowercase minor, ° diminished, and ø7 half-diminished. In C major, I–V–vi–IV is C–G–Am–F; in A minor, i–VI–III–VII is Am–F–C–G. Because numerals describe the function rather than the notes, the same numerals work in any key.
A chord taken from the parallel key, the major or minor key with the same tonic. In C major, Fm (iv), Ab (♭VI) and Bb (♭VII) come from C minor and add a darker or more rock color. The generator labels each borrowed chord with the key it comes from, and also marks secondary dominants such as E7 in C major (V/vi), the major V in a minor key (harmonic minor), and passing diminished chords.
Click MIDI and drag the downloaded .mid file onto an instrument track in Ableton Live, FL Studio, Logic Pro, GarageBand, Cubase, Reaper, or a notation app such as MuseScore. Each chord fills one bar of 4/4 at the tempo you set, with the root in the bass and the other notes voiced close together above it, so it plays straight away on a piano, pad, or synth.
Chords are spelled from the key's scale, the way a lead sheet or score writes them. The F# major scale is F# G# A# B C# D# E#, so its chords are named with sharps, while Gb major uses flats. Both keys sound the same on a piano, so pick whichever your band or your sheet music uses; both are in the key list.
The four loops behind most pop hits are I–V–vi–IV, vi–IV–I–V, I–vi–IV–V and I–IV–vi–V; in C major that is C–G–Am–F, Am–F–C–G, C–Am–F–G and C–F–Am–G. They cycle through tonic, subdominant and dominant chords without ever resolving too hard, which is why they loop so well under a chorus. Choose the Pop mood to start from them, then lock the chords you like and regenerate the rest.
Yes. Chord progressions on their own are generally not protected by copyright, and the ones here are generated on your device for you to use however you like, including in commercial releases. It is the melody, lyrics, and production you put on top that make the song yours.
Yes. It is free with no signup and runs entirely in your browser. When you have a progression you like, send it to Solmi's AI music generator as the starting point for a full song, and turn that song into a music video with the AI music video generator.