Progressions by ear
Hear the functions of chords and recognise common progressions.
Tonic, subdominant, dominant
Each chord in a key plays its own role, its function.
- Tonic (T, degree I): the anchor, home. The music rests on it.
- Subdominant (S, degree IV): leaving home. Soft, moving forward.
- Dominant (D, degree V): the strongest tension. It demands a return to the tonic.
The T – S – D – T progression underlies a huge number of songs.
T – S – D – T in C major
Practice: The function of the last chord
Practice: One more function
Familiar progressions
Some progressions run through thousands of songs, and it pays to know them at once.
- I – vi – IV – V: the "fifties progression", ballads and doo-wop.
- I – V – vi – IV: the main progression of pop music in recent decades.
- I – ii – V – I: the backbone of jazz harmony.
The minor chord, vi or ii, stands out at once: it is darker than its neighbours.
I – vi – IV – V
I – V – vi – IV
I – ii – V – I
Look for the minor chord: is it second or third, and is it there at all? That often tells one progression from another straight away.