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Tool · Songwriting reference

Chord Progression Generator

Build a chord progression in any major or minor key and see, at every step, the chord it’s pulling toward — plus every real alternative, ranked and explained. Voice it with bass lines and left-hand shapes, hear it as a piano loop, play your own chords in over MIDI, and print it as a practice pack.

By Justin Evans · Pianist & teacher
Reviewed for accuracy · Updated July 2026

At the keyboard

Every key plays. A MIDI keyboard wires up automatically.
Tempo92 bpm

MIDI: checking for devices…

KeyMode
Chords
Notation

Start from a progression type, a classic shape, or your own playing

Cadences
Pop & rock
Gospel & soul
Jazz
Blues
Sequences

Every progression family the reference covers, seeded in your key and mode.

Pick a seed above, or add your first chord from the menu below.

Tap a chord to shape it (bass, quality, substitutes) · hover for remove/reorder · the line under the board is the tension curve: where the pull rises and lands.

Start on…computed from harmonic function + bass line: how this works
All your options, ranked

In the key

Secondary dominants

Borrowed

Chromatic

Tonic: homePredominant: buildingDominant: pulling homeMediant / color

Enhance the whole progression

Bass linePedal

Voice it

Hands

Holds common tones, moves the rest the shortest way: the sound of a player.

How the suggestions are computed

Every suggestion on this page is calculated, not looked up. Each chord in your key carries a harmonic function: tonic chords feel like home, predominants build, dominants pull home — and music moves between those functions in strongly preferred directions. The generator scores every candidate next chord on three things it can show you: the function step (a dominant resolving to a tonic scores far higher than a tonic wandering to another tonic), the root motion (falling fifths are the strongest engine in Western harmony; rising steps come next), and the bass line.

The bass matters more than most tools admit. C and C/B♭ are the same chord to a naive generator — but the second one has put the ♭7 in the bass, the bass has become a moving line, and the next chord should catch that line as it falls. When your bass starts walking, the ranking here follows it, and the suggested chord arrives already voiced with the inversion that keeps the line moving. The two Smooth buttons run the same idea across the whole progression at once: a dynamic-programming pass picks, from every chord’s available inversions, the globally smoothest stepwise bass in your chosen direction — harmony untouched, chord tones only.

Because every ranking is a sum of parts we can name, every suggestion carries its reason in plain words: falling fifth into home, borrows the minor iv from the parallel key, tritone substitute: same pull, chromatic bass. Nothing on this page is generated by a language model; the math decides, the words only describe it.

Minor keys are not an afterthought

Most progression tools live in C major. This one treats minor as a first-class mode: pick any of the fifteen minor keys and the whole engine follows — the dominant comes from the harmonic minor (a true major V, pulling with a leading tone), the ♭VII and ♭VI of the natural minor are in the menu with their modal color, and the borrowed and applied chords are computed against the minor scale, spelled correctly even in A♯ minor, where the dominant’s third is a double sharp. Start dark, end dark — or borrow your way to the light.

Voice it like a player

A progression is not yet piano music. The voicing ladder turns chord symbols into hands: block chords for the plain reading, shells that keep only the tones that matter, guide-tone voicings that put the 3rd and 7th under your right hand while the bass walks, voice-led realizations that hold common tones and move everything else the shortest way, open tenths, spread drop 2 shapes, and rootless jazz left hands that trust the bass note to speak for the root. The keyboard fits itself to whatever range your choices actually use, so the loop you hear is the loop you can learn — then send it to the practice pack and take it to the piano.

Frequently asked

Why does the generator suggest one chord above the others?
The top card answers where the progression is pulling: the single highest-scoring next chord given the last chord’s harmonic function, the root motion available, and the direction of the bass line. The full ranked menu is always one tap below it; the top card is a starting point, never a rule.
Can I start a progression in a minor key?
Yes — minor is a first-class mode here, with its own seeds behind every style door, a harmonic-minor dominant, and the natural minor’s ♭VII and ♭VI available in the menu. All fifteen minor key spellings are supported.
Does it work with my MIDI keyboard?
Yes. Connect a MIDI keyboard and it is wired automatically: keys light up as the loop plays, and under the “Your own” door you can play chords in directly — the tool names what you played, keeps your bass note, and adds it to the board. Audio and MIDI stay on your device; nothing you play is transmitted.
What’s in the printed PDF?
A print pack: a lead sheet of your progression with chord symbols and Roman numerals, the notes of each chord, and the exact voicing as configured. Roman numerals give the function so the shape transposes to any key.

Corrections

Spotted a wrong spelling, a mislabeled function, or a suggestion that contradicts good practice? Send it through the form and we verify every report against the sources below.

References

  1. Rameau, J.-P. Treatise on Harmony (Traité de l’harmonie, 1722): the foundation of functional root motion. Public domain.
  2. Prout, E. Harmony: Its Theory and Practice (1889): chord functions and cadential practice. Public domain.
  3. Goetschius, P. The Theory and Practice of Tone-Relations (1892): the grammar of chord succession used by the scoring model. Public domain.
  4. Schoenberg, A. Theory of Harmony (Harmonielehre, 1911): extended and borrowed harmony. Public domain.
  5. piano.org primary data: chord and scale spellings computed by the theory engine and verified against the reference library.