Chord Progression Generator
Most songs are built upon a handful of chords played in sequence. These sequences are known as chord progressions, and they provide music with its harmonic foundation.
What is built upon this foundation is entirely up to you. Will you raise a towering cathedral or a quiet farmhouse? A single progression can be interpreted in an infinite number of ways.
This tool has been designed to help you find the chords you love. I tried to minimize the control while maximising creative freedom and speed. It's meant to be a tool of discovery. There is no wrong way to use this tool.
If a progression sounds good to you, that's all that matters. Trust your instincts and be true to how you feel. If it sounds good, it is good.
Starting a song with chords gives you an incredibly strong starting point, helping to constrain your energy into a particular direction. A song cannot be everything all at once. If you played every pitch at the same time, it would just be white noise. A song is a series of constraints.
Iterate and explore ruthlessly within these constraints until you are satisfied. You must always be true to what you like and don't like.
And remember, nothing is set in stone. Nothing is beyond revision.
Shuffle Chords
Generate new chord progressions with the shuffle button. Press this button lets you quickly cycle through chord, bpm and root configurations.
You can also use the lock controls to stop individual chords or settings from changing on shuffle.
The undo lets you revert changes and shuffles.
Chord Cards
Every chord card is divided into three interactive areas that define how a chord sounds and functions.
The top button displays the scale degree of the chord within the progression, denoted as a roman numeral. These numerals correspond the chords function within the scale. Press this button to cycle through different scale degrees.
The center of the card identifies the name of the chord. Clicking here will restart playback from this chord.
The bottom button displays and controls the quality of the chord. These can be used to shape the emotional color of the sound. Press this button to cycle through different chord qualities.
Root Selector
The root note is the tonal center of your progression and defines which notes and chords belong together.
Select any root around the circle, or use the arrows to transpose chromatically.
Detected Keys
The root note in combination with the chords determines the key of the progression. The detection algorithm analyzes your four chords and identifies the most likely key and mode. A given chord progression can belong to multiple keys and modes.
Guitar & Piano Tabs
View the tabs for the current chord progression. Switch between piano diagrams, guitar fretboard charts, and staff notation using the tabs.
On the piano view, click the bottom of each card to cycle through inversions. On the guitar view, click to browse alternative fingerings across the fretboard.
BPM Control
BPM (beats per minute) is the tempo of your progression. This determines how fast or slow it plays.
Drag the slider or click a preset to jump to a common tempo.
Sequencer
The sequencer grid controls when each sound plays within a bar. The top row triggers piano chord hits and the bottom row triggers the kick drum. Each column is one subdivision of the bar.
Click a step to toggle it on or off. The dropdown at the top left lets you swap between drum styles, and the lock icon preserves the current style when you shuffle.
Voice Leading
Voicings control where on the piano each chord is played. Neutral finds the closest voicing to the previous chord, keeping movement minimal. Up and down bias the direction, creating a sense of rising energy or descending resolution. Click a control to change the voicing for that chord.
Chord Duration
Controls how long each chord is held. 2 means each chord lasts two bars, 1 is one bar per chord, and 1/2 plays each chord for half a bar so they change quicker.
Swing
Adds a rhythmic shuffle to the beat. When swing is on, off-beat notes are delayed slightly, creating a triplet-like feel instead of a straight grid. This transforms rigid patterns into something looser and more musical.
Swing works best with styles that have off-beat hits. If no notes fall on a swing position when you toggle it on, a chord hit is automatically added so you can hear the effect immediately.
