How to know how to form the perfect chord progression for my song?

Hey everyone! So today, I’m going to share with you all how to form the perfect chord progression for your song. 

Before we get into it, let’s have our moment of silence. 

At this time, I would like all of us to take a moment of silence and pray to God to help us to follow him throughout all of our lives. Take a minimum of 5 minutes and pray for this. 

Now back to the show

How to know how to form the perfect chord progression for my song? 

So I get it, you want to make something new and exciting and something that the world probably has never heard of before. 

Well it looks like you’re out of luck. 

The reason why I say that is because it’s most likely that the chord progression that you’re about to form is probably something that has already been formed by someone in the past. 

It’s no big secret that musicians use a lot of the same tools and techniques that our ancestors have used since the beginning of modern music. 

So like, if you’re trying to reinvent the wheel, I guess you’re a little misguided. 

Like no joke, it is possible to make a chord progression that is RARE, and make it work with a popular song, but even still it revolves around repeating similar chord progressions that you’ve probably already heard.

Like I have heard of song that are like I-IV-vi-V and then the second chord progression is I-V-vi-IV, which in technicality is a different chord progression. But the chords are similar and use a lot of the same techniques as with repeating the same chord progression over again. 

I’m not going to lie though, the melody would probably be different than if you were to have a chord progression that is just I-IV-vi-V over and over again. 

But I digress. 

Anyways, here are some tips for creating your own chord progressions 

1. Make the next chord drastically different than the chord before that What happens is that if you make the next chord very different from the chord you just played, it creates a contrast in the song that just offers a dynamic that is unique and powerful at the same time. Which is the reason why the I-IV-vi-V chord progression works so well. If you notice, each of those chords are very different from the one that just played. Which is why there are LITERALLY hundreds of songs that are written with those chords. 
2. Make the chords very SIMILAR from what you just played So these first two tips are just different ways that you can write music. I know it sounds contradicting but it makes sense when you actually write music. What happens is that when you write music that is similar to each chord, it creates a very strong foundation in a song. Which can be very beneficial to you especially if you are trying to write soulful or inspiring music. This is actually my favorite method of writing, and I’ll tell you guys in a different post how I combine the first tip with the second tip all the time in my songwriting sessions. 
3. Repeat So it’s without a doubt that music is very repetitive. If you analyze most songs, they really are just the same chords being played over and over again. I don’t care if you’re Pop, Rock, Rap, Hip-hop, Country, Almost all modern day music has chords being repeated a lot. 
4. Use Cadences Cadences, in a short way of saying it, are ways that you move the song from position to position. For example the V-I cadence is known as the Perfect Cadence. The IV-I Cadence is known as the plagal cadence. But there are different types of Cadences. ANOTHER perfect example as to why the I-IV-vi-V chord progression works so well, it’s because after you hit the V chord, you end up back at I and it’s a complete perfect cadence.
5. Know which chords cause the right moods Different chords cause different moods. Like a minor chord will almost always make you want to feel sad, and a Major Chord almost always wants you to feel happy. A good rule of thumb is to include a good mixture of major and minor chords into your progressions. ANOTHER good reason as to why the I-IV-vi-V is a good chord progression to make songs from. It has that vi chord which is a minor chord. However, if you want to make a sad song, you will write more minor chords and less major chords, you could even write in a minor key entirely. I’ll let you guys know a little tip some time later, that I actually use a lot of major chords to make sad songs, I’ll tell you guys another time how I do that. 
6. Keep it simple You have to know that music is really simple. I know it sounds complex, but you have to understand that after a while of playing music, you’ll find that it’s a lot of simple things joined together to make something sound really good. I mean IF I told you to keep the bass on 1 and 3 and the snare on 2 and 4 and write out the I-IV-vi-V chord progression over 16 bars, you already have a very strong skeleton of a song. And trust me that those things are simple. 
7. This is my personal recommendation to all beginner songwriters Keep the chords between 2 and four chords long. The reason why is because if you were to write a chord progression that has all the chords in the entire key, it would honestly sound like it’s going no where if you don’t know what you’re doing. It’s completely possible, but you would really have to know what you’re doing in order to do that. 

***So with all that being said, here are some of the most popular chord progressions that you could probably use in your songs

I-IV-vi-V (Best for writing pop songs)

I-vi-IV-V (This goes back to that chord progression that sounds similar, notice how the I and vi chord are very similar, actually they are only 1 note different from each other. 

I-V repeated over and over again (This was most recently used by Post Malone in that song White Iverson) 

I-ii otherwise known as the 1-2 chord progression. This one is awesome because it has both a Major chord and a minor chord, it is simple, it has a good foundation, and many blues players love this chord progression. Jack Johnson used this chord progression in Upside Down

I-IV-V-IV Is a very happy Chord progression. It has that Perfect Cadence, and it has good motion in it. Nevershoutnever used this chord progression a lot in his earlier works.

I-iii-IV-V this is a very interesting Chord progression because it follow a rule of making melodies which is to go up and then go back down. In this instance we go from I-iii-IV-V which literally is like a ladder that goes straight up and then it goes back down when you return for the 1. 

The last one that I’m going to talk about is another chord progression that sounds similar to each other. 

I-iii-ii-IV

I have to say that, that chord progression is the most exciting to me. The reason why I say that is because it’s different. Not a lot of songs use it but it is still powerful. 

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I sure hope that I have been an inspiration and a hope to you all. Please remember to pray, read your bible, go to church, and love God above all else. Like, comment, share, subscribe, and I will see you all next time. 

If you want to go to heaven, then believe in Jesus and you will go to heaven. (John 3:16)

Thank you all for listening in on this blog post. 

German Gonzalez, signing out!