The Axis Progression
In the key of C it is C, G, Am, F. Play those four in that order, loop them, and you are playing what runs under Let It Be, With or Without You and Don't Stop Believin'. Same four chords in all three, and not one of them sounds like the others.
- 4 chords
- I V vi IV
- 23 songs below
same family
The progression
I - V - vi - IV
Why it works
Play the C and stop there. Nothing is pulling, you are home. Play the G and stop again: that chord wants to go somewhere, and your ear already knows it wants to go back to the C.
Now do not go back. Play the Am instead. That single decision is what the whole progression is built on. The Am takes the pull that the G handed over and answers it, so the tension does resolve, but it resolves onto a minor chord and the mood drops on the same beat. You get the landing and the sadness in one move.
The F then walks you back toward the C without ever arriving on it. Start the loop again and nothing has been finished, which is why it can run for four minutes without anyone asking it to stop.
Hear it in context
Twenty-three songs on the same four chords, in eight different styles. Play the loop above and then think of any of them: the chords underneath are the ones you just heard.
- Let It Be
- No Woman No Cry
- With or Without You
- Don't Stop Believin'
- Take On Me
- Under the Bridge
- When I Come Around
- Africa
- She Will Be Loved
- Poker Face
- Paparazzi
- No One
- I'm Yours
- Love Story
- Someone Like You
- Waka Waka
- Ai Se Eu Te Pego
- Wagon Wheel
- Demons
- Perfect
- Photograph
- Someone You Loved
- Alles Is Liefde
Make it yours
- Play with the harmonic rhythm
Two beats per chord feels driven, a full bar feels spacious. Same progression, different character.
- Start on a different step
Begin on the vi and you have the pessimist version: same chords, melancholy from the first beat. That one has its own name, Axis Rotation.
- Colour in one chord
Turn the IV into a maj7 or the V into a sus4. One small change lifts the progression out of its default setting.
When to reach for it
When the melody and the lyric carry the story and the chords are there to hold it up. For choruses everyone can feel on first listen. When you want to write something today rather than something clever.
When to leave it alone
When your song needs to surprise people harmonically, or when the style asks for two-chord loops, as deep house and techno do. Also when you have already used it twice on the same record.
Keep going
Everything in chord progressions
- The Axis Progression
- Axis Rotation
- The Sad Four
- The Doo-Wop Progression