The Progression Explorer
Build your own progression, hear it straight away, and change one chord at a time until it does what you want. Every progression on this site opens here, so you can take one apart instead of reading about it.
- any key
- four to eight steps
- nothing to install
same family
The progression
I - V - vi - IV
Why it works
Reading that the vi is the sad chord teaches you less than swapping it for a IV and hearing the sadness leave. The explorer exists so the loop between a question and an answer is short enough to stay curious: change a degree, change the key, change the tempo, and the chords play back immediately. That is the fastest route from knowing the names to recognising the sounds.
Hear it in context
Three of our own examples: the axis, the same four chords rotated, and the same four chords with one degree changed.
Make it yours
- Change one thing at a time
Two changes at once and you cannot tell which one did it.
- Loop it while you work
Let the progression run and edit it as it plays; that is how it is built.
- Save what surprises you
The useful discoveries are usually accidents.
When to reach for it
Whenever a page here mentions a progression and you want to know what happens if you change it. For writing, for practice and for settling an argument by ear.
When to leave it alone
Nothing to avoid. This is the tool the rest of the pillar points at.
Keep going
Everything in chord progressions
- The Progression Explorer
- How Chord Progressions Work