Create musical chord progressions with structure, movement and purpose.
Use our free chord progression generator to create 4, 8 or 16-bar chord progressions in any key and download the progression as MIDI. Choose a song section, style and mood, then let the generator build a musical progression with its own harmonic direction, phrase development and ending.
Styles including Pop, Jazz, Soul / Neo Soul, Lofi, House / EDM, Dark / Trap, Rock and Blues use different harmonic behaviour rather than the same progression rules with different genre labels. You can then shape the result with chord colour, movement, borrowed harmony, voicing, rhythm and bass movement.
Play the full progression, audition individual chords, lock the chords you want to keep and regenerate around them, then download the MIDI to use in your DAW. Each chord also shows its Roman numeral, chord tones, exact played voicing and its role within the progression, helping you understand how and why the harmony works.
For a full explanation of every control and setting, read the Chord Progression Generator User Guide.
Generation details
Last Updated 29th August 2026 11:53 GMT
Use Your Chords to Build the Rest of the Track
Once you have a progression you like, copy the chord sequence and use it as the starting point for the rest of your track. You can paste the chords directly into the Melody Generator or Bassline Generator, or use the same progression as the harmonic reference for drums and arpeggios.
- Melody Generator – paste in your chords and create melodies around the progression and key.
- Bassline Generator – paste in your chords and generate basslines that follow the harmonic movement.
- Drum and Percussion Generator – build a groove to support the musical idea.
- Polyrhythm Arp Generator – use your chords to create rhythmic arpeggio patterns.
How the Chord Progression Generator Works
The generator builds complete harmonic phrases rather than choosing each chord independently. The selected key, style, song section, mood and harmonic settings all influence how the progression starts, develops and resolves.
- Phrase-based generation: 8 and 16-bar progressions can repeat, develop and vary an idea rather than simply looping the same four chords.
- Style-specific harmony: Pop, House, Jazz, Soul, Lofi, Trap, Rock and Blues use different harmonic tendencies and progression structures.
- Verse, Chorus and Bridge behaviour: the selected song section influences the amount of movement, contrast and resolution.
- Voice leading: chord voicings are considered across the progression so neighbouring chords can connect more naturally.
- Lock and regenerate: keep the chords you like and generate new ideas around them.
- MIDI export: voicing, bass movement, chord duration, rhythm and human feel are carried into the downloaded MIDI.
Understand How Chord Progressions Work
Each generated chord includes its chord name, Roman numeral, chord tones and the exact notes used in the played voicing. The generator also identifies the role a chord is playing within the progression, such as home, movement, tension, colour or resolution.
This makes it easier to see how a progression moves away from the tonic, creates tension and eventually resolves. Borrowed chords and secondary dominants are also identified when they are used, so you can see where notes from outside the main key have been introduced.
Roman numerals are particularly useful because they describe the relationship between chords rather than a specific key. For example:
- I - V - vi - IV = C - G - Am - F in C major
- I - V - vi - IV = G - D - Em - C in G major
- I - V - vi - IV = D - A - Bm - G in D major
The notes change, but the harmonic relationship remains the same.
Chord Voicing and Harmonic Colour
A chord can be played in many different ways. Changing the inversion, octave position or spacing of the notes can make the same progression sound noticeably different.
The Voicing control changes how the notes are arranged, while Chord Colour can introduce 7ths, 9ths and other extensions. Smooth voice leading keeps shared notes in place where possible and reduces unnecessary jumps between chords.
This becomes particularly useful with Jazz, Soul, Neo Soul and Lofi harmony, where extended chords can quickly become muddy if every chord is played in a dense root-position voicing.
Common Chord Progressions
Familiar progressions are useful starting points because they provide a harmonic structure that listeners already recognise. The generator can use these ideas as well as create more varied progressions using extensions, borrowed harmony and different phrase structures.
| Progression | Roman Numerals | Often Used In |
|---|---|---|
| C - G - Am - F | I - V - vi - IV | Pop, House, EDM |
| Am - F - C - G | vi - IV - I - V | Pop, Lofi, Trap |
| Dm - G - C - Am | ii - V - I - vi | Jazz, Soul, Neo Soul |
| Am - G - F - E | i - VII - VI - V | Dark Pop, Trap, Cinematic – major V adds stronger resolution |
Using MIDI Chord Progressions in Your DAW
Download the progression as MIDI and drag it onto an instrument track in your DAW. The exported file includes the generated chord voicings, bass movement, rhythm, note lengths and human timing.
From there, everything remains editable. Change the instrument, move notes between octaves, alter the rhythm or edit the voicing to fit your track.