This guide explains how to use the Chord Progression Generator for songwriting, beat making and music production. You can create 4, 8 or 16-bar progressions, shape how the harmony develops, choose how the chords are performed, understand why the chords work and download the result as MIDI.
You do not need advanced music theory knowledge to use the generator. The main controls are designed to give you a musical starting point quickly, while the optional Rhythm & Performance and Advanced Settings panels give you more detailed control when you want it.
Choose a Key, Chord Style and Section, then press Generate Chords. The default Section is Verse, with an 8-bar progression, even chord changes and a neutral held-chord performance so you can hear the harmony clearly first.
Once you have a progression you like, try Song Structure for more natural chord-change timing, open Rhythm & Performance to choose how the chords are played, or use Advanced Settings to fine-tune the harmony and voicing.
1. Musical Direction
These controls establish the basic musical framework: key, scale, phrase length, song section and harmonic style.
Key
Selects the musical key for the progression. Changing the key changes the chord names and notes while preserving the overall harmonic idea.
Scale / Mode
- Major: Major-key harmony with a generally bright or open character.
- Natural Minor: Minor-key harmony with a darker or more emotional character.
- Dorian: Minor harmony with a raised sixth, useful for Soul, House, Jazz and modal writing.
- Mixolydian: Major-sounding harmony with a flattened seventh, useful for Rock, Blues and groove-based music.
Bars
- 4 bars: Hooks, loops and short musical ideas.
- 8 bars: More room for repetition, response and controlled variation.
- 16 bars: Longer song-like phrases with development, returns, variation and stronger endings.
Section
- Loop / Hook: Strongly favours a recognisable idea that can repeat naturally.
- Verse: The default section. Usually leaves more space and avoids using all of the harmonic energy too early.
- Chorus: Tends to use stronger movement, clearer motifs and more obvious harmonic payoff.
- Bridge: Favours contrast and development before returning to another section.
Chord Style
Chord Style changes the harmonic behaviour used by the generator. It is not simply the same progression with different genre labels.
Pop · House / EDM · Lofi · Jazz · Soul / Neo Soul · Dark / Trap · Rock · Blues
Each style has its own tendencies for movement, phrase structure, chord colour, repetition and resolution. For example, Blues uses more idiomatic Blues movement, Soul favours smoother harmonic colour and House can favour stronger repeated harmonic hooks.
2. Shape the Harmony
These controls steer the character of the harmony without requiring you to choose every chord manually.
Mood
- Balanced: Neutral starting point.
- Uplifting: Encourages brighter harmonic movement.
- Dark: Favours darker or more tense choices.
- Emotional: Encourages reflective or expressive movement.
- Jazzy: Encourages more colourful harmony.
- Unresolved: Allows tension to remain at the end so the phrase can continue or loop.
Chord Colour
Changes extensions and harmonic colour without replacing the basic direction of the progression.
- Simple: Mainly straightforward triads and clean chord shapes.
- Colour: Adds tasteful extra notes such as add9s and 7ths where appropriate.
- Rich: Uses more expressive harmonic detail.
- Jazz / Extended: Allows greater use of 7ths, 9ths, 11ths, shells and extended harmony.
Borrowed Chords
Allows occasional harmony from outside the selected scale for contrast or tension.
- Off: Keeps the generated harmonic functions inside the selected scale.
- Subtle: Allows occasional outside-key colour.
- More: Gives borrowed harmony greater influence.
Secondary Dominants
Borrowed harmony can include secondary dominants where appropriate. These briefly create a stronger pull towards another chord. When used, they are identified in the generated chord information.
3. Chord Structure and Tempo
Chord Structure controls when the harmony changes. It is separate from the Rhythm & Performance controls, which decide how the chord is played during its allotted time.
Even — 1 Chord per Bar
Keeps the harmonic grid simple and predictable: one core chord for each bar. This is a good default when you want to judge the progression itself or plan to create your own rhythm later in the DAW.
Song Structure — Holds + Turnarounds
Uses deliberate four-bar chord-change shapes instead of forcing every chord to last exactly one bar.
- Some chords can hold across 2 bars.
- A phrase turn can use two half-bar chord changes inside one bar.
- Steady one-chord-per-bar phrases can still occur.
- The timing is chosen as a musical phrase shape rather than by randomly scattering short chord changes.
A phrase might use C for one bar, G for one bar, then Am for half a bar and F for half a bar before the next phrase begins.
The underlying section composer still decides the 4, 8 or 16-bar harmonic story. Song Structure changes the harmonic rhythm around that composition rather than replacing the progression engine.
BPM
Sets playback tempo and the tempo information used when the progression is exported as MIDI.
4. Rhythm & Performance
Press when you want to move beyond neutral held chords. Choose a Performance first, then choose a pattern for that player. Player-specific controls appear underneath only when they are relevant.
Pads & Atmosphere
Uses held chords so you can hear the harmony without a strong playing pattern influencing your judgement. This is the default performance.
Keyboard / Pianist
Includes straightforward accompaniment patterns as well as more developed piano parts.
Examples include Four on the Floor, Downbeats, Piano Push, Bass Lead-Ins, Moving Bass, Jazz Comping, Stride Piano, Walking Bass + Comping, Toggle, Fingerpicking-style patterns, Left-Hand Arpeggio and Alberti Bass.
Piano Registers and Hands
- Left-hand register: Start the piano left hand around C2 or C3.
- Right-hand register: Start the right hand around C3 or C4.
- Hand voicing: Choose LH bass + RH chord or a split voicing with root + fifth in the left hand.
Rhodes / Lo-fi / Soul
Uses patterns written specifically for softer Rhodes, Lofi and Soul-style performance rather than simply applying a generic piano rhythm.
Patterns include Lazy Rhodes Pocket, Broken Rhodes Hold, Lo-fi 4-Bar Conversation, Soul Voice Move, Soul Bass + Chord and Soul 4-Bar Conversation.
Blues Keyboard / Comping
Uses lower and inner voice movement to create Blues groove without changing the underlying generated chord progression.
Patterns include Blues Shuffle / Boogie, Blues Boogie Hold, Blues 6th Shuffle and Slow Blues 12/8.
Guitar Strumming
Uses guitar-oriented voicings and down/up stroke behaviour. Patterns range from basic quarter-note and 8th-note strumming to Pop, Rock, Jazz and Blues-specific parts.
Examples include Pop 8ths, Syncopated Pop, Ballad, Driving 8ths, Jazz Swing Comping, Four-to-the-Bar, La Pompe, Power Chord Chug, Power Chord Riff, Gallop, Blues Shuffle / Boogie, Slow Blues 12/8 and Blues Comping + Turnaround.
Guitar Voicing
- Auto: Chooses musical guitar shapes and tries to avoid unnecessary fret jumps.
- Open-position: Favours familiar open chord shapes where available.
- Barre / closed: Uses movable closed shapes.
- Power chords: Uses root + fifth shapes.
Synth / Rave Keys
Covers House stabs, plucks, chord riffs, rave patterns, stacked 8th-note ideas, dotted cycles, wide stabs and old-school sampled-keyboard riffs.
The Hero patterns at the top of the list are authored four-bar performances designed to create a recognisable electronic chord part rather than a purely repeating one-bar rhythm.
Synth Register & Rhythm Activity
- Synth register: Move the same Synth / Rave performance between the C3 and C4 octave areas.
- Rhythm Activity: Low, Medium or High density for the freer synth pulse and syncopated patterns.
Two-bar held chords continue the selected Synth / Rave pattern through the second bar rather than stopping after the first bar.
5. Advanced Settings
Press when you want to fine-tune the progression. The panel separates Harmony Controls from Performance & Voicing.
Harmonic Story
Controls the larger journey of the progression rather than changing a single chord in isolation.
- Auto: Lets the generator choose an appropriate harmonic direction.
- Songwriter: Favours familiar, structured songwriting movement.
- Delayed Resolution: Holds back the strongest arrival until later in the phrase.
- Circle Movement: Encourages flowing movement between related chords.
- Bittersweet: Combines stable harmony with more emotional or unexpected movement.
- Neo Soul Colour: Encourages smoother, richer movement.
- Cinematic: Allows broader and more dramatic development.
- Unresolved Loop: Keeps forward tension so the end naturally leads back to the beginning.
Movement
- Relaxed: More harmonic space and fewer unnecessary changes.
- Balanced: Middle ground between repetition and movement.
- Active: Encourages more chord-to-chord movement.
Progression Feel
- Safe: Favours familiar and dependable choices.
- Producer: The default. Favours structured, song-ready ideas with clear motifs and development.
- Creative: Allows more unusual movement while still aiming for a musical result.
Suspensions
- Off (Clean): No generated resolving sus4 treatment.
- On (Resolving Sus4): Allows suspended notes to resolve naturally into the chord.
Voicing
Changes how the notes of each chord are arranged without changing the underlying harmonic progression.
Choose from Smooth, Root Position, Wide, House Piano, Lofi / Rhodes and Neo Soul.
Human Feel
Shapes timing, chord roll, velocity and note releases in playback and MIDI.
- Style Default: Uses a feel chosen for the selected style.
- Tight: Small controlled variations.
- Natural: Moderate human variation.
- Loose: More noticeable variation.
- Off / Quantized: Removes the human timing treatment.
Bass Movement
- Root Bass: Uses each chord root.
- Smooth Bass: Looks for smoother movement between neighbouring bass notes.
- Descending Bass: Encourages downward bass movement where the harmony allows it.
- Pedal Bass: Uses a repeated or sustained bass reference where appropriate.
6. Understanding the Generated Progression
Each result includes the chord sequence, Roman numerals, harmonic roles, chord tones, played notes and explanations of why the progression works.
Chord Names
The complete chord progression is displayed above the chord cards for quick reading and copying.
Roman Numerals
Roman numerals show each chord's relationship to the selected key. For example, I - V - vi - IV describes the same harmonic relationship when moved into another key.
Chord Tones
Chord Tones shows the theoretical notes that belong to the chord.
Played Notes
Played shows the exact keyboard voicing and bass used for audio and MIDI. This can differ from the complete theoretical chord because a practical voicing does not always need every available note.
Chord Roles
- Home: A stable tonic or home chord.
- Movement: Moves the harmony away from home or towards another harmonic area.
- Tension: Creates forward pull and encourages later resolution.
- Colour: Adds emotional or harmonic contrast.
- Space: Repeats or holds an existing harmonic idea instead of forcing another change.
Why?
Press on a chord card to see what that chord contributes at that point in the phrase. The explanation can describe its harmonic function, position in the phrase and how its played voicing connects with the previous chord.
Why This Progression Works
Below the chord cards, the generator gives an overview of the complete progression, including its harmonic shape, tension and release, colour and development. More technical information is available under Generation Details.
7. Locking and Regenerating Chords
Locking lets you keep the strongest moments of a progression while asking the generator to compose new harmony around them.
8. Playback, Copy and MIDI Export
Generate Chords
Creates a new progression using the current settings while respecting any locked chords.
Play Progression
Plays the complete progression using the current Chord Structure, performance, voicing, bass, BPM and Human Feel settings.
Play Individual Chord
Use the button on a chord card to audition that chord independently.
Copy Chords
Copies the generated chord sequence for notes, songwriting or another tool.
Copy for Melody Generator
Copies the main harmonic sequence in a format designed for the Transmission Samples Melody Generator, making it easy to continue with the same harmonic idea.
Download MIDI
Downloads a MIDI file containing the generated voicing, bass movement, chord timing, performance pattern, note lengths and Human Feel.
9. Quick Tweak Buttons
These buttons change several related settings together and immediately generate a new direction from the current setup.
Make Darker
Moves the harmony towards a darker and more unresolved direction.
More Uplifting
Pushes the progression towards a brighter Chorus-style direction.
More Jazzy
Moves towards more colourful harmony, active movement and a Bridge-style result.
Simplify
Returns to simpler chord colour, even chord timing and a neutral held-chord performance.
10. Song Builder
Song Builder is an optional workflow for connecting saved Verse, Chorus and Bridge sections rather than treating every progression as an unrelated loop.
Generate a section you like and save it. Later sections can then use the existing song as musical context. Song Builder is collapsed by default, so it does not get in the way when you only want a single progression.
Save Song Section
Saves the current Verse, Chorus or Bridge, including its timing and performance settings.
Load and Play Sections
Saved sections can be loaded back into the generator or auditioned independently.
Section Relationship
When a new Chorus or Bridge is generated from an existing song, the relationship setting controls how strongly the new section should differ.
- Natural: Related section with a natural amount of change.
- Bigger Lift: Encourages a stronger lift between sections.
- Strong Contrast: Allows the new section to move further away from the existing harmony.
Final Chorus Variation
Creates a related variation of the saved Chorus for the end of the song. Its timing is inherited from the saved Chorus rather than from an unrelated section.
Play Full Song
Auditions the saved sections together so you can hear how the different progressions work as a larger song structure.
Download Full Song MIDI
Exports the saved Song Builder sections together as MIDI for arranging and editing inside your DAW.
Clear Saved Sections
Clears the saved song context so you can start building a different song.
Tips for Better Results
- Start with the defaults and listen before changing several controls at once.
- Use Loop / Hook when you want a recognisable progression designed to repeat.
- Use Verse, Chorus and Bridge when you want section-aware harmonic writing.
- Try Song Structure when you want holds, quicker turnarounds and less rigid one-chord-per-bar timing.
- Use Simple Chord Colour when you want plenty of room for melody, vocals and bass.
- Try Rich or Jazz / Extended when the harmony itself needs more character.
- Open Rhythm & Performance only after you are happy with the basic harmonic idea.
- Lock the strongest parts and regenerate around them instead of always starting again.
- Change Harmonic Story when you want the complete phrase to develop differently.
- Use Borrowed Chords when you want controlled colour outside the main scale.
- Use the Why? buttons to learn what individual chords are doing.
- Compare different Voicing settings without changing the underlying progression.
- Try 16 bars when you want a progression to repeat, develop and return across a longer section.
- Use Copy for Melody Generator to continue the same harmonic idea in the Melody Generator.
- Download the MIDI and make your final arrangement decisions inside your DAW.
A Simple Workflow
Final Note
The Chord Progression Generator is designed to work as both a creative songwriting tool and a practical way to learn how harmony, harmonic rhythm, voicing and performance fit together.
Start with the progression itself, then decide whether it needs different chord timing, a stronger performance pattern or more advanced harmonic control. Keep the parts you like and finish the arrangement inside your own production.