Chord progressions are the skeleton of a song. Get the progression right and the melody, the bassline and even the drum groove almost write themselves.
In this guide I’ll walk through 10 progressions you’ll hear everywhere: emotional ballads, pop, EDM, trap, deep house, classic house, hip-hop, RnB and drill. For each one you get the Roman numerals, a famous track that uses it, and a practical tip you can try in your DAW today.
Quick refresher on notation. Uppercase numerals (I, IV, V) are major chords, lowercase (i, vi, ii) are minor. The number tells you which scale degree the chord is built on. In C major: I = C, vi = Am, IV = F, V = G. That’s all the theory you need to follow along.
One more thing before we start. These progressions sound very different depending on what plays them. A vi-IV-I-V on a felt piano is a ballad; the same four chords on a supersaw are a festival drop. I make preset and MIDI packs for a living, so I’ll point to a few of mine where they fit — including our free Serum 2 bank with 250+ presets, which covers every genre on this list.
Emotional Chords
Emotional progressions lean on minor chords and slow harmonic movement. You hear them in ballads, love songs and anything written to make people feel something.
Example progression: vi-IV-I-V
Starting on the vi chord instead of the I is the whole trick. In C major that’s Am-F-C-G. Same four chords as half the pop charts, but opening on the minor chord sets a melancholy tone before the major chords offer some hope.
“Someone Like You” by Adele is the textbook example. The verse sits on that minor start, and the chorus resolves through IV-I-V for the release.
Try this: play the progression as whole notes at 70-80 BPM, then add a 9th to the vi chord (Am becomes Am add9). That one extra note is doing a lot of the “emotional” work in modern ballads. If you’d rather start from finished chords, our Emotional MIDI pack is built exactly around this sound — drag the MIDI in and reharmonize from there.
Sad Chords
Sad progressions live fully in the minor key. No borrowed major-key optimism — the tonic is minor and the song keeps coming back to it.
Example progression: i-VI-III-VII
In A minor that’s Am-F-C-G. Notice it’s the same four chords as the emotional progression above, just felt from the minor side. Where vi-IV-I-V resolves upward toward the major I, this one keeps circling back to the minor i, so it never quite finds relief.
“Say You Love Me” by Jessie Ware uses this kind of movement to carry a ballad about unrequited love. The harmony does half the storytelling.
Try this: voice the chords close together in the octave below middle C and let a sustained pad or piano ring out. If you want ready-made starting points, Sad MIDI + WAV Vol.1 is a pack of progressions and melodies in exactly this mood.
Pop Chords
Pop wants to be memorable on first listen, so it uses the most stable, singable progression there is.
Example progression: I-V-vi-IV
C-G-Am-F. This is the famous “four chords” loop behind hundreds of hits. It starts on the home chord, dips into minor for a moment of tension, and lands on the IV, which pulls you straight back to the top of the loop.
“Let Her Go” by Passenger runs on this loop. The lyrics are heartbroken, but the progression keeps the song hopeful — that contrast is a classic pop move.
Try this: keep the chords looping but change the rhythm every 8 bars — whole notes in the verse, eighth-note stabs in the chorus. Same harmony, new energy. For full pop construction kits with this DNA, check Diamond Pop Sample Pack Vol.1.
EDM Chords
Big-room and progressive house progressions are built for tension and release over a loud, compressed mix. Simple loops, big voicings.
Example progression: vi-IV-V-I (or just vi-IV-V, skipping the resolution)
In C major: Am-F-G-C. A lot of festival tracks actually leave out the I and loop vi-IV-V forever, which keeps the energy suspended — the drop itself is the resolution.
“Levels” by Avicii is the reference here. One short loop, one hook, and it still fills dancefloors 15 years later.
Try this: stack the progression on a wide detuned saw, high-pass it around 150 Hz so the kick and sub own the low end, and sidechain the whole thing to the kick. If your supersaws sound thin, our Serum 2 supersaw guide covers unison, detune and stereo settings step by step.
Trap Chord Progressions
Trap harmony is minimal on purpose. The 808s and hats carry the movement, so the chords often barely move at all — two or three minor chords, sometimes just one.
Example progression: i-VII-VI-VII
In A minor: Am-G-F-G. A slow, dark descent and return that loops without ever resolving. Plenty of trap hits use even less than this.
“Mask Off” by Future is a good example of how little harmony trap needs — the flute melody implies the chords more than any pad plays them.
Try this: write your loop at 140 BPM with half-time drums, keep the melody inside the minor pentatonic scale, and leave space. In trap, the silence between notes is part of the sound.
Deep House Chords
Deep house borrows from jazz. Seventh and ninth chords everywhere, played on warm Rhodes-style keys or soft synth stabs.
Example progression: ii-V-I
In C major: Dm7-G7-Cmaj7. This is the most common progression in jazz, and deep house lifted it wholesale. The sevenths are not optional — plain triads instantly lose the genre.
“Finally” by Kings of Tomorrow rides this kind of jazzy movement under a soulful vocal, and it still gets played 25 years on.
Try this: play the chords slightly ahead of or behind the beat instead of quantized to the grid — that human push is a big part of the deep house feel. For sounds designed for these voicings, Modern Deep House Serum 2 Presets Vol.1 has the chord stabs and keys covered.
House Chords
Classic house came out of gospel and disco, so its harmony is bright, major and joyful.
Example progression: I-IV-V
C-F-G. Three chords, endless mileage. It’s the same progression as fifty years of soul and rock ‘n’ roll, played as piano stabs over a four-on-the-floor kick.
“Finally” by CeCe Peniston (yes, house has two classics called “Finally”) is peak piano-house energy on essentially these changes.
Try this: program the piano stabs on the offbeats — the “and” of each beat — instead of on the downbeats. That bounce against the kick is what makes a house groove move.
Hip-Hop Chords
Classic hip-hop harmony comes from sampling. Producers looped two or four bars of a jazz, funk or soul record, so the progressions are short minor loops with a lot of character.
Example progression: i-iv (two chords, looped)
In A minor: Am-Dm. It sounds too simple to work, but with the right voicing — say Am9 to Dm9 on dusty keys — it’s instantly boom bap.
“N.Y. State of Mind” by Nas sits on a dark, minimal piano loop like this for the entire track. The loop never changes; the verses do all the work.
Try this: write your two-chord loop, bounce it to audio, then pitch it down 1-2 semitones and layer vinyl noise on top. Treating your own chords like a sample is the fastest way to get that classic texture.
RnB Chords
RnB uses the richest harmony of any genre on this list. Extended chords, chromatic movement, key changes — it’s where pop songwriting and jazz theory meet.
Example progression: ii-V-I with extensions
Same skeleton as deep house, but voiced bigger: Dm9-G13-Cmaj9. Modern RnB also loves moving one voice at a time while the rest of the chord holds still.
“I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston is a masterclass — listen to how the chords keep lifting the melody higher, including that famous key change.
Try this: take any triad progression you already have and add a 7th or 9th to every chord. Play the notes of each chord slightly staggered (a few milliseconds apart) for that expensive, played-by-hand feel. RnB Serum 2 Presets Vol.1 was made for exactly these voicings.
Drill Chords
Drill takes minor-key harmony and makes it menacing. Sliding 808s, sparse dark keys or strings, and progressions that lean on tension notes.
Example progression: i-VI-III-VII
In A minor: Am-F-C-G. Look familiar? It’s the same progression as the sad chords earlier. The difference is delivery: 140-145 BPM, gliding 808s that slide between root notes, and aggressive drum programming turn heartbreak chords into something threatening.
“Welcome to the Party” by Pop Smoke shows how UK-style drill production turned four ordinary minor-key chords into one of the hardest beats of its era.
Try this: raise the 7th of the scale (G to G# in A minor) on the chord right before the loop restarts. That harmonic-minor tension note is all over drill. For ready-to-use dark loops and 808s, the Trap & Drill Bundle Vol.1 is my go-to recommendation.
How To Make These Progressions Your Own
Knowing the 10 loops is the easy part. Here’s how to stop them sounding generic:
- Change the rhythm, not the chords. The same I-V-vi-IV played as whole notes, offbeat stabs or a broken arpeggio gives you three different songs.
- Use inversions. Keep the top note of each chord as close as possible to the previous one. Smooth voice leading is the difference between “MIDI pack” and “musician”.
- Add one tension note. A 9th on the minor chord, a sus4 that resolves late, a raised 7th before the loop repeats.
- Swap the sound. Run the same MIDI through a piano, a pad and a pluck and keep whichever surprises you.
Sound choice matters more than most theory. Since Serum 2 shipped in 2025 (a free update for Serum 1 owners) you get three oscillators and five synthesis engines in one plugin, so one progression can be a granular texture, a spectral pad and a clean piano without leaving the synth. If you’re new to it, start with my Serum 2 beginner guide, and the pads and atmospheres tutorial shows how to turn any of these progressions into a wide, evolving chord bed. The built-in sequencer can also arpeggiate your progressions for you — covered in the arpeggiator and sequencer guide.
FAQ: Common Chord Progressions
What is the most common chord progression?
I-V-vi-IV (C-G-Am-F in C major). It appears in hundreds of hit songs across pop, rock, country and EDM. Its rotation vi-IV-I-V — the same chords starting from the minor — is nearly as common in emotional and ballad writing.
Can chord progressions be copyrighted?
No. Progressions are considered basic building blocks of music, like scales. Melodies, lyrics and recordings are protected, but you can use I-V-vi-IV or any other progression in this article freely.
Do I need music theory to use these progressions?
Not much. If you understand that uppercase numerals are major chords and lowercase are minor, you can build every progression here from a chord chart. Theory helps later, when you want to modify the progressions — that’s where inversions, extensions and borrowed chords come in.
What’s the fastest way to practice chord progressions?
Pick one progression per week, write a full 8-bar loop with it in three different genres, and change tempo, sound and rhythm each time. MIDI packs speed this up because you can study finished voicings — drag them in, see how the chords are built, then rewrite them.
That’s the list. Pick one progression, open your DAW and build something today — reading about harmony does nothing until you hear it under your own melody. And if you want good sounds to play these chords with, grab the free Serum 2 presets pack — 250+ patches, no strings attached.
I run Monosounds.studio and make the packs myself. Ten-plus years of producing, 97+ releases, 16,000+ downloads. Every Serum 2 preset we ship passes a CPU check on a mid-range laptop and gets used in a real track before release. If it does not survive a mix, it does not go in the pack.
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