Uploaded March 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Writing chord progressions isn't hard if you know a few basics — neither is it difficult to make them a little more "jazzy" with chord extensions, secondary dominant chords, chromatic mediants and one or two other straightforward techniques. In this tutorial I cover ALL the basics of building a chord progression, and also show you how you can take your progressions to the next level.
Book bundle deal: billspianopages.com/bundle
All six of my Piano Packs for £16.95: billspianopages.com/pianopacks
Check out my Patreon page: patreon.com/billhilton
Chapters:
00:00 Stuff you can do with this tutorial
01:24 Music theory basics 1: scales and chords
04:09 Music theory basics 2: diatonic chords, tonics, dominants
06:38 Resolution and V-I cadences in chord progressions
09:51 Adding chords other than V and I
13:11 Two exercises: building basic chord progressions
16:12 Enriching progressions with chord extensions
20:40 More on chord extensions
23:56 Non-diatonic chords: basics and secondary dominants
23:26 Exercise: extending chords in a progression
29:05 Other non-diatonics: the “magic second” (II7) and shared/neighbouring tones
32:27 Chromatic mediant chords
38:08 Four essential tips
Image credits:
kohanova1991/Adobe Stock
majonit/Adobe Stock
grandfailure/Adobe stock
Writing chord progressions isn't hard if you know a few basics — neither is it difficult to make them a little more "jazzy" with chord extensions, secondary dominant chords, chromatic mediants and one or two other straightforward techniques. In this tutorial I cover ALL the basics of building a chord progression, and also show you how you can take your progressions to the next level.
Book bundle deal: billspianopages.com/bundle
All six of my Piano Packs for £16.95: billspianopages.com/pianopacks
Check out my Patreon page: patreon.com/billhilton
Chapters:
00:00 Stuff you can do with this tutorial
01:24 Music theory basics 1: scales and chords
04:09 Music theory basics 2: diatonic chords, tonics, dominants
06:38 Resolution and V-I cadences in chord progressions
09:51 Adding chords other than V and I
13:11 Two exercises: building basic chord progressions
16:12 Enriching progressions with chord extensions
20:40 More on chord extensions
23:56 Non-diatonic chords: basics and secondary dominants
23:26 Exercise: extending chords in a progression
29:05 Other non-diatonics: the “magic second” (II7) and shared/neighbouring tones
32:27 Chromatic mediant chords
38:08 Four essential tips
Image credits:
kohanova1991/Adobe Stock
majonit/Adobe Stock
grandfailure/Adobe stock
