Chord progressions are a vital part of song writing. Let’s learn how to construct a chord progression for songwriters.
Start with the musical scale
To start out here is a C major scale…
C major Scale
In the illustration each note of the scale is assigned a number form 1 to 7. With the C note being “1”. This is the starting place for creating chords.
Here is the list of names for the other degrees of the scale:
| Note Position | Technical name |
| 1 | TONIC |
| 2 | SUPERTONIC |
| 3 | MEDIANT |
| 4 | SUBDOMINANT |
| 5 | DOMINANT |
| 6 | SUBMEDIANT |
| 7 | LEADING TONE |
To create a chord, use the basic scale using the numbers to build the chord. The first chord is C. To make a C chord all that is need is to use this simple formula 1-3-5. With each number representing the number in the scale. The C chord is C-E-G. That is the C = 1, E = 3, G = 5. Basically the chord is made up of three note at ever other note interval
