How do chord progressions work?

It’s very useful to understand the basics of how chord progressions work. If you do, you’ll find that improvising on different harmonies becomes more instinctive. It will also help you develop an understanding of song structure - useful if you’re thinking of composing your own material.

This video gives a basic overview of chord progressions and sequences. Pretty much every song you’ll ever play has a chord progression that follows the “journey” pattern described here. A good way of reinforcing the stuff you learn about chord progressions in this video would be to grab some songbooks and play through several chord progressions, looking at how the chords follow on from one another and pursue the tonic-dominant-tonic structure.

The video, like others in this series, is designed to tie in with my book, How To Really Play The Piano. However, you don’t need to be reading the book to benefit from the material on chord progressions here. You don’t even need to be a pianist - guitarists, songwriters and players of a wide range of other instruments can benefit from understanding the basics of how chord progressions work.