41 Ear Training – Common Chord Progressions in Context

The Basis of Common Harmony

The following chord progressions are some of the commonest in diatonic music of many eras and regions. Play the notated examples on the piano and listen to the Spotify playlist until they are familiar to you. You are very likely to encounter progressions like these in harmonic dictation exercises.

I-IV-V-I: The Commonest Progression

I-IV-V-I is the commonest chord progression in diatonic harmony. Its variant, I-ii⁶-V-I, has the same function. This excerpt demonstrates both variants:

ii-V-I: A Jazz Standard Progression

Chord ii often precedes the dominant. For a memorable example of how this works in a well-known composition, listen to (or look up the lead sheet for) John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps,” which uses the ii-V-I progression again and again.

I-vi-IV-V: The “Doo-Wop” Progression

This chord progression is common in Motown and other popular styles of the mid-twentieth century. For some famous examples of this progression, listen to Frank Loesser/Hoagy Carmichael, “Heart and Soul,” or Fred Parris, “In the Still of the Night.”

i-♭VII-♭VI-V: The Andalusian Progression

This progression is characteristic in flamenco guitar music and other folk and popular styles of the Iberian peninsula. The bassline, do-te-le-sol, was commonly played as an ostinato for improvisation in the Baroque era. Listen to Claudio Monteverdi, “Amor” from Lamento della ninfa, for an example of this progression. For a more modern take on the Andalusian progression, listen to Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal.”

I-V-vi-IV: The Pop Song Progression

This progression is extremely common in modern pop music. Two classic examples that use this progression are “Can You Feel the Love Tonight?” from The Lion King, or “Paparazzi” by Lady Gaga.

I-V-vi-iii-IV-I-IV-V: The Pachelbel Progression

A variant of the pop song progression can be found in the Baroque-era equivalent of a pop song, Johann Pachelbel’s famous Canon in D. (Please note that while this piece is very influential in the history of music analysis, chord iii itself is actually fairly rare in “textbook” harmony due to problematic voice-leading issues.)

What to Take Away

The chord progressions covered here—including the order in which the chords appear, and the cadences at the ends of phrases—occur again and again in music from 1600s Italy through present-day American pop songs. If you practice the progressions from this chapter on the piano, listen to the playlist repeatedly, commit the progressions to memory, and attempt to apply this knowledge to your analyses of popular and classical music, you will come to find harmonic dictation relatively straightforward. Further, studying the classic chord progressions of popular and classical music increases our understanding, appreciation, and enjoyment of how they work.