Chord progressions
The progressions behind thousands of songs, written as scale degrees so they work in any key. Pick one, pick a key, press play. Change the scale and the same degrees take on that scale's chords: I–IV–V in major becomes i–iv–v in minor.
I–IV–V in C Major
The three-chord song: folk, country, early rock and roll, a thousand campfires.
Want the bar-by-bar transport, the chart or circle view and more comping choices? Play I–IV–V on the Chord chart.
Famous songs
How to read it
Roman numerals count chords up the scale: I is the chord on the first note, V the chord on the fifth. Capitals are major chords, small letters minor, ° diminished. Because the numbers are about the scale, not the key, a progression you know in G works the same in E♭: play it here in any key and the shapes on the neck simply move.
Every chord here comes from the scale itself (the diatonic chords on the Chords page). Borrowed chords, such as the ♭VII in major rock, come from playing in a mode: that's why some progressions switch the scale to Mixolydian or Dorian.