Considering a chord’s function makes it easy to create tons of

progressions, almost instantly

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Go on almost any forum that answers music questions, and you’ll

find an enormous number of questions relating to chord progressions and how they
work: What chord follows this one? How do I choose chords? What are Roman
numerals? How can I create better progressions? To create a progression that really
works well means considering the function of the chords you’re using. Here’s how
considering chord function helps you create progressions.

When we talk about a chord’s function, we’re essentially talking about what we
should follow it with. Here’s what I mean. In the key of C major, the C chord is the
tonic chord. The chord built on the 5th note, G, is the dominant chord. Those two
terms, tonic and dominant, are technical terms that describe chord function.

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Centuries of music practice have created the circumstance that dominant chords
like to move to tonic chords. That’s what we mean about the function of a
dominant chord: its function (or, its purpose) is to move to the tonic chord. That’s
why you see G or G7 followed by C so much. It doesn’t mean that every dominant
chord you use must be followed by a tonic chord. Sometimes you want to shake up the
predictable nature of music and do something unexpected.
But when it comes to chord progressions, too much innovation can leave your music
feeling unstructured and confusing. My opinion is that if you want to create an
imaginative progression, start with something predictable and modify that.

For music in major keys, there are 7 notes that naturally occur, which means that
there are 7 chords that belong to any key. For each chord (the key of C major is used
below), we have a technical name:

TONIC (I): A chord built on the 1st note of a scale: C

SUPERTONIC (ii): A chord built on the 2nd note of a scale: Dm
MEDIANT (iii): A chord built on the 3rd note of a scale: Em
SUBDOMINANT (IV): A chord built on the 4th note of a scale: F
DOMINANT (V): A chord built on the 5th note of a scale: G
SUBMEDIANT (vi): A chord built on the 6th note of a scale: Am
LEADING TONE (vii): A chord built on the 7th note of a scale: Bdim

Those technical names, tonic, supertonic, and so on, are what we mean by chord
function. But instead of thinking of those seven functions separately, we can group
them together into 3 simple categories: Tonic, subdominant and dominant.

The tonic chord is, of course, the I-chord. But you’ll notice that occasionally a vi-
chord can serve as a kind of substitute for the I-chord. There are several reasons for
this, one being the context in which the chord is used. But another reason is that the
vi-chord and the I-chord both share 2 notes. In C major, a I-chord uses the notes C-E-
G, and a vi-chord uses the notes A-C-E.

Similarly, the subdominant chord is the IV-chord. But a ii-chord can often serve as a
nice substitute for the IV-chord, mainly because the ii-chord (D-F-A) shares two
notes that occur in the IV-chord: F-A-C).

So thinking that way, we’ve now got 3 major groupings of chords:

TONIC: I, iii, vi
SUBDOMINANT: IV, ii
DOMINANT: V, iii, vii

You’ll notice that some chords can “function” in different ways; for example, the iii-
chord can act as a tonic substitute, but also as a dominant substitute, depending on
context.

So given that quick background to how chord function works, I’ve listed some
standard chord functions below, and then given several chord progressions that fit. In
that sense, every progression listed under each function category has a similar sound,
but yet all sound a little different:

TONIC-DOMINANT-TONIC

C G C
C G Am
C Am G C
C Am G Am

TONIC-SUBDOMINANT-TONIC

C F C
 C Dm C
C F Dm C
C Dm F C
C F Am
C Dm Am
Am Dm C Am

TONIC-DOMINANT-SUBDOMINANT-TONIC

C G F C
C Em F C
C Bdim F/A C/G
C G Dm Am
Am G F C

You can see that I’ve written only some of the possibilities. Each progression in each
category has a similar sound, depending on how you substitute chords. Notice also
that you can extend chord progressions by following one chord with another of the
same function.

The lesson here is that chord progressions work well if you think about
their function. Considering chord function allows you to make some really nice
substitutions without worrying about whether your new progression still works. Once
you’ve got a progression that’s successful, substituting a chord with another one of
the same function should mean that your progression will still do well.

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