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Chord Progression Mapping Final Steps: "Heartbreak Hotel" Example
For a simple chord progression such as the one for “Heartbreak Hotel,” you’ll only need to use one circular harmonic scale to map the whole progression. As you’ll see, most songs have multiple sections—verse, chorus, bridge, etc. A single chord progression map can show the chord movements for only one section. if you want to map all of the sections, you will need to create a separate circle for each. So draw as many harmonic scale circles as you need.
“Heartbreak Hotel” is an excellent example of a recurring, single-section chord progression in which the chords orbit clockwise around the gravitational centre, the tonic chord. The progression moves from harmonic degree I to IV to V7 to I. The chord progression for this song is a variation of the classic 12-bar blues pattern, compressed into 8 bars.