Chord Progression Mapping Techniques: "Heartbreak Hotel" Example

To map the chord progression, start with the song’s first chord and draw an arrow to the chord it changes to other than a variant of the first chord.

In the example of “Heartbreak Hotel,” the first chord is E major. The next chord is E7, a variant of E major. For this chord change, you don’t need to draw an arrow, since E7 is just a variant of E major. All you need to do is label the chords at Roman numeral I as E and E7, to signify that the chord E and its variant E7 both appear at this position.

Next, the progression goes to A7. So the first arrow you draw goes from Roman numeral I to Roman numeral IV on the inside of the circle. (Roman numeral IV corresponds to the “A7” on the outside of the circle, a variant of what would normally be the chord “A”.)