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The Chord Progression: What Are Chord Progressions? How Do They Work?
Your brain hears melody and harmony as related but separate entities. The tune is a restless traveller. The chords provide a dynamic, moving landscape through which the tune travels.
A chord progression—a sequential series of chords—serve three main functions, working like this:
- Chord progressions help define tonality and unify a piece of music. They provide a sonic frame of reference that makes unrest and dissonance possible.
- Chord progressions impart drive and propulsion to a piece of music. In the context of tonality, most chords, like most intervals in a melody, sound, to a greater or lesser degree, tense and restless. They seek resolution. Like the tune itself, they’re also trying to find their way home.
- Chord progressions furnish music with the qualitative aural equivalents of color and depth.