Composing great chord progressions

A chord is when three or more notes are played simultaneously. A chord progression is a sequence of chords that sound good together and have a sense of movement throughout.

Understanding how to build a strong chord progression from scratch is one of the most valuable skills a composer can develop. It’s the foundational building block of songs. It’s usually the first thing that gets created, and it sets the rules for all instruments and vocals that follow. If you hear a song whose melody isn’t very interesting, usually a subpar chord progression is the culprit.

Let’s compose a chord progression:

1. Create a new music pattern.
2. Load up an instrument that can play multiple notes at once, such as the FL Keys instrument.
3. Add notes in the piano roll by left-clicking in the blue grid and creating a pattern such as the one shown in the following screenshot:

   Figure 3.16 – Adding notes...