Building a chord progression

This gets you from an empty chord strip to a verse and a chorus that sound related but not identical, using the FlowPad. It gives numpad numbers, because "pick a green chord" does not tell you which key to press. What each control does is in the FlowPad page.

Learn the layout once

Every chord sits at a fixed numpad key based on its scale degree, and the positions never move. Learn them and you can build a progression without looking at the screen.

Numpad 5 switches between chord and note mode.

Think in numbers

Because the positions are fixed, progressions become patterns you can type.

1-4-6-1 is I-IV-V-I, the backbone of pop, rock and folk. 1-6-7-4 is I-V-vi-IV, the axis progression behind an enormous number of pop songs. 7-4-1-6 is the same four chords starting somewhere else, which reads immediately as a verse. 1-7-4-6 is I-vi-IV-V, the doo-wop progression.

The highlighting still tells you what fits after your last chord, but knowing the patterns means you can also just play one in.

Build the verse, then bend it for the chorus

Take a four-chord pattern and loop it twice for the verse. 1-6-7-4 is a safe start and it will not sound like a compromise.

For the chorus, keep the same chords and change where they begin: 7-4-1-6 against a 1-6-7-4 verse gives you two sections built from identical material that feel different. Changing one or two numbers is usually a bigger change than adding new chords.

For a bridge, two to four bars, this is where the amber chords and numpad 9 earn their keep. The parallel tonic turns the section suddenly dark or bright, and coming back to the chorus pattern afterwards feels earned rather than repetitive.

What the highlighting is telling you

The colours come from functional harmony, how chords relate to each other inside a key.

A green chord is what a trained musician would call the expected next move. A progression made mostly of green chords sounds professional with little effort.

An amber chord works but is not the obvious choice, so it adds variety. One amber chord after three or four green ones is how you keep a loop from going stale.

An unhighlighted chord is the surprise. One of those followed by a green resolution is the standard way to build a dramatic moment. Do not avoid them. Just do not play three in a row.

The pad follows what you are doing

The FlowPad watches the chords you place, and once it spots a repeating pattern it starts recommending the continuation of your pattern rather than a generic good transition.

Place C, Am, F, G, then place them again. When you come back to C, the pad turns Am green: it expects your loop to continue, because you have played it twice.

To break out, pick something other than the green chord. The pad re-evaluates from whatever you actually chose.

The recommendations know your instrument

On piano and keys the advice is pure harmony, since every chord is equally playable.

On guitar, chords rooted on the open strings are favoured, because they are easier to play and ring more naturally on the instrument.

On bass, successive roots are kept close together, because bass lines sound best when the root moves by a step or a fourth or fifth rather than leaping.

You do not have to think about any of this. It is already in the colours.

Genre changes the advice

With a genre profile active, the transition tables change to match its conventions. Pop promotes the axis progression and deceptive cadences. Jazz leans on ii-V-I chains and extended chords. Without a profile you get classical functional harmony, which produces solid progressions in any style.

It is worth placing a progression, then switching profile and watching the highlighting change. The same four chords are judged differently, and seeing that is the fastest way to understand what a genre profile actually does.