{"id":14387,"date":"2021-01-13T10:00:59","date_gmt":"2021-01-13T15:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/?p=14387"},"modified":"2025-10-08T13:16:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T17:16:10","slug":"chord-progressions-producers-should-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/chord-progressions-producers-should-know\/","title":{"rendered":"7 chord progressions music producers need to know (free MIDI files included)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Chord progressions often serve as the foundation for songs across a wide array of genres.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>While there are no hard rules for what can belong in a chord progression, over time a number of popular patterns have emerged. In the tutorial video above, we go over seven chord progressions that are absolutely worth familiarizing yourself with, spanning everything from the basics to some more colorful progressions featuring borrowed chords.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With each progression, we&#8217;ll listen to how it sounds in isolation, cite some popular use cases, and demonstrate them in a track within the DAW so that you can get a clear understanding of the kinds of emotions it can paint when applied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;re interested in incorporating these chord progressions into your own tracks, you can download our .zip file containing all of the MIDI files <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"here. (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/7-chord-progressions-MIDI-files.zip\" target=\"_blank\">here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you could add an eight chord progression to our list, what would it be? What kind of tutorial would you like to see us do next? Let us know in the comments below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-css-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Take your music further with the weekly tutorials, new plugins, and fresh sounds available in the Splice Creator plan:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button aligncenter\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link\" href=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/splice-plans\" target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Explore Splice plans<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the basics to more advanced options, we go over seven chord progressions that are absolutely worth familiarizing yourself with.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":14391,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1886,1889,1699,1696,49],"tags":[1638,1633,641,918],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>7 common chord progressions music producers need to know (free MIDI) - Blog | Splice<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"From the basics to more advanced options, we go over 7 chord progressions that are absolutely worth familiarizing yourself with.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/chord-progressions-producers-should-know\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"7 common chord progressions music producers need to know (free MIDI) - Blog | Splice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"From the basics to more advanced options, we go over 7 chord progressions that are absolutely worth familiarizing yourself with.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/chord-progressions-producers-should-know\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Blog | Splice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Splice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-01-13T15:00:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-08T17:16:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/6_Chord_Progressions_BlogPost.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nick Chen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@splice\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@splice\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nick Chen\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/chord-progressions-producers-should-know\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/chord-progressions-producers-should-know\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Nick Chen\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/006da68db2cca36c1730e68e67130d39\"},\"headline\":\"7 chord progressions music producers need to know (free MIDI files included)\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-13T15:00:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-08T17:16:10+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/chord-progressions-producers-should-know\/\"},\"wordCount\":206,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/chord-progressions-producers-should-know\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/6_Chord_Progressions_BlogPost.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"beginner\",\"composition\",\"MIDI\",\"youtube\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Free\",\"Free MIDI\",\"Music Theory\",\"Tips &amp; 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