8 Chord Progressions for Electronic Music, With Free MIDI
Most electronic tracks are built on a handful of chord progressions, and once you know them you'll hear them everywhere.
That's not a criticism. A four-chord loop is meant to repeat for eight minutes on a dancefloor, so it needs to be strong enough to carry a track and simple enough to stay out of the way of the groove. Below are eight progressions that keep turning up in trance, house, techno, synthwave and lo-fi, what each one does to a listener, and how to make it sound like your own. If you'd rather drag and drop than work them out by hand, our free MIDI chord pack has chords and progressions in every major and minor key.
A two-minute bit of theory
Chord progressions are written in Roman numerals so they work in any key. Each numeral is a step of the scale: I is the first, IV the fourth, V the fifth and so on. Capitals are major chords, lower case are minor. So in C major, I is C, IV is F, V is G and vi is A minor.
Electronic music leans heavily on minor keys, so most examples below are in A minor, which uses only the white notes on a keyboard. In a minor key, i is the home chord (A minor), and VI, III and VII are the major chords built on F, C and G. Want it in another key? Move every chord up or down by the same amount, or just pick the right key folder in the MIDI pack.
One more thing worth knowing: a progression is only part of the job. The same four chords sound completely different as a slow pad, a bouncing pluck or a single offbeat stab. Rhythm and sound do as much as the notes.
1. i - VI - III - VII: the trance anthem
In A minor: Am - F - C - G
If one progression defines uplifting trance, it's this one. It starts on the sad home chord, then lifts through three major chords, so it feels melancholy and hopeful at the same time. That push and pull is exactly what a breakdown needs. It's also all over pop and film music, which is part of why it lands so easily with an audience.
Give each chord a bar, or two bars in a breakdown. Play it as a wide supersaw pad under the break, then switch to a gated or sidechained version when the kick comes back. It works because nothing in it is dissonant, so it holds up under a big lead.
2. i7 - iv7: the deep house vamp
In A minor: Am7 - Dm7, or Am9 - Dm9 for more colour
Deep house rarely needs four chords. Two minor sevenths swapping back and forth give you a warm, unresolved loop that never quite settles, which keeps the groove moving. Adding the ninth (B on top of the Am chord, E on top of the Dm) gives the soft, jazzy colour that the genre is known for.
The trick is in the rhythm. Play short, slightly swung chord stabs on organ, electric piano or a filtered Juno-style patch, leave space between them, and let the bassline do the moving. Push the second chord a sixteenth early now and then and the whole loop starts to breathe.
3. One chord, moved around: dub techno
Example: Am7 - Cm7 - Dm7, all the same shape
Dub techno often ignores the key altogether. Producers take one chord shape, usually a minor seventh or minor ninth, and slide the whole thing up and down. Every chord has the same mood, so the track hypnotises rather than tells a story. It's the classic Berlin chord stab, drowned in delay and reverb and filtered slowly over several minutes.
Some synths make this easy. Cherry Audio's DCO-106 has a chord memory mode, so you can hold a chord, store it and then play the whole shape from one key. On any synth, the MIDI version is just as easy: copy the chord and transpose the whole block. Keep it to a short stab, send it to a tempo-synced delay with plenty of feedback, and automate a low-pass filter. For ready-made material, Deep Dub Vol. 1 is full of exactly this kind of stab.
4. VI - VII - i: the synthwave rise
In A minor: F - G - Am
Two major chords climbing a step at a time into the minor home chord is about as 1980s as harmony gets. It sounds like the end of a film montage: a build, then a bittersweet landing. Synthwave and outrun producers use it constantly, often as i - VI - VII - i or simply looping F - G - Am - Am.
It wants a big, slow polysynth with chorus: brassy Oberheim chords, a Juno string pad or a Prophet-style pad with some drift. Gated reverb on the snare and a driving octave bassline do the rest.
5. i - VII - VI - V: the dramatic descent
In A minor: Am - G - F - E
This one is centuries old and known as the Andalusian cadence, from its use in flamenco. The bass walks straight down, and the last chord is E major rather than E minor, which brings in a G sharp that isn't in the scale. That one note gives it tension and a sense of drama, and it pulls hard back to A minor when the loop restarts.
It suits darker progressive house, melodic techno and anything cinematic. Try it as an arpeggio rather than a block chord, so the descending bass and that G sharp stand out.
6. IVmaj7 - V7 - iii7 - vi: the emotional one
In C major: Fmaj7 - G7 - Em7 - Am
Known as the "royal road" progression in Japanese pop and anime music, this has become a favourite in future bass, melodic dubstep and emotional house. It never starts on the home chord, so it feels like it's reaching for something, then it falls gently onto A minor. The sevenths make it lush rather than plain.
Play it as big, sidechained chords with a fast attack, or chop it into rhythmic stabs with lots of pitch movement on the last beat of each bar. It also works well slowed right down for ambient pads.
7. IVmaj7 - iii7 - ii7 - Imaj7: lo-fi and chillwave
In C major: Fmaj7 - Em7 - Dm7 - Cmaj7
Every chord steps down one note, and every chord is a seventh, so it drifts down like something half-remembered. It's a staple of lo-fi hip hop, chillwave and glo-fi. The major sevenths (E on top of F, B on top of C) give it that soft, slightly unresolved warmth.
Voice it close together, in the middle of the keyboard, on a mellow electric piano or a detuned, wobbly synth pad. Lower the velocity, nudge some notes off the grid and add tape-style wow and flutter. Perfect timing is the enemy here.
8. I - IV - iv - I: the bittersweet twist
In C major: C - F - Fm - C
Start with a happy major progression, then swap the F major for F minor. That one borrowed chord, with its A flat, adds a sudden wistful shade before the loop comes home. It's a small change, but it's what makes a plain progression sound like someone put real thought into it.
Use it at the end of a phrase or in a breakdown, rather than looping it the whole way through, so the minor chord still catches the ear when it arrives. It's lovely on a piano-style patch in house and on warm strings in downtempo.
How to make a progression sound like yours
Everyone has access to the same chords. What makes them sound like a record rather than a theory exercise is how you play and voice them.
- Use inversions. Don't jump the whole hand up and down the keyboard. Going from Am (A-C-E) to F, the A and C can stay where they are and only the E moves up to F. Fewer moving notes means smoother, more professional-sounding chords.
- Keep the root in the bass. Let the bassline play the root note and thin out the low end of your chords. Pads with too much under 200Hz fight the kick and the bass.
- Change the rhythm. A MIDI chord pack gives you the notes. Chop them into offbeat stabs, push some early, hold others across the bar line. Rhythm is half the identity of a chord part.
- Pull a melody out of the top. The top notes of a progression often make a usable lead line on their own. Copy them to a new track and play them on a pluck.
- Layer two sounds. A soft pad holding the chords and a short pluck playing the same chords rhythmically will fill more space than either on its own.
- Vary velocity and timing. Straight-off-the-grid MIDI at full velocity sounds programmed. A small amount of randomisation makes it feel played.
Getting the free MIDI chords into your DAW
Our free MIDI chord pack holds over 7,400 MIDI chords and progressions in every major and minor key, organised by key, chord type and scale. The progressions folder has each progression at three different timings. There's no email sign-up: download the zip, unzip it into your samples folder and drag a MIDI file onto an instrument track. Every major DAW, from Ableton Live and FL Studio to Logic Pro and Cubase, will read it.
Want more than chords? Ethereal House Vol. 1 and Above Trance Vol. 1 include the MIDI behind their loops, so you can put the basslines and sequences on your own synths too.
The synths that make chords sound good
A progression is only as good as the patch playing it. A cheap, thin pad will make the best chords sound flat, while a good polysynth makes even two chords sound like a track. These are the ones we'd reach for, and they're the ones producers on forums like KVR keep recommending for chords and pads.
TAL-U-NO-LX: the Juno chord machine
TAL-U-NO-LX models the Roland Juno-60, and it's widely regarded as one of the most faithful Juno emulations around. The chorus is the star: it turns a simple sawtooth chord into something wide and warm, which is why Juno pads are all over synthwave, deep house and lo-fi. It's also very light on CPU, so you can run several instances without thinking about it.
Where it fits: progressions 2, 4 and 7 above. Deep house stabs, synthwave pads and soft lo-fi chords. It's the best-value chord synth in the store.
Cherry Audio DCO-106: Juno-106 with chord memory
The DCO-106 recreates the Juno-106 and adds a few things the original never had, including up to 16 voices, a delay section and that chord memory mode. Users tend to praise how easy it is to programme and how well it sits in a mix. It's a natural choice for dub techno stabs and house chords.
Where it fits: progression 3. Hold one minor seventh shape, play it from a single key, and add delay.
u-he Diva: thick, analogue chords
Diva mixes oscillators and filters modelled on Moog, Roland and Korg designs, and it's one of the most convincing analogue sounds in software. It's especially good at thick, full chords and pads. It's heavier on CPU than most, so bounce pads to audio once you're happy.
Where it fits: just about all eight, but especially the trance and synthwave progressions. Our Diva bundle comes with two free SOUND7 preset packs.
u-he Repro: Prophet-5 pads with drift
Repro includes Repro-5, a component-level model of the Prophet-5. It has a slightly unstable, organic quality that gives pads and stabs a human feel, which suits melodic techno and the darker progressions here.
Where it fits: progressions 4 and 5. Brooding pads, synthwave chords and melodic techno stabs.
GForce Oberheim OB-X: big brass chords
The GForce OB-X is officially endorsed by Tom Oberheim, and reviewers and users alike rate its brass and pads very highly. If you want the huge, fat chords of early 80s records, this is the one.
Where it fits: progression 4, the synthwave rise, played as brass stabs.
Reveal Sound Spire: trance supersaws
Spire is a trance staple. Its supersaws cut through the midrange without swamping the mix, which is exactly what you want when progression 1 comes back in after the breakdown. Analogue warmth isn't really its thing, but for wide, bright trance chords that's rarely what you're after.
Where it fits: progression 1 and progression 6.
No synth yet? Synth1 is free and will play every progression here nicely.
Have we missed your favourite progression? Let us know.
Sounds to play your chords with
Every SOUND7 pack is royalty free and an instant download. Plugins and bundles come as a licence activation code by email.
u-he Diva bundle: Diva plus free SOUND7 Diva packs
Diva - Current Trends Vol.1: trance presets for Diva
Serum - Future Trance Vol.1: modern trance for Serum 1 and 2
Spire - Progressive Moments Vol.1: progressive trance for Spire
Diva - Synthwave Vol.1: 64 synthwave presets for Diva
Repro5 - Outrun Vol.1: synthwave and outrun for Repro-5
Serum - Explorations Vol.1: ambient pads and textures for Serum 1 and 2
Deep Dub Vol. 1: dub techno chord stabs and loops