What do the Roman numerals mean?

They number the chord's position in the scale, so I is the chord on the first degree and V the chord on the fifth. Uppercase means a major chord, lowercase a minor one, and a small circle means diminished. Writing progressions this way means the same progression can be read in any key.

Why is the chord on the second degree minor?

Because that is what the scale produces. Stack thirds on D within C major and you get D, F and A — a minor triad. The qualities of the seven diatonic chords are a consequence of the major scale's interval pattern, not a choice.

Are generated progressions any good?

Some will be, some will not. The tool weights the choices so sequences hold together rather than wandering, but it has no ear and makes no claim that what it produces is better than what you would write. It is a way to start, not a substitute for judgement.

Can I use a generated progression in a song I release?

Chord progressions are not protected by copyright — the same four chords appear in thousands of published songs. What is protected is a specific melody, lyric and recording. Nothing generated here carries any restriction from us.

Why does the minor key have a major V chord sometimes?

Because harmonic minor raises the seventh degree, which turns the chord on the fifth from minor to major. That major V is what makes a minor key sound like it has genuinely come home at the end, and it is why harmonic minor exists at all.

Random Chord Progression Generator

Gives you a chord progression to write against — in the key you choose, named both as Roman numerals and as real chords. You can draw from progressions that are known to work, or generate a fresh sequence and see where it takes you. Either way the chords come out spelled correctly for the key.

Key

Major or minor

Chords in the loop

Four is the most common. Eight gives room to go somewhere and come back.

Use a known progression

Use seventh chords

Seed (optional)

A word makes the result reproducible, so you can come back to a progression you liked.

Your chord progression will appear here.

What this generator does

Produces a chord progression as both Roman numerals and named chords. The numerals are the part that transfers: I-V-vi-IV is the same progression in every key, and seeing it written as C-G-Am-F and then as E-B-C♯m-A is how the abstraction becomes useful. Every chord is built from the key's own scale, so the qualities fall out of the key rather than being assigned — the chord on the second degree of a major key is minor because that is what the scale produces.

How to use this tool

Choose a key, or let one be drawn for you.
Choose major or minor, and how many chords you want.
Pick a known progression, or generate a fresh sequence.
Press Generate, then play it round a few times before judging it.

Understanding the controls

Key: The key the progression is written in. Drawing a key at random is a good way to stop writing everything in G.
Major or minor: Changes the scale the chords are drawn from, and so the qualities. The chord on the first degree is major in a major key and minor in a minor one; the fifth degree is where the two differ most interestingly.
Source: A known progression draws from patterns that appear in a great deal of published music — the four-chord loop, the twelve-bar blues, the doo-wop changes. A fresh sequence generates something new, weighted so the chords still relate to each other rather than being picked at random from the seven available.
Length: How many chords in the loop. Four is the most common for a reason; eight gives room for the progression to go somewhere and come back.
Seed: Makes the result reproducible, so you can come back to a progression you liked or set the same one for a group.

Worked examples

I-V-vi-IV in C major: C - G - Am - F. The four-chord loop behind a very large amount of pop music.
ii-V-I in B♭ major: Cm7 - F7 - B♭maj7. The core cadence of jazz standards.
i-VI-III-VII in A minor: Am - F - C - G. The same four chords as the pop loop, started from the minor.
Twelve-bar blues in E: E - E - E - E - A - A - E - E - B - A - E - B.

Common use cases

Starting a song when the blank page is the problem
Practising the same progression in unfamiliar keys
Learning what Roman numerals mean by seeing them alongside real chords
Producing a backing sequence to improvise over
Teaching harmony — the same numerals in four keys make the pattern obvious

How this generator works

The seven diatonic chords are built by stacking thirds on each degree of the chosen scale, which produces the qualities automatically — in a major key that gives major, minor, minor, major, major, minor and diminished, in that order. A named progression is then a fixed list of degrees applied to those chords. A fresh sequence is generated with weighting rather than uniformly: the tonic is favoured at the start and end, the diminished chord is used sparingly, and a chord is less likely to be immediately repeated, because a uniform random walk through seven chords produces sequences that sound aimless rather than fresh.

Randomness and fairness

Where a key is not specified it is drawn with the browser's cryptographic random number generator. A named progression involves no further randomness beyond choosing which one. A fresh sequence uses weighted selection at each step — chords are not equally likely, and the weighting is what keeps the result coherent. A seed switches to a reproducible generator so a progression can be found again or shared as a word rather than a chord chart.

For how randomness is produced across the whole site, see how Generate Random works.

Limitations and good to know

It produces harmony, not a song. Rhythm, melody, voicing, tempo and arrangement are all up to you, and they matter more than the chords do.
There is no audio, so you will need an instrument or a keyboard app to hear it.
Fresh sequences are weighted to sound coherent, but weighting is not composition — some will be dull and some will be strange.
Only diatonic chords are used. Borrowed chords, secondary dominants and modulation are a large part of what makes progressions interesting, and are outside what this generates.
No claim is made that a generated progression is good, or better than one you would write. It is a starting point chosen by arithmetic.

Common mistakes

Judging a progression before hearing it in rhythm: Play it round four times with a steady pulse. A great many progressions sound flat as a list of chords and work perfectly with a groove under them.
Treating uppercase and lowercase numerals as decoration: Uppercase is major, lowercase is minor, and a small circle is diminished. The case carries the whole quality.
Assuming a progression only works in the key it was generated in: Numerals transpose. Regenerate the same numerals in a different key if the range does not suit your voice or instrument.
Rejecting a progression because it is familiar: I-V-vi-IV is behind an enormous number of successful songs. Familiar harmony with an original melody is a far better bet than the reverse.

Practical tips

Generate in a key that suits the singer first; transposing after the melody is written is more work than it sounds.
Try a fresh sequence and a known progression side by side — hearing what makes the familiar one feel resolved is the fastest harmony lesson there is.
Note the seed if you like something; the progression is easier to recover from a word than from memory.

Privacy and your data

Everything is calculated in your browser. No progression you generate is uploaded, stored between visits or written into the page address, so save anything you want to keep by copying it. Analytics records the key type and length, never the progression itself.

Frequently asked questions

What do the Roman numerals mean?: They number the chord's position in the scale, so I is the chord on the first degree and V the chord on the fifth. Uppercase means a major chord, lowercase a minor one, and a small circle means diminished. Writing progressions this way means the same progression can be read in any key.
Why is the chord on the second degree minor?: Because that is what the scale produces. Stack thirds on D within C major and you get D, F and A — a minor triad. The qualities of the seven diatonic chords are a consequence of the major scale's interval pattern, not a choice.
Are generated progressions any good?: Some will be, some will not. The tool weights the choices so sequences hold together rather than wandering, but it has no ear and makes no claim that what it produces is better than what you would write. It is a way to start, not a substitute for judgement.
Can I use a generated progression in a song I release?: Chord progressions are not protected by copyright — the same four chords appear in thousands of published songs. What is protected is a specific melody, lyric and recording. Nothing generated here carries any restriction from us.
Why does the minor key have a major V chord sometimes?: Because harmonic minor raises the seventh degree, which turns the chord on the fifth from minor to major. That major V is what makes a minor key sound like it has genuinely come home at the end, and it is why harmonic minor exists at all.