A free online chord progression generator. Pick a key and mood — happy, sad, dreamy, epic, chill/lo-fi, dark, romantic, or nostalgic — and the tool builds a musically coherent 8-bar chord progression, complete with a matching melody, bassline, and arpeggio. Choose a specific melody, bass, or arp style, or leave it on auto for variety. Play it right in your browser, or download it as a standard MIDI file to use in your DAW (Ableton, FL Studio, Logic, Reaper, and more).
A quick look at the principles behind the generator below — chord functions within a scale, a few tried-and-true progressions, and a circle of fifths showing which keys are closest to each other.
Every scale degree belongs to one of three groups: tonic (rest, "home"), subdominant (moving away, tension building) and dominant (pull back to the tonic). A progression that cycles through these groups in a sensible order — T → S → D → T — always sounds coherent, whatever the exact chords are.
Tip: in minor, the generator's "v" dominant sticks to the natural minor scale (no raised leading tone), so it pulls less strongly than a major V — that's intentional, it gives a hazier, dreamier character.
The same three or four chords, just in a different order, can completely change a song's character — depending on which chord the progression starts and lands on.
The most-used pop progression of all — bright, open, instantly memorable.
Same four chords as above, just starting on vi — less triumphant, more wistful and drifting.
The classic 50s progression (doo-wop) — nostalgic, merry-go-round feel.
The jazz cadence — subdominant and dominant combine into one strong resolution to the tonic.
A minor, epic-to-rock progression — typical for dramatic and cinematic moods.
The simplest minor progression — folky, dark, almost bluesy.
The outer ring shows the 12 major keys arranged by fifths, the inner ring their relative minors. Neighboring keys (one step left or right) share 6 of 7 scale tones, so it's easy to modulate between them or "borrow" a chord from a neighbor. Hover or tap a key to highlight its neighbors.
Keys opposite each other on the circle (e.g. C and F#) share the fewest common tones and sound the most contrasting together — useful for a sudden modulation or a shift between sections of a song.
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The key sets the starting note; the mood (happy, sad, dreamy, epic, chill/lo-fi, dark, romantic, nostalgic) sets the major or minor mode, tempo, and typical character of the progression.
The progression is built exclusively from chords diatonic to the chosen key and scale — no random or foreign notes. Most chords are simple triads or 7th chords, but some moods also weave in an occasional sus2, sus4, or 9th color chord for extra character — always still built purely from the scale, so it never sounds out of tune.
The melody draws on the tones of the current chord (triad/seventh chord) in rhythmic patterns, the bassline plays the root, fifth, and octave, and the arp cycles through the chord's tones in eighth-note steps following the chosen pattern — all three always stay in harmony with the chords above. Pick a specific melody, bass, or arp style from the dropdowns, or leave them on "Auto" to get a different pattern on every bar.
The Play button starts an 8-bar loop right in your browser — the whole mix, or just one layer at a time (chords only / melody only / bass only / arp only). MIDI export downloads a .mid file with four tracks (chords / melody / bass / arp) that you can open in any DAW and build on — or download a single layer on its own. Everything you generate here is yours to use without restriction — in personal or commercial tracks, with no attribution required.
Tip: "New variation" keeps the key and mood unchanged and just rolls a different progression from the same family — handy when you like the mood but want to try different chords. "New melody" and "New bass" re-roll just that part while keeping the current chords in place, so you can mix and match. The exported MIDI file can be freely transposed in your DAW, looped longer, or have its sounds swapped for your own.
Yes, the tool is completely free and runs right in your browser, no sign-up needed.
Yes — every progression is built solely from chords diatonic to the chosen key and scale, so it always sounds coherent and "in tune." The melody and bassline are generated from the tones of those chords.
The export is a standard MIDI file (.mid, format 1, 480 tpqn) with four tracks — chords, melody, bass, and arp — compatible with all major DAWs.
Happy, sad, dreamy, epic, chill/lo-fi, dark, romantic, and nostalgic — each mood has its own tempo, key mode, and set of typical progressions.
Yes. Any MIDI file you generate and download here is yours to use freely — in personal or commercial music, with no license fees, credit, or attribution required.
Most songs you hear on the radio rest on a handful of simple principles: the progression stays in one key, alternates tonic and dominant function, and only occasionally borrows one extra "color" chord. That's why even a completely amateur progression can sound great as long as it sticks to the scale — and why even a technically correct one sounds off the moment it strays outside it. The fastest way to a usable progression is to start from the mood, not the chords: decide whether you want the track to feel happy, sad, dreamy, or epic, and let that mood dictate the key (major vs. minor) and the tempo. Only then worry about the specific chords — or let the generator pick them and try a few variations until one matches what you're going for.
A major scale generally reads to listeners as bright, confident, and open — which is why it anchors happy, epic, and nostalgic tracks. A minor scale carries tension and introspection instead, which is why it works for sad, dark, and dreamy moods. Tempo then fills in the intensity: a slow 60–75 BPM deepens melancholy or dreaminess, while 100+ BPM gives a progression energy and urgency. "Minor key + slow tempo + simple triads" is the classic recipe for a ballad, while "major key + mid tempo + seventh chords" shows up constantly in lo-fi and chillhop. Try the same key across a few moods in the generator above and you'll hear the difference immediately.
Drag the exported .mid file onto an empty MIDI track in Ableton, FL Studio, Logic, or Reaper — it contains four separate tracks (chords, melody, bass, arpeggio), so you can assign each one its own instrument or VST plugin. A fast starting point: put a pad or piano on the chord track, a simple synth bass on the bassline, and let the melody play through a lead or pluck synth. If the loop feels short, just copy and paste the whole block, or tweak individual notes directly in the piano-roll editor — the generated progression is only a starting point you're free to keep shaping. Downloaded files carry no license or watermark, so you can drop them straight into a commercial project too.
The tool offers eight built-in moods, each combining a different key mode, tempo, and set of typical progressions. Happy is major and faster (around 112 BPM), built on classic pop progressions. Sad and dark are both minor, but sad stays more melodic while dark leans on tenser jumps between chords. Dreamy and romantic both add seventh or ninth chords for a fuller, softer sound and play at a slow tempo. Epic is minor and dramatic, sitting around 90 BPM, while chill/lo-fi is also minor with seventh chords but a more relaxed groove. Nostalgic is the only major-key mood among the slower/mid-tempo group, and leans on the vi–IV pull that's characteristic of that sound. Moods can be switched anytime while keeping the same key, so it's easy to compare how one root note sounds across all eight.
Alongside exporting the whole progression at once (four tracks in a single .mid file), you can also download just one layer — chords, melody, bass, or arpeggio on its own. That's useful when you only want part of the generated idea: laying the bassline under your own chords, for example, or keeping the chords while writing your own melody and bass from scratch. Separate tracks are also easier to hand off between instruments or collaborators, since nobody has to figure out what to mute in the project. Because every layer comes from the same chord progression, they all stay harmonically compatible once split apart, so you can mix and match them with other instruments or sounds without worrying they'll clash.