Progression · I–bII–IV–V–bV–bVI

I–bII–IV–V–bV–bVI Progression

6 songs from the corpus share this chord-degree set — open one to see and hear the real chords on an interactive fretboard.

Country Pop Jazz Intermediate

What I–bII–IV–V–bV–bVI means

Every song below plays chords built on these scale degrees: I = degree 1, bII = degree 2, IV = degree 4, V = degree 5, bV = degree 5, bVI = degree 6 — relative to whatever key that song is actually in. The degrees are the same; the real chords are different in every key, which is exactly why the same progression can sound totally different from one song to the next.

Hear it in A major

One real voicing for each degree, in a key real songs in this set are actually written in — tap any diagram to hear it strummed.

6 songs built on I–bII–IV–V–bV–bVI

Closely related progressions

🎭 Character: bII (the “Neapolitan”) is a striking, tension-heavy borrowed chord a half-step above the tonic — rare enough that it reads as a deliberate dramatic move wherever it shows up. bVI is borrowed from the parallel minor — it drops a darker, more dramatic color into an otherwise major-key progression. V (the dominant) has the strongest pull back to I of any diatonic chord — its own third is the key's leading tone, the single note that wants most to resolve upward.

🔄 Inversions: An inversion is the same chord with a different note in the bass — first inversion puts the 3rd on the bottom, second inversion the 5th. Try playing any chord above with its 3rd or 5th as the lowest note instead of the root: the chord itself doesn't change, but the bass line moves by step instead of jumping around, which is what makes a progression feel smoother from one chord to the next.

Learn the theory

Hear any progression instantly

Build a progression in any key and hear it played back on a live fretboard, or drop in a track and see which one it's actually using.

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