Progression · I–II–iii–IV–V–bVII

I–II–iii–IV–V–bVII Progression

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

Pop Rock Intermediate

What I–II–iii–IV–V–bVII means

Every song below plays chords built on these scale degrees: I = degree 1, II = degree 2, iii = degree 3 (minor), IV = degree 4, V = degree 5, bVII = degree 7 — 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 F 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.

2 songs built on I–II–iii–IV–V–bVII

Closely related progressions

🎭 Character: bVII is borrowed from the parallel minor (or heard as a Mixolydian bVII) — it's the chord most responsible for a rock or folk-rock color instead of a classical, strictly-major one. iii is the least commonly leaned-on diatonic chord — it shares two notes with both I and V, which makes it sound more like a passing color than a destination. 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.

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