By the numbers
Chord progressions in real songs
Short answer
In 1,156 art songs analysed by software, the most common two-chord move in a major key is V→I: 10,374 times in 1,006 songs, 19.2% of all two-chord moves. After a V chord the next chord is I 73.3% of the time. ii–V–I appears 1,256 times in 498 songs (43% of the songs). The loop I–V–vi–IV, which Wikipedia calls extremely common, is found, in any of its four rotations, in only 53 songs (4.6%).
- 73.3%of V chords are followed by I, in major-key passages
- 498songs contain ii–V–I (43% of 1,156)
- 4.6%of songs contain the I–V–vi–IV loop, in any rotation
Dataset: 1,156 OpenScore Lieder art songs that have an automatic Roman-numeral analysis (AugmentedNet v1.9.1, not checked by a person): classical art songs, mostly 19th-century, not pop music. Chords are Roman numerals in the local key; sevenths and inversions are counted as the same chord; repeated chords are merged.
What these chords come from
Software labelled the chords of each song bar by bar. The numbers below are counts of those labels.
The most common two-chord moves
Both directions between the tonic and the dominant lead the lists: V→I (10,374) and I→V (6,471) in major keys; V→i (3,050) and i→V in minor keys. After those come I→IV, ii→V and IV→I.
What follows each chord?
Chord names are Roman numerals: I is the chord built on the key's first note, V on its fifth; capitals are major, lower case minor, ° diminished, and V/V means “the dominant of the dominant”. Read a row as: after this chord, the next chord is each of these, with this share. Major-key passages: V is followed by I 73.3% of the time, I by V 42.8%, by IV 14.8% and by ii 9.4%.
| Chord | Times | What comes next (share of the times this chord is followed by another) |
|---|---|---|
| I | 15,121 | V 42.8% · IV 14.8% · ii 9.4% · vi 6.9% |
| V | 14,148 | I 73.3% · vi 4.3% · IV 3.7% · ii 3.0% |
| IV | 4,026 | I 37.3% · V 24.8% · ii 10.9% · vii° 3.4% |
| ii | 3,955 | V 44.8% · I 21.6% · Cad64 3.8% · vi 3.4% |
| vi | 2,547 | V 21.3% · I 20.4% · ii 16.5% · IV 8.1% |
| Chord | Times | What comes next (share) |
|---|---|---|
| i | 5,784 | V 34.0% · iv 10.7% · VI 7.1% · iiø 6.5% |
| V | 4,760 | i 64.1% · vii° 4.5% · VI 4.3% · I 4.2% |
| iv | 1,578 | i 33.8% · V 24.1% · V/III 4.8% · iiø 4.6% |
Three- and four-chord patterns
The longer patterns are mostly back-and-forth between tonic and dominant: I–V–I (5,024 times in 829 songs), V–I–V and V–I–IV. The first pattern that looks like a textbook cadence formula is ii–V–I, 1,256 times in 498 songs, fourth on the list.
| Pattern | Times | Songs | Share of songs |
|---|---|---|---|
| I–V–I | 5,024 | 829 | 72% |
| V–I–V | 4,050 | 731 | 63% |
| V–I–IV | 1,317 | 481 | 42% |
| ii–V–I | 1,256 | 498 | 43% |
| I–IV–I | 981 | 373 | 32% |
| V–I–ii | 756 | 329 | 28% |
| IV–V–I | 691 | 339 | 29% |
| V–I–vi | 627 | 327 | 28% |
| Pattern | Times | Songs | Share of songs |
|---|---|---|---|
| i–V–i | 1,332 | 383 | 33% |
| V–i–V | 965 | 320 | 28% |
| i–iv–i | 242 | 132 | 11% |
| V–i–iv | 240 | 138 | 12% |
| iv–V–i | 194 | 125 | 11% |
| Pattern | Times | Songs | Share of songs |
|---|---|---|---|
| V–I–V–I | 3,143 | 646 | 56% |
| I–V–I–V | 2,327 | 527 | 46% |
| I–V–I–IV | 586 | 276 | 24% |
| V–I–IV–I | 561 | 259 | 22% |
| I–ii–V–I | 501 | 239 | 21% |
| IV–I–V–I | 434 | 222 | 19% |
| Pattern | Times | Songs | Share of songs |
|---|---|---|---|
| V–i–V–i | 680 | 236 | 20% |
| i–V–i–V | 510 | 182 | 16% |
| iv–i–V–i | 111 | 76 | 7% |
| V–i–iv–i | 89 | 57 | 5% |
Art song versus the I–V–vi–IV loop
The loop I–V–vi–IV occurs 24 times in 18 songs; its four rotations together reach 53 songs (4.6%). ii–V–I, by comparison, is in 498 songs (43%) and V→I in 1,006 (87%). The 50s progression I–vi–IV–V appears in 13 songs.
The first four rows are the four rotations of the I–V–vi–IV loop (the same four chords started on a different one). Counted in major-key passages only, after merging repeated chords, with sevenths and inversions folded in. The song-by-song count reproduces the figures in the tables above for I–V–I, ii–V–I and the others that appear there.
| Progression (any position in a major-key passage) | Times | Songs | Share of songs |
|---|---|---|---|
| I–V–vi–IV | 24 | 18 | 1.6% |
| V–vi–IV–I | 16 | 12 | 1.0% |
| vi–IV–I–V | 28 | 22 | 1.9% |
| IV–I–V–vi | 24 | 16 | 1.4% |
| I–vi–IV–V | 16 | 13 | 1.1% |
| I–IV–V–I | 400 | 191 | 16.5% |
| I–vi–ii–V | 73 | 52 | 4.5% |
| I–IV–V | 505 | 241 | 20.8% |
| I–V–I | 5,024 | 829 | 71.7% |
| ii–V–I | 1,256 | 498 | 43.1% |
| IV–V–I | 691 | 339 | 29.3% |
| V–I | 10,374 | 1,006 | 87.0% |
Which chords carry the music?
In major-key passages I and V together account for 53.3% of all chord segments; IV and ii follow at about 6.8% each. Roughly one chord segment in three carries a seventh (35.2%), and about one in four borrows another key's chord (23.7%).
| Feature | Share or count | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Seventh chords | 35.2% | of all chord segments carry a seventh (the pattern tables above fold sevenths into the plain chord) |
| Secondary chords (such as V/V) | 23.7% | of all chord segments borrow the key of another chord; V/V is the most common (1,926) |
| Root position / first / second / third inversion | 59.8% / 21.3% / 14.8% / 4.1% | of chord segments, by position of the lowest note |
| German / Italian / French augmented sixths | 723 / 271 / 225 | times; the German type is the most used |
| Neapolitan chord | 305 | times |
| Cadential six-four | 412 | times |
Hear the progressions
Play the most common moves, then the I–V–vi–IV loop and the 50s progression, and compare them with what the counts say.
Play the progressions
Pick a key, then press play. The chords are synthesised in your browser (no recording) as plain triads, so you hear the root-position pattern without the sevenths and inversions of a real score.
- V → I (the most common move)V – I10,374 times in 1,006 songs
- I → VI – V6,471 times in 907 songs
- ii → V → Iii – V – I1,256 times in 498 songs
- I → IV → V → II – IV – V – I400 times in 191 songs
- V/V → V → I (a secondary dominant)V/V – V – I579 times in 304 songs
- I → V → vi → IV (the loop)I – V – vi – IV24 times in 18 songs
- I → vi → IV → V (the 50s progression)I – vi – IV – V16 times in 13 songs
- V → i (minor key)V – i3,050 times in 646 songs
- i → iv → V → i (minor key)i – iv – V – i87 times in 59 songs
Background reading
Definitions from Wikipedia for the terms used above.
From Wikipedia
Chord progression
Overview
In a musical composition, a chord progression or harmonic progression (informally chord changes, used as a plural, or simply changes) is a succession of chords. Chord progressions are the foundation of harmony in Western musical tradition from the common practice era of classical music to the 21st century. Chord progressions are the foundation of popular music styles (e.g, pop music, rock music), traditional music, as well as genres such as blues and jazz. In these genres, chord progressions are the defining feature on which melody and rhythm are built.
In tonal music, chord progressions have the function of either establishing or otherwise contradicting a tonality, the technical name for what is commonly understood as the "key" of a song or piece. Chord progressions, such as the extremely common chord progression I-V-vi-IV, are usually expressed by Roman numerals in classical music theory. In many styles of popular and traditional music, chord progressions are expressed using the name and "quality" of the chords. For example, the previously mentioned chord progression, in the key of E♭ major, would be written as E♭ major–B♭ major–C minor–A♭ major in a fake book or lead sheet. In the first chord, E♭ major, the "E♭" indicates that the chord is built on the root note "E♭" and the word "major" indicates that a major chord is built on this "E♭" note.
1950s progression
Another common way of extending the I–IV–V progression is by adding the chord of the sixth scale degree, giving the sequence I–vi–IV–V or I–vi–ii–V, sometimes called the 50s progression or doo-wop progression.
This progression had been in use from the earliest days of classical music and then generated popular hits such as Rodgers and Hart's "Blue Moon" (1934) and Hoagy Carmichael's "Heart and Soul" (1938).
Taken up into the pop mainstream, it continued to be used sectionally, as in the last part of The Beatles' "Happiness Is a Warm Gun".
Source: Wikipedia, “Chord progression” — CC BY-SA 4.0 — text excerpted; see the article for the full text and authors. Revision of 2026-04-14.
Roman numeral analysis
In music theory, Roman numeral analysis is a type of harmonic analysis in which chords are represented by Roman numerals, which encode the chord's degree and harmonic function within a given musical key.
Specific notation conventions vary: some theorists use uppercase numerals (e.g. I, IV, V) to represent major chords, and lowercase numerals (e.g. ii, iii, vi) to represent minor chords. Others use uppercase numerals for all chords regardless of their quality. (As the II, III, and VI chords are always minor chords and the VII always diminished, a further distinguishment is thought unneeded, see table for Major Diatonic scale below)
Source: Wikipedia, “Roman numeral analysis” — CC BY-SA 4.0 — text excerpted; see the article for the full text and authors. Revision of 2026-06-24.
How this was counted
- Source. The analyses are the files
analysis_automatic.rntxtthat come with the OpenScore Lieder Corpus (1,156 songs), produced by the AugmentedNet software (v1.9.1). No person corrected them. - Counting. 118,415 chord marks were read (282 were unreadable software output and were treated as breaks); they merge into 91,584 chord segments. Seventh chords and inversions are folded into the plain chord (V7, V6/5, V4/3 and V2 all count as V), repeated chords are merged, and a pattern never crosses a change of key. Major and minor refer to the local key at that point.
- Two ways to count. “Times” adds every occurrence; “songs” counts each song once. Rankings use both because one repetitive song can inflate the first.
- Check against the notes. In a sample of 60 songs (1,265 bars with one chord label each), the notes sounding in a bar belonged to the labelled chord for 85.0% of their duration; a chord of the same type on a random root scores 27.7%, and the right label moved one bar sideways scores 55.4%. A label with a seventh (V7) had the seventh sounding 18.3% of the time, against 1.8% for plain V.
- Named progressions. The table of well-known progressions was counted by a second pass over the same files with the same rules; where a progression also appears in the earlier tables the two counts are equal.
Data used
- OpenScore Lieder, automatic harmonic analyses — 1,156 of the songs come with a Roman-numeral analysis produced automatically by AugmentedNet v1.9.1 and not checked by a person; chords, cadences and key changes are counted from those 1,156 files. CC0 1.0
- OpenScore Lieder Corpus — 1,462 art songs (mostly 19th-century European) transcribed to MusicXML by volunteers; key signatures, time signatures, tempo words, metronome marks, vocal lines and melodies are read directly from the files. CC0 1.0
What these numbers cannot tell you
- The chord labels are software output that has not been checked by people, and no human-checked reference set was used. The agreement with the notes shown above says the labels are far better than chance, not that every label is right; do not read the percentages to the decimal.
- These are art songs for voice and piano, mostly from the 19th century. They say nothing about pop, rock, jazz or folk harmony, and the repertoire is a volunteer-chosen sample, not all art songs.
- Merging repeated chords and folding inversions into the plain chord loses the difference between, for example, I and I6, and between V and V7.
- Patterns are counted inside one key at a time, so a progression that spans a modulation is not found.
- Counts of occurrences depend on how long songs are; the “songs” column is the fairer measure of how widespread a pattern is.
Checks run each time this page is rebuilt (41)
- songs with a major or minor home key add up to 1,156
- the song-by-song scan has the same 1,156 songs as lieder-harmony.json
- I–IV–V–I: the song-by-song count (400 times, 191 songs) equals lieder-harmony.json
- I–IV–V: the song-by-song count (505 times, 241 songs) equals lieder-harmony.json
- I–V–I: the song-by-song count (5,024 times, 829 songs) equals lieder-harmony.json
- ii–V–I: the song-by-song count (1,256 times, 498 songs) equals lieder-harmony.json
- IV–V–I: the song-by-song count (691 times, 339 songs) equals lieder-harmony.json
- V–I: the song-by-song count (10,374 times, 1,006 songs) equals lieder-harmony.json
- songs with the I–V–vi–IV loop in any rotation (53) cannot exceed the sum over rotations
- after a V chord, I is the most likely next chord
- major I: the listed next-chord shares do not exceed 100%
- major V: the listed next-chord shares do not exceed 100%
- major IV: the listed next-chord shares do not exceed 100%
- major ii: the listed next-chord shares do not exceed 100%
- major vi: the listed next-chord shares do not exceed 100%
- major V/V: the listed next-chord shares do not exceed 100%
- major V/IV: the listed next-chord shares do not exceed 100%
- major iii: the listed next-chord shares do not exceed 100%
- major vii°: the listed next-chord shares do not exceed 100%
- major V/vi: the listed next-chord shares do not exceed 100%
- major: chord shares do not exceed 100%
- minor i: the listed next-chord shares do not exceed 100%
- minor V: the listed next-chord shares do not exceed 100%
- minor iv: the listed next-chord shares do not exceed 100%
- minor VI: the listed next-chord shares do not exceed 100%
- minor vii°: the listed next-chord shares do not exceed 100%
- minor iiø: the listed next-chord shares do not exceed 100%
- minor I/III: the listed next-chord shares do not exceed 100%
- minor V/III: the listed next-chord shares do not exceed 100%
- minor iii/III: the listed next-chord shares do not exceed 100%
- minor vii°/v: the listed next-chord shares do not exceed 100%
- minor: chord shares do not exceed 100%
- root position + three inversions add up to 100% of chord segments (1.0 vs 1.0)
- chord labels fit the notes of their bar far better than random chords (85.0% vs 27.7%)
- V→i is the most common two-chord move in minor passages
- V→I then I→V lead the major list
- the third to fifth most common major moves are I→IV, ii→V, IV→I
- ii–V–I is the fourth most common three-chord pattern in major keys
- I and V are the two most used chords in major passages
- every example in the player has a count behind it
- the Wikipedia excerpt contains the sentences this page paraphrases (extremely common; popular music)
Data: OpenScore Lieder, automatic harmonic analyses (CC0 1.0); Wikipedia (excerpts) (CC BY-SA 4.0). Computed for this site on 2026-10-03; the numbers are counts or shares from the datasets named above, not estimates for music in general. Licences and credits for everything used on this site are on the credits page.