Try This Progression

Since creating OneChord, one thing that never really sat right with me was the Next Chord button.

I’d used a massive dataset (Chordonomicon - 666,000 chord progressions) to look for the most frequent follow-up chord. The result, however, was that all chords eventually led back to C or G, at which point you were playing chord tennis.

It didn’t offer much beyond what the OneChord logo already offered (undocumented random chord button - Shhh!).

I’d been toying with the idea of adding a chord catalogue to the site, but that felt like I was moving away from the minimal concept of OneChord and into some reference site, which is not what I envisioned. I wanted something lighter.

While mocking up a circle of fifths navigator, I had a eureka moment, and realised that progressions were the answer.

A 3 chord progression that mirrors the 3 classic songs, and 3 strums I play on YouTube Shorts, I do not see coincidence. I see providence. I see purpose.

I use Chordonomicon to look for the most popular chord progression using the current chord as the starting point, and then limit it to 3 chords.

I’ve dropped the next chord button in this release, but I think adding the 3 chord progression pushes you that one step further (not too far tho!), especially if you’ve mastered the current chord already.

It’s gonna take me some time to add progressions to all the existing chords. After all, I created this site in order to pick up the guitar, and manually checking each progression is a good way to enforce that, right? 😈

If OneChord is helping you pick up the guitar, and you want to show your support, you can buy me a coffee here.

Every cup fuels the next chord, and more music of course! 🎸