If you feel like you write the same boring, dry, predictable progressions every time you sit down to write music, I’m gonna help you get out of that rut.
Let's explore 13 of the most interesting, practical, and (sometimes) downright spicy chord progressions from video game soundtracks. I invite you to steal these and use them to enhance your own compositions or productions.
If you want to hear these progressions in action, watch the video here:
https://youtu.be/pVoikYB-YWU
Progression 1: ii - V - I
The first progression is one of the most common in the whole of Western harmony, especially jazz harmony. It’s all over video game music, and you’ll hear it several times throughout this list.
We see it in the Portal End Credits theme, Still Alive (composed by Jonathan Coulton).
I stayed up all night in college and beat this game in one sitting on the original Orange Box and it was probably the most memorable gaming moment for me.
Imagine experiencing a game like Portal and then hearing this song at the end while the credits rolled. I sat there with the controller in my hand, jaw on the floor, and just listened.
The ii - V - I progression is really the swiss army knife of chord progressions. It can help you modulate to different keys, it hits every pitch in a given scale so it’s really good at establishing a tonal center, and it can take a really vanilla chord progression and make it interesting.
I have a free lesson in my course on the fundamentals of game composition all about the ii - V - I. If you want to dive deeper, click here.
Progression 2: IVmaj7, iii7, ii7, Imaj7
Now maybe you want to get back to the I chord, but you don’t want to do it so strongly as in the case of the ii - V - I. This next progression will certainly do the trick. It's featured prominently in the very first video game I ever played as a kid.
The addition of the 7th chord degrees adds a jazzy flavor and makes it a really fun progression to play and write over.
It’s used at least two other times in the Sonic the Hedgehog soundtrack. Listen for it in the Special Stage music as well as the B section of Spring Yard Zone.
Progression 3: Victory Theme
Our next chord progression is often called the “victory” progression because of its use in the most iconic game of all time, as well as many other games after that.
If you’re looking to evoke an emotion of triumph or victory or success, look no further.
The real MVPs of this progression are the ♭VI and ♭VII chords, which are borrowed chords from the parallel minor key. Meaning, if you’re playing in C major, you’d borrow these chords from C minor.
That IV - V - ♭VI - ♭VII in all major chords really dials up the "triumph" feeling to 11.
Progression 4: Tritone Substitution
If you want to be like me and fake your way into some jazz music, there’s no better way to do that than through a tritone substitution. It’s a great way to resolve back to the I chord, as you can hear in this underrated little track from Super Mario World.
A tritone substitution is so named because it’s substitutin...
