Workshop 113 — Writing Original Chord Progressions: Functional Logic, Voice-Leading Logic, Modal Logic, and How to Avoid “Chord Collection” Syndrome

Workshop 112 focused on texture and register.

Now we return to harmony from a more compositional angle.

You already know how to:

• harmonize melodies
• reharmonize
• use secondary dominants
• use borrowed harmony
• use tritone substitutions
• use pedals
• use altered dominants
• use modal fields
• use upper structures

But there is still a different question:

How do you write an original chord progression that feels like one coherent musical sentence rather than a sequence of theoretically valid chords?

That is today's subject.

The central lesson is:

A strong chord progression is usually governed by one main kind of logic—functional gravity, bass motion, voice leading, modal center, symmetry, or repeated pattern—and the other dimensions support that logic rather than constantly contradicting it.