Progressions vs. Regressions
Any chord progression that uses the harmonic conjugations will sound like it is moving forward, and as you may have expected doing these three movements in reverse will give a sense of
moving backwards or “regressing”... Of course you will likely never hear this called a “chord regression”, but it’s a good way to think of it.
The following three movements will give the chord progression a feeling of moving backwards:
Down a 4th
Up a 3rd
Down a 2nd
Notice, these are just simply the reverse of the movements given above for moving forwards.
Here’s an example using this method:
I V ii IV I
The order here is down a 4th (I-V), down a 4th (V-ii), up a 3rd (ii IV), down a 4th, (IV I). This backwards movement has a very different sound than the forward movement in a progression like I IV V. You can play with these techniques to make certain parts in your song “progress” and others “regress”.
A very common example that uses both methods is:
I IV V IV I
You can probably hear how the first two chord changes (I - IV and IV - V) sound like they are moving forward and building up and the last two (V - IV and IV - I) sound like they are moving backwards and backtracking to where it started.
ALL chord progressions that don't use "outside" chords (chords whose root notes are in the major/minor scale) will follow one of these two methods. You can get to any other chord in the key using up/down 2nd, up/down 3rd, or up/down 4th. So once you know how each of these movements will affect the progression you can better decide which one ot use to give the sound you are trying to achieve.
* Next Lesson: 7th Chords