ChordCraft Lab · Module 07

The producer starter kit

Four MIDI progressions you can drag straight into your DAW, with a lesson for each explaining what it does and how to make it yours.

Download the kit Open the Lab app

What's inside

4 MIDI chord progressions + README. Works in FL Studio, Ableton Live and Cubase. Five files in total, free to download and yours to use in your own releases.

Download the kit and import it

Setup · 6 min

Everything in this module runs off one small ZIP: four MIDI files and a README. MIDI holds the notes only, so whatever instrument you drop it on is the sound you get — a piano, a pad, a plucked synth, all from the same four files.

Unzip it somewhere you will find again. A folder next to your projects beats the downloads folder, because you will come back to these files for months.

FL Studio: drag the .mid file onto an empty pattern in the playlist, then pick the channel you want it to play.
Ableton Live: drag the .mid file into a MIDI track's clip slot, then load an instrument on that track.
Cubase: File → Import → MIDI File, choose to import into the active project, then assign a VST instrument.
Set your project tempo before you judge anything — the same progression feels like a different song at 76 and at 124 BPM.

Check yourself
You can hear all four files play back on an instrument you chose, not the default one your DAW loaded.

I–V–vi–IV in C major

Lesson 01 · Major, open

C – G – Am – F. The most-used loop in pop for a reason: it leaves major, touches the relative minor in bar three, then lifts back on the IV. Nothing is unresolved, so it can carry any melody you put over it.

Because every chord is diatonic to C, the whole C major scale is safe over it. That makes it the best place to test a melody idea before you complicate the harmony.

Play it as written, then move the Am to bar four and the F to bar three — the same chords, a very different ending.
Hold the top note of every chord on the same pitch (a common tone) and let the chords move underneath it.
Halve the chord rate: two bars per chord instead of one. Instantly a ballad.

Make it yours
Add the 9th to the F (G on top) and the loop stops sounding like a preset.

vi–IV–I–V in A minor

Lesson 02 · Minor start

Am – F – C – G. Identical chords to the last lesson, rotated so the minor lands first. Starting on vi is the cheapest way to make a bright set of chords read as serious.

The ear takes the first chord as home, so the C in bar three now sounds like a lift rather than the ground floor. Use that: put your hook there.

Write your chorus melody over bar three, where the harmony brightens, and the verse over bars one and two.
Drop the bass note of the F to A (F/A) so the bass walks A–A–C–G instead of jumping.
Try ending the loop on Am instead of G for a closed, looping feel with no push back to the top.

Make it yours
Swap the G for Gsus4 resolving to G in the last half-bar — it buys you a moment of tension every cycle.

ii–V–I in F major

Lesson 03 · The cadence

Gm – C7 – F. This is the sentence-ending of Western harmony. The ii sets up the V, the V leans hard on the I, and the arrival feels earned rather than assumed.

You do not need jazz to use it. Put it at the end of a pop pre-chorus and the chorus hits harder, because the ear was told something was coming.

Voice the C7 with the B♭ on top — that flat seventh is the note pulling into the A of the F chord.
Stretch it: two bars of Gm, two of C7, four of F. Slow cadences sound expensive.
Chain it — go ii–V to a chord that is not the I (a deceptive move) and the section keeps running.

Make it yours
Replace the Gm with Gm7 and the whole progression softens without losing the pull.

i–VI–III–VII in D minor

Lesson 04 · Dark loop

Dm – B♭ – F – C. The natural-minor loop behind an enormous amount of electronic and cinematic music. It never resolves to a major tonic, so it can cycle forever without feeling finished.

That refusal to resolve is the point. It is a bed, not a story — which makes it perfect under a vocal or a lead that carries the movement instead.

Keep the chords as long pads and put all the rhythm in the bass and drums.
Raise the C to C# in the last bar (a borrowed V) and the return to Dm suddenly slams shut.
Play the top voice as a descending line D–C–A–G across the four chords for an instant string arrangement.

Make it yours
Filter the pad open across the four bars and close it on the loop point — movement without changing a note.

Turn one file into a finished sketch

Assignment · 30 min

The kit is only useful if something leaves it. Pick one of the four files and take it to a sketch you would play to somebody — not a mix, a sketch.

Thirty minutes, one progression, no new plugins. Constraint is what finishes work.

Duplicate the loop to eight bars and change one thing in the second four — a chord, a voicing or the rhythm.
Add a bass part that plays only the root of each chord, on the downbeat.
Sing or play a four-note melody over it and repeat that melody with one note changed.
Bounce it to audio and name it with the date. That file is your reference point next month.

You finish with
One eight-bar sketch bounced to audio, built from a kit file, with your own melody on top.

Keep going

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