Welcome! Chord Progression Lab is a music-theory sketchpad. Pick a key, pick a style, and the app instantly builds a playable chord progression that you can listen to, watch on a piano keyboard, and share as a standard MIDI file.

Getting Started

1. Pick a Key — the tonal center your song is built around (C, D, F♯, etc.).
2. Pick a Theory Approach — the chord-progression template (Pop, Jazz, Flamenco, Gamelan, and many more).
3. (Optional) Add Dissonance for extra tension, and drag the Tempo slider to set the speed.
4. Tap Play to hear it, or Share to export a MIDI file.

Every time you change a setting, the song is regenerated automatically and the MIDI export is refreshed — what you hear is always what you share.

What Each Control Does

Key

The note the song revolves around. The same progression sounds higher or lower in different keys, but keeps the same emotional shape. If you’re singing along, pick the key that fits your voice.

Theory Approach

A library of chord-progression templates spanning many traditions:

• Western popular — Pop (I‑V‑vi‑IV), Doo-Wop, Pachelbel, Jazz (ii‑V‑I), 12‑Bar Blues, Circle of Fifths, Andalusian, Epic Minor
• Rock & Punk — power-chord driven I‑♭VII‑IV and I‑IV‑V patterns
• World — Asia — Indian Raga (Bhairav), Arabic Maqam (Hijaz), East Asian Pentatonic (Gōng), Japanese (Hirajōshi), Gamelan (Slendro)
• World — Europe — Klezmer (Freygish), Flamenco (Phrygian), Celtic (Mixolydian), Slavic Minor, Balkan (7/8)
• World — Americas / Africa / Pacific — West African Highlife, Bossa Nova, Reggae, Hawaiian Slack Key
• Experimental — Avant-Garde (atonal quartal chords and clusters)

Each style also picks a recommended tempo when you select it.

Dissonance

Adds extra tension notes on top of every chord.

Setting	What it adds	Sounds like
Off	Nothing — clean triads and 7ths	Smooth, traditional
Spicy (+9)	A bright 9th	Jazzy, modern
Dissonant (♭9)	A biting half-step	Tense, noir
Crush (♭9 + ♯11)	Maximum tension	Experimental, dramatic

Tempo

Playback speed in beats per minute (BPM), from 40 (very slow) to 200 (very fast). Switching styles resets the tempo to a value that fits that style — drag the slider afterward if you want to override it.

Sequence

The chord chart, shown left-to-right. Roman numerals describe each chord’s role in the key:

• Uppercase = major chord (I, IV, V)
• lowercase = minor chord (i, ii, vi)
• ° = diminished
• + = augmented
• ♭ = degree lowered by a half step (♭VII, ♭III)
• sus2 / sus4 = suspended chords
• 5 = power chord (root + 5th + octave)
• maj7 / m7 / 7 = seventh chords

The currently playing chord lights up and scales slightly as the song moves through the progression.

Keyboard

Every note in the chord that’s currently sounding is highlighted on the piano, so you can see the voicing and finger it on a real instrument.

Play / Stop

Toggles playback through the on-device synthesizer. No external audio file or internet connection is needed.

Share

Exports the current sequence as a standard .mid file using iOS’s share sheet. You can AirDrop it, send it via Messages or Mail, save it to Files, or open it directly in GarageBand, Logic, Ableton, FL Studio, or any DAW that reads MIDI.

Troubleshooting

I tap Play but I don’t hear anything

Try each of these in order:

1. Check the silent switch on the side of your iPhone or iPad — if it’s flipped to silent (orange showing), the synthesizer is muted.
2. Turn the volume up with the hardware buttons.
3. Unplug headphones (or re-plug them) if audio routing seems stuck. Try toggling Bluetooth headphones off and back on.
4. Stop other audio — if another app is holding the audio session (a phone call, FaceTime, certain music apps), the synth may not be heard. Close that app and try again.
5. Force-quit and reopen Chord Progression Lab: swipe up from the bottom (or double-press Home), then swipe the Chord Progression Lab card up.
6. Restart your device if the issue persists.

The Play button is greyed out

This means the sequence is empty. Pick any Key and Theory Approach — a sequence will appear and Play will become tappable.

The audio is crackly, glitchy, or cuts out

• Make sure no other audio-intensive apps are running in the background.
• Lower the tempo — at very high BPMs with dense chords (Avant-Garde Crush, for example), the synth has more notes to manage.
• Restart the app.
• If you’re on very old hardware, the on-device synthesizer may struggle with the most dissonant settings.

Playback sounds out of time / drags

The synthesizer runs on-device and shares CPU with everything else on your system. If you’re recording the screen, on a phone call, or running heavy background apps at the same time, the timing can slip. The exported MIDI file is always perfectly in time — use it in a DAW for a clean recording.

“Share” doesn’t appear / I can’t export

The Share button shows up after the first sequence has been generated, which happens automatically when you open the app. If you don’t see it:

1. Make a change to the Key or Style — this forces a regeneration.
2. Force-quit and reopen the app.
3. Make sure you have free space in your device’s storage (the MIDI file is tiny, but iOS needs scratch space for the share sheet).

The MIDI file won’t open / sounds wrong in my DAW

• Chord Progression Lab writes standard MIDI Format 0 files at 480 ticks per quarter note — this is universally supported.
• The file contains the chord notes only, no instrument assignment. Your DAW will play it on whatever instrument is loaded on the destination track — assign a piano, pad, organ, or whatever you like.
• If the tempo in your DAW differs from what you set in the app, the MIDI file does include a tempo event; check that your DAW is reading it rather than using its project tempo.

Why does the same chord progression keep coming back when I change keys?

That’s by design. The Theory Approach decides the progression; the Key transposes it. To get a different progression, change the Theory Approach (or Dissonance, which adds different colour notes).

The chord names show ♯ but my sheet music uses ♭

The app uses sharps for all enharmonic spellings (C♯ rather than D♭, F♯ rather than G♭). Musically they’re the same notes — pick whichever spelling you’re used to seeing.

The roman numerals look strange — what does “♭VII5” or “✸♯4” mean?

• ♭VII5 = a power chord built on the flatted 7th degree (used in Rock).
• ✸ (asterisk star) = a cluster chord — tightly stacked semitones, used in Avant-Garde.
• × 4 / Q = a quartal chord (stacked perfect 4ths), also used in Gamelan and Avant-Garde.
• Sa, Re♭, Ni♭, Dha♭ = Indian solfège syllables used in Raga Bhairav.
• Gōng, Shāng, Jiǎo, Zhǐ, Yǔ = Chinese pentatonic degree names.

Does Chord Progression Lab record audio or my voice?

No. The app does not access the microphone and never records audio. It generates audio on-device using a built-in synthesizer; nothing is sent to any server.

Does the app work offline?

Yes — everything runs entirely on your device. No internet connection is needed for any feature, including export.

Does the app work on iPhone and iPad?

Yes, on both. On iPad the layout has more room to breathe; on iPhone you may need to scroll to see all four cards (Selection, Sequence, Keyboard, Controls).

Tips & Tricks

• Find a vibe fast: cycle through the Theory Approach list with the same Key — it’s a quick tour of world music styles.
• Compare moods in the same style: keep the style fixed, change the Key. Listen to how Epic Minor in A feels different from Epic Minor in F.
• Layer in your DAW: export the MIDI, drop it onto a piano track, then duplicate the track and assign a pad or strings for an instant arrangement.
• Study what you like: the Roman numerals on each chord chip teach you the function of every chord. Over time you’ll start hearing “ii‑V‑I” or “I‑V‑vi‑IV” in songs on the radio.
• Push it weird: try Avant-Garde with Crush dissonance at 55 BPM — film-score tension on demand.

Still Stuck?

Email info@mickeydesigns.com with:

• Your device model (e.g., iPhone 15 Pro, iPad Air M4)
• Your iOS / iPadOS version (Settings → General → About)
• What you tried and what happened
• A screenshot or screen recording if you can

Thanks for using Chord Progression Lab!