Sequential progression

The information on this page may be skewed – click here for details.

The info on this page is either entirely based on or mostly based on the content published in caplin-2013 or caplin-1998. Caplin is considered to be responsible for reviving interest in the analysis of form in North American music theory.

While Caplin's impact cannot be understated, it is worth understanding that his 1998 work (and his 2013 followup) are focused on Classical music: particularly the works of Haydn, Beethoven, and Mozart. It is important to not assume other styles of music (both preceding and following the classical era, or music in other parts of the world) follow these same conventions. Music theory is descriptive, not prescriptive, and so the theory you see describing what was common in the Classical era may not apply to anything else.

A sequential progression is a harmonic progression where every harmonic movement has the same interval between each root.1

Sequential progressions have a fundamental purpose of either establishing a tonal center or moving away from a tonal center.1

There are 6 kinds:

  1. Descending 5ths, AKA the "circle of 5ths progression" 12
    • This is the most common
    • Often alternates with ascending 4ths in the bass
    • Expresses harmonic function the most strongly
  2. Ascending 5ths2
    • Uncommon in classical
    • Moving backwards through the circle of 5ths
    • Often ends up at a predominant harmony
  3. Descending 3rds2
    • Occurs frequently
    • Usually has a passing chord which makes it look like movement by 2nds instead
    • The passing chords make the progression a chain of I−VI - V's
  4. Ascending 3rds3
    • Least frequently used
    • Its unembellished form is rarely used, "if ever"
    • A more common progression is I V/III III but this is also uncommon
  5. Descending 2nds3
    • Occurs often
    • Parallel 5ths occur when the chords are in root position
    • Instead, typically every chord in the progression is 1st inversion
  6. Ascending 2nds4
    • Parallel 5ths can occur here too
    • You can use the same approach to fix this as above – make every chord in the progression into its 1st inversion – but this is not common
    • Instead, to avoid parallel 5ths, the V of the following chord is put in front (see examples)

You may see these chords be called subordinate harmonies.