EDM Chord Progressions: 6 Loops for Big Drops (With Free MIDI)

Most EDM chord progressions are not complicated. Four chords, often the same four you hear in pop, looped for the whole track. What makes them sound like a festival drop instead of a piano exercise is the order of the chords, the sound you play them with and the way they pump against the kick.

Below you get 6 EDM chord progressions you can play right now, from the classic anthem loop to a future bass descent and a trance back and forth. Every progression comes with Roman numerals, the notes in each chord and tips to make it hit. Everything sits around A minor and C major (mostly white keys), so you can try them straight away on a MIDI keyboard or in your piano roll.

What makes a chord progression sound like EDM?

EDM is a big umbrella, from progressive house and big room to future bass, trance and melodic dubstep. Still, a few things come back again and again:

• Short loops. Most progressions are three or four chords that repeat for a whole section. The build and drop get their energy from drums, risers and filters, not from a long chord sheet.
• Minor keys with a hopeful twist. A lot of EDM sits in minor but leans on the major chords inside that key (VI, III and VII). That gives you the typical bittersweet, euphoric feeling.
• The sound does half the work. The same chords played on a soft piano and on a wide supersaw feel like two different songs. Timbre matters as much as the notes.
• Sidechain pumping. Chords that duck every time the kick hits are one of the most recognizable parts of the sound.

Quick refresher on the numbers: lowercase (i, vi) means minor, uppercase (III, VI, VII) means major. Because the numbers describe the distance from the home chord, you can move every progression to any key.

6 EDM chord progressions to try

1. The anthem loop: vi, IV, I, V (Am, F, C, G)

This is the four-chord loop you know from pop, started on the minor chord. Counted in A minor it is i, VI, III, VII. It feels emotional at the start and lifts toward the end, which makes it a natural fit for a big melodic drop. Play one chord per bar.

Voicing tip: keep your right hand close together. Am (A, C, E), then F as A, C, F, then C as G, C, E, then G as G, B, D. Only one or two notes move each time, so the loop sounds smooth even with a huge synth.

2. The three-chord lift: i, VI, VII (Am, F, G)

Three chords, then back to the start. Give Am two bars and F and G one bar each, or let G hang for a full bar before it falls back to Am. Leaving out a fourth chord creates tension: your ear keeps waiting for the resolution, and that pull works really well in a build-up. Less is more here.

3. The progressive house climb: i, III, VII, VI (Am, C, G, F)

Same four chords as the anthem loop, different order. Going from Am up to C straight away makes the loop brighter from the second bar, and ending on F leaves it slightly open, so it never fully settles. That restless feeling is great for long progressive house breakdowns. Try it as plucks first, then double it with pads in the drop.

4. The future bass descent: IVmaj7, iii7, ii7, Imaj7 (Fmaj7, Em7, Dm7, Cmaj7)

Now in C major. Every chord steps one down from the last, and every chord is a seventh chord, which makes it lush and dreamy. That is the territory of future bass. Play it on a wide supersaw with a fast attack, add heavy sidechain or volume shaping so every chord pumps, and try a small pitch bend into the first chord of each bar. Want it even softer? Turn Fmaj7 into Fmaj9 by adding a G on top. New to seventh chords? Read seventh chords explained first.

5. The trance back and forth: i, VII, VI, VII (Am, G, F, G)

Down two steps and back up again. Because G keeps returning, the loop rocks back and forth instead of moving forward, and that hypnotic feeling suits trance. Don't play the chords as long blocks. Run them through an arpeggiator, or chop them into sixteenth notes with a gate pattern, so the harmony turns into a rhythm. Add a long reverb on a send and the same four chords fill the whole room.

6. The tension drop: i, VI, III, V (Am, F, C, E)

This is the anthem chords with one change at the end: E major instead of G. In A minor that E major chord contains a G# instead of a G. It is borrowed from the harmonic minor scale and pulls back to Am really hard. Put it in the last bar before the drop and the landing on Am feels twice as big. Melodic dubstep and emotional EDM love this move. Want to understand why it works? We explain harmonic minor in major and minor explained.

Cheat sheet: the notes in every chord

• Am: A, C, E
• C: C, E, G
• Cmaj7: C, E, G, B
• Dm7: D, F, A, C
• E: E, G#, B
• Em7: E, G, B, D
• F: F, A, C
• Fmaj7: F, A, C, E
• Fmaj9: F, A, C, E, G
• G: G, B, D

Want them in another key? Move every note the same number of semitones, or look up the chords of your key on our chords by key page.

How to make these chords sound like a real drop

1. Pick a big sound. A supersaw (several detuned saw waves stacked) for future bass and big drops, a short pluck for progressive house, a soft pad for the breakdown. You can use the same MIDI for all three.
2. Use inversions. Don't jump up and down the keyboard with every chord. Keep the voicings close together so only a few notes move. That keeps a wide synth from turning messy. Chord inversions explained shows you how.
3. Let the bass play the root. Leave the low notes out of your chord voicing and let the bass take the root of each chord. That keeps the low end clean for the kick.
4. Sidechain the chords too. Not just the bass. Let the chords duck on every kick and the whole drop starts breathing. It works the same way as in how to sidechain in FL Studio.
5. Build with a filter. In the build-up, open a low pass filter slowly over 8 or 16 bars. Then cut everything for a beat right before the drop, so the first chord of the drop hits harder.
6. Get the tempo right. Not sure what tempo to set your project to? Check our BPM by genre chart.

Tip for faster writing: most DAWs have a tool that turns one note into a whole chord. In FL Studio that is the Chord Stamp tool in the piano roll, Ableton Live has the Chord MIDI effect and Logic Pro has Chord Trigger in the MIDI FX. Then you only program the root notes.

Get EDM chords as free MIDI

Don't feel like clicking every note into the piano roll? Open our free chord progression generator. Pick Epic for big, cinematic drops, Happy for bright festival energy or Sad for emotional melodic EDM, choose your key and fill in your tempo. Listen in your browser, hit New chords until something clicks and download the MIDI. You get a chord track plus a bass line on the root notes, free to use in your own releases. Then make it EDM: load a supersaw, add the sevenths from the cheat sheet and sidechain it to your kick.

Writing chords for a vocal or sample you already have? Check the key and BPM first with Beat Lab, so your progression actually fits.

Chords done and now you need drums that hit just as hard? The NAME The House Oneshot Pack Vol. 1 has kicks, claps, closed and open hi-hats, percussion, rides, a shaker and FX samples, all royalty-free. They are the sounds I use in my own productions.

FAQ

What is the most common chord progression in EDM?

The four-chord loop with I, V, vi and IV in some order is everywhere in EDM, just like in pop. Starting it on the minor chord (vi, IV, I, V, or Am, F, C, G) gives it that emotional festival feel.

Is EDM usually in a major or minor key?

Both are common. A lot of EDM is in minor, but uses the major chords inside that minor key to sound uplifting. Bright, happy dance tracks often go for major. Pick what fits your melody or the vocalist's range.

How many chords do I need for an EDM drop?

Three or four is plenty. Some drops even sit on one or two chords and get all their movement from the bass, the rhythm and the sound design.

Can I use these chord progressions in a release?

Yes. Chord progressions are common building blocks in music, and the MIDI from our generator is free to use in your own tracks, also commercially. Just don't copy someone else's actual recording or melody.

Want more free help with your tracks, like a BPM finder, master checker and audio converter? Check out all our free music tools.