Tiny Instrument · Compose

Build progressions, fast.

Play a progression straight in from your MIDI keyboard, pick chords from an interactive circle of fifths, and voice every chord exactly how you want — all colour-coded so the harmony reads at a glance.

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Play it in

Tap Listen and play chords on your MIDI keyboard — each one is detected and added to the progression as you release it, with a live preview of the chord you're holding. Build a whole progression by ear without typing a thing. Captured chords that belong to your key show their Roman numeral, so a Dm in C reads as ii at a glance, and anything outside the key stays fully editable.

Listen

Play chords on a MIDI keyboard and they're detected and appended automatically.

Live preview

See the chord you're holding before it lands in the progression.

Roman numerals

In-key chords are labelled by their function; out-of-key chords stay selectable and editable.

Build chord progressions in Compose

Pick from the circle of fifths

Prefer to choose chords by eye? On the Mac, the chord picker includes an interactive circle of fifths. The chords that belong to your key are lit and labelled with their Roman numeral; tap any wedge to add it — an in-key chord drops in as its diatonic degree, an out-of-key chord as that exact root and quality. A Key Chords grid and an Any-Chord picker sit alongside the wheel, each in its own collapsible section, and every name is spelled with sharps or flats to match your global setting.

Colour-coded harmony

Every chord reads by colour, so a progression's shape is obvious before you play a note: major chords are blue, minor are purple, diminished are orange, and anything outside the key is green. The colour follows the chord through the strip, the quick-edit panel, and the keyboard preview — and the same palette carries over into Play and Chord Lab.

Voice every chord

Select any chord to open its quick-edit panel: step through inversions for smooth voice-leading, or set a slash bass to put a specific note underneath (a chord tone becomes an inversion; any other note becomes a slash chord). The chord name, the keyboard preview, and the sound all update live as you re-voice it, and you can change the key at any time with the whole progression following along.

Inversions

Re-voice a chord for smoother voice-leading between changes.

Slash bass

Put any note in the bass — chord tones become inversions, others become slash chords.

Audition on select

Hear each chord, and each voicing, the moment you pick it.

Then take it further

Send any progression straight to Play to jam over it, or to Practice to drill it. Your progressions live in Compose alongside your compositions and your Songbook, and sync automatically across iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Practice chord progressions

Ready to try it?

Free to download on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

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Chord Progression Editor | Tiny Instrument