A chord progression is an ordered movement of chords through time that gives music direction and meaning. If a single chord is a “word,” a progression is already a “sentence” that leads the listener from tension to repose and back.
Classical harmony developed typical functional progressions based on the pulls of tonic-subdominant-dominant (e.g. the authentic cadence D–T). In jazz, the cornerstone became the ii–V–I progression. And popular music rests on a few “magic” sequences (such as I–V–vi–IV), on which thousands of songs are built. To recognise chord progressions is to hear the “grammar” of music, its inner dramaturgy of tension and release.
