Chord Progression
Pachelbel's Canon
I – V – vi – iii – IV – I – IV – V
The eight-chord descent that has outlived three centuries of pop songs.
Key
The chords in C Major
5 shapes to learn — tap any diagram to hear it on guitar or piano.
How it works
Pachelbel wrote it around 1680 and it has been quietly powering pop songs ever since. The bass line steps steadily downward through the scale, and the chords are chosen to harmonise that descent — which is why it feels like it is always gently falling.
The first half (I–V–vi–iii) is a chain of descending motion; the second half (IV–I–IV–V) turns it around and drives back to the top. Eight chords give it far more narrative room than a four-chord loop, so it can carry a whole song on its own.
Speed it up, add a backbeat, and the baroque canon becomes a modern chorus — as countless artists have discovered.
Songs built on it
A few well-known examples — every one of them the same chords, moving in the same order.
- Canon in D— Johann Pachelbel
- Basket Case— Green Day
- Graduation (Friends Forever)— Vitamin C
I – V – vi – iii – IV – I – IV – V in every key
The same numerals, twelve different sets of letters. Tap a key to explore all its chords.