The 1 4 5 progression is instantly familiar to our ears as it is one of the most common progressions in Western music. In most of the examples in this lesson, those three chords will be found together ...

One thing’s for sure, if a pop chord progression comprises 4 chords, it’s infinitely more likely to consist of 3 majors and 1 minor, and not vice versa.

As the V chord, the A is the most likely candidate in our sights for substitution. Let’s make it a dominant 7th, then shift it up a tritone (#4/b5) to give us Eb7. Then let’s go even further ...

One thing’s for sure, if a pop chord progression comprises 4 chords, it’s infinitely more likely to consist of 3 majors and 1 minor, and not vice versa.