Guide

How to build a chord progression from a single sample

You have one great chord: a pad, a stab, a piano hit. This guide shows three ways to turn it into a whole progression, and which moves keep it in key.

By Realms · 6 October 2026

The short answer

The quickest way is to load the chord into a sampler and play it on different keys, which moves the whole chord up or down. That keeps every chord the same type, so only some moves stay in key: 5 and 7 semitones up or down are the safe ones. To get the mix of major and minor chords that a real progression has, you need to change the notes inside the sample, either by converting it to MIDI and playing it on another instrument, or with a resynthesis tool that moves each note separately.

What a progression needs

A chord progression is a series of chords that belong to the same key. A key has seven notes, and a chord can be built on each one, which gives seven chords. In a major key they always follow the same pattern of types.

Position	Type	In C major	In G major
I	Major	C	G
ii	Minor	D minor	A minor
iii	Minor	E minor	B minor
IV	Major	F	C
V	Major	G	D
vi	Minor	A minor	E minor
vii°	Diminished	B diminished	F♯ diminished

Most songs use three or four of these. Two progressions worth knowing:

I, V, vi, IV. In C major: C, G, A minor, F. The most used progression in pop.
vi, IV, I, V. In C major: A minor, F, C, G. The same four chords starting on the minor one, common in dance music.

Notice that both mix major and minor chords. That is the difficulty with a sample: your recording is one type of chord, and a progression needs more than one.

Method 1: transpose it in a sampler

Load the sample into your DAW's sampler and play it from the keyboard. Each key moves the whole recording up or down by a semitone.

Ableton Live: drop the sample into Simpler.
Logic Pro: drop it into Quick Sampler.
FL Studio: drop it into the Channel Rack and play it from the piano roll.

Set the sampler's root note to the root of your chord. If the sample is an A minor chord, set the root to A. Then the key you press names the chord you hear.

Which moves stay in key

Transposing keeps the chord's type. A minor chord moved anywhere is still a minor chord. So the question is which positions in your key want that type.

Your sample is	Your track is in	Semitones from the key's root that fit	Example
A major chord	A major key	0, 5 and 7	In C major: C, F and G
A minor chord	A minor key	0, 5 and 7	In A minor: A minor, D minor and E minor
A major chord	A minor key	3, 8 and 10	In A minor: C, F and G
A minor chord	A major key	2, 4 and 9	In C major: D minor, E minor and A minor

So a single minor chord sample gives you three chords in a minor key with no wrong notes. Many classic house and techno tracks are built exactly this way, from one stab played on a few keys.

You can also ignore the table on purpose. Moving one chord type in parallel, in and out of key, is a sound of its own and a big part of rave and Detroit techno.

The limits

Only one chord type. You cannot get the major and minor chords of a key from the same sample.
The tone changes. Moving a sample more than a few semitones makes it sound thin and sped up, or dark and slowed down.
The length changes. In a basic sampler, higher notes play faster and end sooner. Switching on the sampler's time-stretch or warp setting, if it has one, keeps the length the same.

Method 2: convert the chord to MIDI

Some tools can listen to a recording and write out the notes it contains. Once the chord is MIDI, you can change any note and play it on any instrument.

Ableton Live can do this directly: right-click the audio clip and choose Convert Harmony to New MIDI Track.
Melodyne, in its polyphonic editions, shows each note inside a chord recording and lets you move them individually in the audio itself.

MIDI gives you complete freedom over the harmony. What you lose is the sound of the sample, because the notes are now played by a different instrument. Editing the notes inside the audio keeps the sound, but takes time for every chord.

Method 3: resynthesis

Resynthesis does the note editing for you. The tool finds the separate notes inside the sample, then rebuilds the sample as whichever chord you ask for by moving each note to where that chord needs it. The parts of the sound that have no pitch, such as the attack and any breath or noise, are left in place, which is why the result still sounds like the original recording.

From Realms

Resynth

Resynth is our chord resynthesizer. Load a sample, choose a key, and every key on your keyboard plays that sample as a different chord of the key, major or minor as the key requires.

For example, load an A minor pad and choose G major. Pressing G plays it as G major, A plays A minor, and D plays D major: the lowest note moves to D, and the others move to F♯ and A by the shortest route.

It can play triads, sevenths or ninths, and a Unison mode turns a chord sample into a single-note instrument. Resynth is $77 and comes as AU and VST3 for Mac and VST3 for Windows.

See Resynth

Which method to use

Method	Keeps the sample's sound	Major and minor chords	Effort
Transpose in a sampler	Yes, within a few semitones	No, one type only	Seconds
Convert to MIDI	No, a new instrument plays it	Yes	Minutes
Edit the notes in the audio	Yes	Yes	Minutes for each chord
Resynthesis	Yes	Yes	Seconds

Choosing a good sample

One clear chord. A sample that changes chord halfway through will confuse any of these methods.
Sustained is easier than busy. Pads, stabs and held piano chords work better than a strummed pattern.
Less reverb is better. A long tail carries the old chord into the new one.
Know its root. If you are not sure what chord it is, a tuner on the lowest note will usually tell you the root.

Questions people ask

Can I turn a major chord sample into a minor one?

Not by transposing. The difference between major and minor is one note inside the chord, the third, which is a semitone lower in a minor chord. You need a tool that can move that one note: a polyphonic pitch editor or a resynthesis plugin.

What is the easiest progression to start with?

With a minor chord sample, play it on the root of your key, then 5 semitones up, then 7 semitones up. All three chords are in key, and any order sounds right.

Do I need to know music theory?

No. The table of safe moves above is enough for the sampler method, and conversion and resynthesis tools handle the theory for you once you tell them the key.

Why does my sample sound wrong when I move it a long way?

Transposing shifts everything in the recording, including the tone that makes it sound like itself. A few semitones is usually fine. Beyond that, use a method that moves the notes and leaves the tone alone.