Genre
Samba chord progressions
Brazilian music with syncopated rhythms
What makes it sound like this
Harmonic fingerprints.
- ii-V progressions
- Chromatic harmony
- Syncopation
- Major keys
Where it lives
Common keys.
The tonal centres samba keeps coming back to — usually because they sit well on the instruments the style was built on. Each key page carries its full diatonic chord set, and links its relative minor for the darker corners of the genre.
Progressions not seeded yet
We have Samba's harmonic traits and common keys, but not a verified set of characteristic progressions — so this page doesn't invent any. In the meantime, the full progression library covers the patterns underneath most of what samba borrows from, and each of the keys above opens its complete diatonic chord set.