Scott Murphy Hollywood Progressions

This chord progression chart has been on the front page of my composition notebook for the past couple of years. It references common Hollywood progressions for particular tropes - as identified by Scott Murphy.

Interval	Mood	Example
M2M	Protagonism	CMaj - DMaj
M6M	Outer Space	CMaj - GbMaj
M8M	Fantastical	CMaj - AbMaj
M4m	Sadness	CMaj - Em
M5m	Romantic, Middle Eastern	CMaj - Fm
m5M	Wonder	Cm - FMaj
m2M	Mystery	Cm - DMaj
m11M	Dramatic	Cm - BMaj
m6m	Antagonism/danger	Cm - F#m
m8m	Antagonism/evil	Cm - G#m

How to Read this Table

The first letter in the interval represents the first chord of the two-chord progression. It can be any note you wish, but the capitalisation denotes whether it is Major or minor (M = Major, m = minor). Then there is a number - this represents the number of steps up to move before playing the second chord. Using the first as an example (M2M), this could be a C Major as the first chord, then counting 2 steps up (C-C# = 1 step. C#-D = 2 steps), we play a D chord. And the second M tells us that it should be a major chord. So for this progression, we'd play C Major to D Major.