There absolutely are guidelines that can help develop chord progressions. I am a strong believer in the power of understanding how music works. My advice is search the web and you can probably find ready made resources for chord progressions, chord theory, harmony theory etc.
Having said that, I like to refer to Otis Redding for counterpoint. Rumor has it Otis only played major chords and that influenced his songwriting. Not sure that is true since it sounds more like mythology, but his songs did run toward major tonality. My favorite example is Dock of the Bay. I am pretty sure the studio cut contains no minor chords though it uses many chord roots that are contained in the parent key scale. He wrote that one with Cropper and certainly Cropper knew a lot about music by the time they were working together on that song. Nonetheless, it bears Otis' trademark major chord construction.
The theory that explains how those chords work together, and there is an explanation, might be take quite a bit of time and the song stretches beyond basic harmony conventions. But there is no doubting the brilliance of the song at all levels. Redding took a theoretical limitation and made it part of his sound.
Still, the more you know, the more you can do.
hunter
|