Guitar chords in the key of F# major

The seven chords of F# major are F#, G#m, A#m, B, C#, D#m, E#dim. Each one has a job in the key, and each tends towards particular chords next.

• F#, the tonic of F# major. Usually goes to B or C#: the first move away from home, and the one that does not raise the stakes.
• G#m, the supertonic of F# major. Usually goes to C#: roots falling a fifth, the strongest root motion the key has.
• A#m, the mediant of F# major. Usually goes to D#m: roots falling a fifth, and vi is where iii most often lands. It contains the key's leading tone, so it leans towards the tonic.
• B, the subdominant of F# major. Usually goes to C#: subdominant into dominant: the standard approach to a cadence.
• C#, the dominant of F# major. Usually goes to F#: the tritone resolves: the leading tone rises, the seventh falls, and the phrase is over. It contains the key's leading tone, so it leans towards the tonic.
• D#m, the submediant of F# major. Usually goes to G#m or C#: roots falling a fifth, straight into the standard approach to V.
• E#dim, the leading-tone chord of F# major. Usually goes to F#: it is V7 without its root, so it wants the tonic just as badly. The ♭5 puts a tritone inside the chord itself, so it cannot be sat on: it is heard as tension wherever it stands, and it is used on the way to something rather than as a place to arrive. It holds E♯ and B, the tritone out of V7, so it carries the dominant's tension wherever it sits. It contains the key's leading tone, so it leans towards the tonic.

Where a chord tends to go follows Walter Piston’s table of usual root progressions in Harmony (W. W. Norton); see the sources.