A Turnaround progression is a set pattern of chords that repeats itself. There are hundreds of well known songs based upon these Turnaround progressions. All these songs contain basically the same chords in the same order.
A Turnaround may repeat over any number of bars. Usually 2, 4 and 8 bars. However the chord sequence remains the same. Some of the biggest hit records of all time are based on a Turnaround progression. Most Turnarounds contain at least one minor chord. The Turnarounds in this lesson contain the chords C, Am, F and G.
This example contains a moving bass line underneath the chords. Technically this would mean some extra slash chords could be written into the progression. However, this can lead to a complicated mess of too many chord symbols, so many times the basic harmony is written above the bar and the keyboard player is free to add other notes to the progression if they sound good.
Here are a few more turnarounds played in different positions on the keyboard.