Written by Gary Ewer, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website.
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Successful songs are a balancing act between contrasting elements. The best songs out there are studies in the subtle art of the presentation of opposites. At the same time, contrast should not be so blatant as to be disruptive to the general flow of a song. One really nice way of achieving tonal contrast is to categorize possible chord progressions into major and minor groupings.
As you know, for every key there are seven “diatonic” chords, which is to say seven chords that exist naturally within that key. You find them by taking the major scale (if you’ve chosen a major key), and building triads above each note of the scale.
When you do this for major keys, you’ll find that of the seven chords you create, three of them will be major, (I, IV and V), three will be minor (ii, iii, and vi), with the remaining one (vii) being diminished.
Most progressions you create will use a mixture of major and minor chords. But a very interesting way to organize those seven chords is to try focusing on major chords for one part of your song, and minor for another. You’ll find that verse and chorus structures accommodate this kind of contrast quite easily.
Here’s an example of a chord progression that focuses on minor chords for the verse, and major chords for the chorus:
Am Dm Am Dm Em Am Em Am || C F Dm G C F G C
The advantage of this kind of contrast is that the writer maintains a control over the basic mood of the song. There is a brightness that occurs in the chorus when the focus shifts to major chords.
Here are some other examples:
Am Em Dm Am Am Em Dm Am || C G Am F G C G C
Am Dm F Em Am Dm F Em || F G C F Am F G C
Since no one element of a song works well without considering other elements, I would recommend that this kind of harmonic organization works best if the lyric of the verse is introspective and moody, with the chorus lyric offering a happy resolution. You’ll find that the effect of minor switching to major needs the support of the lyric to make it work well.
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For hundreds of chord progressions that you can use right now in your own songs, download “Essential Chord Progressions” and “More Essential Chord Progressions.