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Good songwriting is all about creating musical events that are interesting enough that people want to keep listening. To be more specific, a good piece of music has a way of making the listener feel that something even better is about to happen.
Every genre of music does this – creating a kind of musical suspense, where the audience wonders, “I wonder what will happen next.” You hear it clearly at the beginning of Richard Strauss’ epic “Thus Spake Zarathustra,” otherwise known by most as the theme from “2001: A Space Odyssey”. That’s a piece, by the way, for which I’d give my eye-teeth to witness the audience’s reaction when it was premiered in 1896. Such a modern-sounding, forward-looking piece of music, and hard to believe it was written more than a decade before the first Model-T Ford.
You hear a kind of similar approach – that same kind of enticing suspense – at the beginning of “Blue Jay Way” (The Beatles), and “Money For Nothing” (Dire Straits). There’s a kind of tension in the music that tells you that something bigger’s going to happen.
But there are lots of ways of enticing listeners to keep listening. One subtle, but very powerful and useful way, is to play around a bit with the tonic chord.
The tonic chord represents one of the most powerful chords at your disposal in the creation of a chord progression. Musical tension and energy is created with regard to the tonic chord in two specific ways: 1) when you avoid placing the tonic chord where people might expect it, and 2) when you invert the tonic chord.
On Sarah McLachlan’s new album “Shine On,” (get your copy here) you hear both of those treatments of the tonic chord in the song “Beautiful Girl.” Let’s look at the first circumstance: avoiding placing the tonic chord where listeners might most expect it: at the beginning of musical phrases.
You never hear the tonic chord placed at the start of any of the several chord progressions that go together to make up this song. The song is in the key of Bb major, but that chord only ever occurs in the middle or end of those progressions:
Verse:
Gm Dm/A Bb Eb | Gm Dm Bb Eb
F Gm7 Eb Bb | Eb Bb/D Fsus4 F
Chorus:
Eb Bb Gm7 Bb/F | Eb Bb Gm F
Eb Bb Eb Bb | Gm C9 Eb F
As you see, the Bb chord never starts a phrase or a progression, but is always something that occurs mid-progression, or as an ending to a mini-phrase. That kind of tonic chord avoidance keeps music moving forward because the listener subconsciously looks for that chord as an important musical anchor. By never placing it front and centre, listeners are compelled to keep listening.
The second circumstance is one you see every time the tonic chord is inverted. An inverted chord is any one in which the root of the chord is not the lowest-sounding note. You may know them as slash chords because of the way they are normally drawn: Bb/D means a Bb chord in which D is the lowest-sounding note. An inverted tonic chord has the sound of a tonic, but missing the sense of finality and conclusion that usually comes with that chord.
The lesson for songwriters is this: by using the tonic chord too much, especially at the beginning of phrases, you can cause music to feel stagnant. Especially in song verses, you want to lean more toward starting progressions and phrases on some chord other than the tonic. If you choose to use it, you can prevent the negative effect of too much tonic chord by inverting it.
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Written by Gary Ewer. Follow on Twitter.
“The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-eBook Bundle looks at songwriting from every angle, and has been used by thousands of songwriters. How to use chords, write melodies, and craft winning lyrics. $95.70 $37.00 (and you’ll receive a FREE copy of “From Amateur to Ace: Writing Songs Like a Pro.“)