The reasons that chords work in pop songs (when they do) relate to a song’s key. For most songs in the popular genres, songs sit solidly in one key or another. And even if they drift around and change key, most progressions will still relate strongly to whichever key is being used at any one time. This […]
After decades of love songs, guess what still sells? Love songs. There’s something about love that people still want to hear about. Yes, your audience still wants to feel you tug at their heartstrings. And what’s strange — maybe even bizarre — is that you don’t really have to say much of anything unique on the […]
In a movement from a classical symphony, the music isn’t divided up into verses and choruses as is typical for pop songs. You’re more likely to see reference to sections called “1st theme”, “2nd theme”, “transition”, “development”, “coda”, and so on. With pop songs, you get a definite feeling that the basic energy of the music changes […]
If you’re someone who keeps running into creative roadblocks every time you sit down to write, it’s a fair question to ask: Are you helping or harming your creative process if you force yourself to write? The best answer is that it depends on what is causing the ideas to dry up. And there are many reasons for […]
Even if you don’t have a strong background in music theory, you likely know that some chords just sound right together, while others don’t. For example, in the following chord progression, it’s hard to make any kind of sense out of the F#m chord; it just sounds odd… too odd for most common genres, you […]
We’ve all been there: a new idea for a song pops quickly into your mind, and with great excitement you dig in and hope to have the song finished in a day or so. But somewhere along the line the ideas fizzle. What you’re left with is something that’s got the promise of greatness, but […]
