Back in the early 70s the band Chicago recorded “Happy ‘Cause I’m Going Home” (Robert Lamm) for their second album. What I love about the chord choices is the primarily minor key feel at the beginning — F#m-Bm — in a song that’s supposed to be about being happy. There’s a chorus-y section where the […]
Of all the various elements that go together to make a song, you’ll find that a boring chord progression will almost never be a problem. A boring melody can be a problem (not always, though), and a boring lyric might spell a song’s demise. But the chords? They can be as stunningly boring as a […]
“The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle” contains several eBooks that are meant to get you moving quickly in your songwriting process. They’ll give you progressions, formulas for creating your own, and all the info you need to add chords to an existing melody. Many songwriters love the chords-first songwriting process, for several reasons: Chords […]
A verse’s chord progression is sometimes short and strong, sometimes long and wandering. But no matter what its character, or how long or short it is, it usually does one important thing: it aims for the first chord of the chorus. Sometimes a verse will start in a key that’s different from the chorus. Often […]
If you like starting the songwriting process by working out the melody, you’re likely also simultaneously considering the chords that might accompany it. That’s because for melodies that are in a key, it’s practically impossible to hear those melody notes without our brains imagining chord possibilities. If hooks seem elusive when you’re trying to write […]
Sometimes when I write a blog post that deals with chord progressions, I realize, usually by emails I receive, that the terminology or symbols that I’m using might be confusing or misunderstood. Because chords are such an important part of music in any genre, different ways to describe and name them have developed more or […]
