It’s possible to do entire songs with the same progression from beginning to end. That used to be rare — I can think of America’s “A Horse With No Name” from 1972 – Em and D6add9 for verse, chorus and solo. And doubtless there must have been a disco hit or two that got built on one […]
In most songs of the pop music genres, chord progressions can be used to identify the song’s key. This happens whether the songwriter who created the progression is aware of it or not. They may like E C#m B as a progression to build a chorus on, not knowing (or caring!) that those 3 chords belong to […]
I’ve mentioned frequently lately that it’s become a thing to create entire songs based on one chord progression. That may work for top-40 kinds of songs, but if you’re into creating interesting music with lyrics, chords and melodies all partnering well together, the one-chord-progression song may not work so well. But let’s say that you’ve […]
There are typically two times when a song’s key becomes something that a songwriter considers: During the initial songwriting process. You create your first melodic ideas based on an often-random choice of key and chords. During the performance or recording stage. You might possibly change the key to one that puts the melody in your optimum […]
How’s your musical ear? Here’s how you know that it needs some work: You can read music, but you find it difficult or impossible to play by ear. You hear a great melody, but you can’t find the notes on your instrument. You sit at the piano to play a song for a sing-along (like […]
In the past ten years or so of pop music, it’s become much more of a thing to write hit songs that are mostly based on one single chord progression. It sounds like it would just result in music that is repetitive and boring. Or perhaps the better way to say that is: the job […]
