A bad chord progression can kill a song, but don’t assume that a good chord progression must grab your attention. Many of the best songs in the world use very basic chords which, by themselves, are probably a bit boring. That’s because a chord progression must work with your melody and lyrics without pulling focus. […]
It’s relatively commonplace to change key in the middle of a song. It happens for various reasons, but probably the reason that stands out over the others is the need to increase the song’s overall energy. In that regard, you’ll find that raising the key by a half-step (semitone) or a whole step (whole tone) […]
All songs exhibit patterns that are easily picked up by the listener.Rhythmic patterns are probably the first ones to be noticed, and might arguably be the most important ones in certain genres. A more subtle pattern is one that we call harmonic rhythm. Harmonic rhythm is, simply put, the frequency of chord changes, and there […]
From “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website: Any melody you come up with will be able to be harmonized in a variety of different ways. And that’s a good thing. It would be a very boring exercise if there was only one possibility for matching chords with melody notes. In the previous article we came […]
From “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website: In the previous article, I discussed strong and fragile chord progressions, and the need to have both in your songs. But how do you actually choose the chords? How do you know which chords go with the key of your song? And how to you get them […]
Written by Gary Ewer, Senior Instructor, Dalhousie University, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website. • Follow Gary on Twitter • Good songs sell! Check out “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-book bundle – available now at a 50% savings! ________________________________ A good chord progression is like a piece of land that you’re planning to build your house […]
