Guitarist - songwriter on stage

Avoid These 5 Chord Progression Mistakes In Your Songwriting

Knowing why some chord progressions your’e coming up with sound good while others just don’t work at all is an entire area of study in music schools. For many of you, though, a good chord progression is something you can come up with by improvising and by borrowing ideas from other existing progressions. In this blog […]

Augmented Chords, and How To Use Them In Your Music

“From Amateur to Ace: Writing Songs Like a Pro” is one of 10 eBooks in “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” Deluxe Bundle. Take advantage of today’s DISCOUNT PRICE. Read more.. _____________ Structurally speaking, an augmented chord consists of stacked major 3rds. So the chord C Aug (C+) uses the notes C-E-G#. It could occur naturally in a minor key […]

How Chord Progressions, Roman Numerals and Songwriting Intersect

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 E-book Bundle. Become a top-level songwriter, starting now. _________ Through the history of music, particularly in the so-called western world, not much has changed with regard to how chord progressions work. In most popular music genres, the kinds of progressions used are very similar to, or at least related […]

Controlling the Mood of Your Song With Altered Chords

Written by Gary Ewer, Senior Instructor, Dalhousie University, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website. • Follow Gary on Twitter • Build Your Audience Base with“The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-book bundle – available now at a 50% savings! ________________________________ Every major key has seven chords that occur naturally in that key. Of those ones, three […]

Sia's "Soon We'll Be Found"- Two-Part Verses and Other Goodies

Written by Gary Ewer, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website. Follow Gary on Twitter for songwriting tips, news and more. ___________________ If you don’t know the music of Sia, you’re missing a real treat. Her music is a perfect example of how songwriters need only venture minimally outside the box to create fantastic music. […]

Seven Great Progressions to Get Your Summer Writing Underway

by Gary Ewer, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website Check out “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-book bundle. And start writing the songs you’ve always known you could write! ______________________ Summer is a great time to write songs. Especially for those of us in the northern hemisphere, we get out of the house […]