1 Standard Progression, 5 Cool Effects

If your chord progression is boring you, don’t toss it. Here are five things you can do that will make any tired progression sound new. _____________ Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-eBook Bundle, and build your audience base, starting right now! _____________ You can’t be faulted for trying to find a “killer progression.” Every […]

Turnarounds: How They Work, and 10 Examples

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 E-book Bundle. Kick-start your songwriting career, starting now. _________ A turnaround progression is a series of chords whose most important characteristic is to circle back to the starting point, allowing the music to continue on rather seamlessly. These kinds of progressions are quite common, having been in use for centuries, […]

Chord Progressions That Work Well in a Bridge

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 E-book Bundle. Become a top-level songwriter, starting now. _________ Because most songs are 4-5 minutes in length, you don’t get a lot of time to venture far away from your chosen key. There are songwriters who specialize in progressions that are often best described as ambiguous (Peter Gabriel, Joni Mitchell, […]

Changing Key, and Then Changing Back

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 6-eBook Bundle“, and become a top-level songwriter! ______________ Changing key in the middle of a song is one way you can boost musical energy. More often than not, you’ll move the key higher, since downward-moving key changes are tricky to do as they tend to sap momentum. There are lots of […]

Switching from Chords-First to Melody-First Songwriting

There are good reasons why so many songwriters like starting the songwriting process by developing a chord progression first. Chief among those reasons is that one good progression gives you the foundation to develop many potential melodies. The problem is that by focusing solely on chords, melodies can sound a bit aimless. If you’re always starting your […]

Songwriting: Creating Harmonic Tension and Release

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-ebook bundle, and kick-start your songwriting career! _____________ How does tension and release work in the world of songwriting? Tension usually means creating an “artistic stress” that needs some sort of resolution. In yesterday’s blog posting I wrote about the crucial differences between verse and chorus design. In most cases, […]