Chord progressions can be tonally strong or ambiguous. I like to call the ambiguous ones “fragile” for a reason that I’ll describe a little further on. But to illustrate the concept of strong versus fragile, let me use an analogy. Imagine you are looking at a map of your city. You place a dot on your house, […]
Written by Gary Ewer, Senior Instructor, Dalhousie University, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website. • Follow Gary on Twitter • Fix your songwriting technique! Check out “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-book bundle – available now at a 50% savings! ________________________________ One of the things that made The Police so popular in the late-70s and 80s […]
Chord progressions need to have direction, or else they’re little more than chord successions: one chord following another with little or no sense of overall purpose. As you likely know, I have for a long time spoken about the important differences between so-called strong and fragile progressions, where strong ones point solidly to one note […]
Written by Gary Ewer, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website. For songwriting tips and notification of blog updates, FOLLOW GARY ON TWITTER Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” suite of 6 e-books now. _____________________________________ A strong progression, to put it simply, is one that points to one chord as the tonic (home) chord, and one […]
by Gary Ewer, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting“. If you’re frustrated because you just can’t get your songs working, and can’t seem to finish any of the songs you start, you need to take a fresh look at the structure of the word’s most successful songs. Gary’s e-books were written to get you writing! […]
by Gary Ewer, From “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website: Songwriters often go looking for the elusive “killer chord progression”. It doesn’t really exist. Not because there aren’t great chord progressions out there, but more because chords don’t just work on their own. How good a set of changes is depends on what else is […]
