Guitar - altered chords

Tips for Adding Chords to Melodies

If you like any of the melody-first songwriting processes, you know that eventually you need to add chords to that melody. If chord progressions are the part of writing that’s a little out of your comfort zone, here are some tips and ideas that can help : Get a sense of the strong beat-weak beat […]

Catfish and the Bottlemen

Pacing Your Chord Changes to Create Musical Energy

We use the term harmonic rhythm to describe the rate that chords change when compared to the number of melody notes. So let’s say you’ve written a song where the melody is primarily a stream of 8th notes. If you’re not sure what that means, think of the verse (and that prominent intro bass line) of […]

Singer-songwriter-guitarist

Matching a Chord Progression to the Mood and Message of Your Song

In yesterday’s post I wrote about two-chord progressions, and how a song practically never suffers from a chord progression that’s short or boring. While that’s true, it doesn’t mean that a chord progression can’t help strengthen your song’s structure. If you’re hoping to give stronger meaning to your lyrics by using more creative chords, you […]

A Song’s Harmonic Journey

“The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” eBook Bundle shows you every aspect of what makes songs great, and show you why the greatest songs of the past 6 decades have been so successful. Become a better songwriter, guaranteed! __________ Trying to write a song that’s in a verse-only format? How you craft the chord progression is a […]

The Relationship Between Tempo and Chord Changes

Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-book bundle, and learn to write killer songs! How frequently your chords change in your song is called the harmonic rhythm. In general, there should be a consistency with this throughout each section of a song. Chord progressions help to establish the feel and mood of your song, and […]

Adding Chords to a Melody: the 3 Easy Steps

Coming up with a chord progression that works is not rocket science, but if you don’t get things quite right, you’ll wind up with a song that just feels wrong. Many songwriters will start the songwriting process by coming up with a set of chords that work before they even deal with the melody. But […]