How’s your musical ear? Here’s how you know that it needs some work: You can read music, but you find it difficult or impossible to play by ear. You hear a great melody, but you can’t find the notes on your instrument. You sit at the piano to play a song for a sing-along (like […]
A chord is 3 or more notes all sounding together. Those 3 notes form what we call a triad, and they are the bulk of the chords that get used in most songs written in any of the pop genres (rock, country, folk, etc.) As you know, there are lots of ways to modify triads. One of […]
Chord inversions (“slash chord”) add forward motion and musical energy to a song. Here’s more. ______________ Looking for good songwriting content for your iPad, Kindle, laptop, desktop, or other PDF-reading device? “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” ebook bundle packages will show you why good songs are good, and how to apply those lessons to your own […]
Replacing a IV-chord with something different: How that’s done. _____________ “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 10-eBook Deluxe Bundle, which includes “From Amateur to Ace: Writing Songs Like a Pro”, is written by Gary Ewer, designed to straighten out your technique and get you writing better songs. ______________________ Spending time experimenting with substituting chords as you work out […]
Working out a catchy bass line gives you several options for the chords you might use to accompany it. _____________ It can be an interesting idea to generate a chord progression by starting with what you’d like to hear in the bass. There are several possibilities for every bass line you create, and that’s what […]
Some problems with chord progressions are easily fixed with these 5 tips. “From Amateur to Ace: Writing Songs Like a Pro” is included as part of “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 10-eBook Bundle, or sold separately. There are clear reasons why some chord progressions work while others don’t, but understanding the reasons means you need to […]
