How to Put Chords Together in a Progression, Part 1

Most songwriters can tell you what a chord is, and may even be able to tell you that there are 7 chords that naturally occur in any major key. But when it comes to understanding how they work together, and why some chords sound great together while others sound lousy — that’s more of a mystery […]

Changing Chords to Extend a Musical Line

Simple chord substitutions can do more for your music than simply vary the sound. _____________ “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-eBook Bundle (plus a FREE copy of “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. ______________________ Most of the chords you’ll […]

Swapping the IV-Chord For a ii-Chord

Switching one chord for another – done most easily when both chords belong to the same class. ____________________ Check out “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-eBook Bundle. Learn to write songs daily, even when inspiration seems lacking. ____________________ The Eagles’ first hit single, “Take It Easy“, nicely demonstrates how replacing one chord with another can subtly […]

Creating Good Progressions: It’s All About Chord Function

Considering a chord’s function makes it easy to create tons of progressions, almost instantly __________________ Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 10 e-book bundle. Write smarter – Tap into your creative mind. __________________ Go on almost any forum that answers music questions, and you’ll find an enormous number of questions relating to chord progressions and how they work: What […]

How to Make a Chord Progression Work Every Time

Written by Gary Ewer, author of “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” ebook bundle. • Follow Gary on Twitter ______________________ To many songwriters, a chord progression is the kind of thing that causes them to say, “I don’t know what makes a good one, but I’ll recognize it when I hear it.” Well, that should not be good […]

Help! Which Chords Do I Use?

by Gary Ewer, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” Website: Once you know what key your new song is going to be in, it’s a fairly simple process to figure out the triads (chords) that easily work in that key. You’ll find that the I (key) chord, the IV chord (based on the 4th note) […]