John Newman - Losing Sleep

Constructing the Bridge Section of Your Song

I’d be in favour of a name other than bridge to describe the optional song section that occurs after the second chorus. Maybe “section 3.” A bridge implies that its main job is to transition from one thing to another newer thing, and to make that a smooth connection. But a song’s bridge most often takes the […]

Guitar mic

How to Invert a Chord, and When to Do That

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 […]

Using Chord Substitutions to Pull Song Sections Together

A couple of posts ago I wrote about using palindromic chord progressions (ones that read the same in both directions) as a possible way of making a connection between verse and chorus. Here’s another thought: if you find that your verse and chorus are using the same, or almost the same, progressions, try taking the […]

How to Replace One Chord With Another

Written by Gary Ewer, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website. __________ I truly believe that most of the time we worry too much about our chord progressions; they are the aspect that can get by with the least amount of innovation, and as long as they simply work, you’re fine. The I-IV-V-I progression has […]