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PAIRING UP A MINOR VERSE WITH A MAJOR CHORUS Thousands of songwriters are using Gary Ewer’s “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-Book Bundle to solve their songwriting dilemmas. Now with a 7th free eBook, “From Amateur to Ace: Writing Songs Like a Pro.” Read More.. You’re likely aware that moving from a minor key verse to a major key chorus is a very popular characteristic of pop music. 3 SMOOTH WAYS TO CHANGE KEY 3) Abrupt Modulation. An abrupt modulation, by definition, requires no particular “preparation” for the new key. So you simply need to use your ears and decide if you like what you hear. And yes, even abrupt modulations can be “smooth” if done properly. IF THE V-CHORD BORES YOU, TRY THESE SUBSTITUTES If the V-Chord Bores You, Try These Substitutes. Written by Gary Ewer, Senior Instructor, Dalhousie University, from “ The Essential Secrets of Songwriting ” website. • Good songs sell! Check out “ The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-book bundle – available now at a 50% savings! As the Roman numeral implies, the V-chord is the PRE-CHORUS AND BRIDGE: THE SIMILARITIES AND THESEE MORE ON SECRETSOFSONGWRITING.COM HOW TO USE NON-DIATONIC CHORDS TO GREAT EFFECT IN YOUR How to Use Non-Diatonic Chords to Great Effect in Your Songs. A non-diationic chord is one which does not normally belong to your key of choice. In the key of A major, the seven naturally-occuring chords are: A, Bm, C#m, D, E, F#m, and G#dim. Of those chords, there are countless ways of modifying them by adding tones (Aadd9, for example),using
HOW AGING AFFECTS YOUR ABILITY TO WRITE MUSIC Take guitar, singing or piano lessons. The better you become as a performer, the more it will stimulate your creative powers and make you a better songwriter. Always perform a mix of old and new songs for your audiences. That’s your way of letting the world know that you’re still creating new music. Written by Gary Ewer. THE STATE OF MIND THAT MAKES YOU A PROFESSIONAL SONGWRITER In most fields of work, that’s probably the right answer. And in music, I suppose that’s also the right answer. But any time I was asked by a student to define the word professional, I’d usually give something like this as my answer: True, if you get paid for what you do, you can be called a professional. ODD SONG INTROS: “LIGHT MY FIRE” Odd Song Intros: “Light My Fire”. Establish the key of the verse (or sometimes the chorus, if that’s different). Establish the tempo and rhythmic feel. Establish the mood. Almost any song in the pop genres that you can name will do those three things. But occasionally you’ll come across songs that sit in a key other than the verse they RHYTHM | THE ESSENTIAL SECRETS OF SONGWRITING 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 WHAT YOU CAN COPY FROM ANOTHER SONG Sometimes all you need are lists of chords to get the songwriting process started. The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle includes “Essential Chord Progressions” and “More Essential Chord Progressions.”. Use the suggested chords as is, or modify them to suit your own songwriting project. Buy the Bundle ($37) or ReadMore.
PAIRING UP A MINOR VERSE WITH A MAJOR CHORUS Thousands of songwriters are using Gary Ewer’s “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-Book Bundle to solve their songwriting dilemmas. Now with a 7th free eBook, “From Amateur to Ace: Writing Songs Like a Pro.” Read More.. You’re likely aware that moving from a minor key verse to a major key chorus is a very popular characteristic of pop music. 3 SMOOTH WAYS TO CHANGE KEY 3) Abrupt Modulation. An abrupt modulation, by definition, requires no particular “preparation” for the new key. So you simply need to use your ears and decide if you like what you hear. And yes, even abrupt modulations can be “smooth” if done properly. IF THE V-CHORD BORES YOU, TRY THESE SUBSTITUTES If the V-Chord Bores You, Try These Substitutes. Written by Gary Ewer, Senior Instructor, Dalhousie University, from “ The Essential Secrets of Songwriting ” website. • Good songs sell! Check out “ The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-book bundle – available now at a 50% savings! As the Roman numeral implies, the V-chord is the PRE-CHORUS AND BRIDGE: THE SIMILARITIES AND THESEE MORE ON SECRETSOFSONGWRITING.COM HOW TO USE NON-DIATONIC CHORDS TO GREAT EFFECT IN YOUR How to Use Non-Diatonic Chords to Great Effect in Your Songs. A non-diationic chord is one which does not normally belong to your key of choice. In the key of A major, the seven naturally-occuring chords are: A, Bm, C#m, D, E, F#m, and G#dim. Of those chords, there are countless ways of modifying them by adding tones (Aadd9, for example),using
HOW AGING AFFECTS YOUR ABILITY TO WRITE MUSIC Take guitar, singing or piano lessons. The better you become as a performer, the more it will stimulate your creative powers and make you a better songwriter. Always perform a mix of old and new songs for your audiences. That’s your way of letting the world know that you’re still creating new music. Written by Gary Ewer. MAKING STANDARD CHORD PROGRESSIONS MORE INTERESTING: TRY 1 day ago · It’s easy to understand why songwriters spend time looking for unique chord progressions, ones that stray from the norm. It’s because they want to create a unique emotional experience for their fans, and the thought is that a unique, more complex progressionwill do it.
THE STATE OF MIND THAT MAKES YOU A PROFESSIONAL SONGWRITER In most fields of work, that’s probably the right answer. And in music, I suppose that’s also the right answer. But any time I was asked by a student to define the word professional, I’d usually give something like this as my answer: True, if you get paid for what you do, you can be called a professional. USING MUSIC THEORY TO COMMUNICATE YOUR MUSICAL IDEAS There’s a persistent myth in the songwriting world that the more music theory you know, the more your songwriting will suffer. If you believe this, you’re missing out on truly understanding what music theory is, and how you could be using it to your advantage. WHAT YOU CAN COPY FROM ANOTHER SONG Written by Gary Ewer.Follow Gary on Twitter. Sometimes all you need are lists of chords to get the songwriting process started. The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle includes “Essential Chord Progressions” and “More Essential Chord Progressions.” Use the suggested chords as is, or modify them to suit your own songwriting project. “STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN”, AND 5 OTHER KILLER MINOR KEY Check out these 6 minor progressions They’ll work in verses, choruses, or anywhere you need them. _____ Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-eBook Bundle, and increase your song’s HIT potential.. The main deciding factor in choosing a key for your song is the vocal range. CREATING CHORD PROGRESSIONS THAT MOVE FROM MINOR TO MAJOR Create a new progression in this way: Start by writing down the first pair: i iv (Am-Dm). Follow it with the relative major key version of the same pair. The relative major key of A minor is C major, so I IV in C major gives us these chords: C F. Now write down the 3rd and 4th chords in your A minor progression : iiº v (Bdim-Em). CREATING CHORD PROGRESSIONS THAT BEG FOR THE CHORUS To create song verses and beg for the chorus, start by writing out the seven chords that belong to the key you’ve chosen for your song. If it’s in a major key, try verse progressions that focus mainly on ii, IV, V and vi, moving to I, ii, IV and V for the chorus. If you’re working in a minor key, try verse progressions that focus on iv 3 SMOOTH WAYS TO CHANGE KEY 3) Abrupt Modulation. An abrupt modulation, by definition, requires no particular “preparation” for the new key. So you simply need to use your ears and decide if you like what you hear. And yes, even abrupt modulations can be “smooth” if done properly.SONGWRITING
songwriting | The Essential Secrets of Songwriting | Page 202 Menu MIXING MAJOR AND MINOR CHORDS TO CREATE POWERFUL SONG Here are 5 chord progressions that successfully blend major and minor chords and strengthen the relationship between verse and chorus. “The Essential Secrets of THE STATE OF MIND THAT MAKES YOU A PROFESSIONAL SONGWRITER In most fields of work, that’s probably the right answer. And in music, I suppose that’s also the right answer. But any time I was asked by a student to define the word professional, I’d usually give something like this as my answer: True, if you get paid for what you do, you can be called a professional. CONTENT | THE ESSENTIAL SECRETS OF SONGWRITING 1 day ago · You’d think, because practically every song we know is designed to be alternating verses and choruses (with other miscellaneous sections thrown in from time to time) that verses and choruses are a necessity for any good song. THE MANY WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR SONGWRITING TECHNIQUE Written by Gary Ewer. Follow Gary on Twitter. “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” eBook bundle includes “Writing a Song From a Chord Progression”. Learn how to write great songs by starting with the chords, and then avoiding all the potential pitfalls of the chords-first songwriting process. Buy the Bundle ($37) or Read More. FIVE QUESTIONS ABOUT ANY GOOD SONG YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO It’s a better approach if you listen to a great song, and then answer some basic questions about that song. If you can answer those questions, you have the chance to apply what you’ve learned to what you do, and keep getting better. The first step, though, is to start keeping a songwriting journal, if you aren’t doing that already. TURNAROUNDS: HOW THEY WORK, AND 10 EXAMPLES Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 E-book Bundle. Kick-start your songwriting career, starting now. A turnaround progression is a series of chords whose most important characteristic is to circle back to the starting point, allowing the music to continue on rather seamlessly. These kinds of progressions are quite common, having been in use for centuries, though they weren TEST YOUR CREATIVITY WITH THESE 7 SONGWRITING CHALLENGES August 29, 2019. by Gary Ewer. When you hear a problem with your song, but don’t know how to solve it, you might find the answer in “Fix Your Songwriting Problems – NOW!”. Get this eBook separately, or as part of “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle”. Buy 'Fix Your Songwriting Problems - NOW!' ($9.95 USD) or Read More. CHORD PROGRESSIONS FOR PENTATONIC MELODIES Choose a key, and play through a couple of octaves of the pentatonic scale. This is your best way to learn the scale, and to get familiar with it on your instrument (or voice). Improvise melodies on that pentatonic scale. Remember to try lower shapes for verse, and move them higher for chorus ideas. Create simple chord progressions andrepeat a
CHORD PROGRESSIONS FOR CHANGING KEY Written by Gary Ewer, from the “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website:. The word “ modulation ” is a music theorists’ term that means “to change key.” Changing key in the middle of a song is a great way to add interest and prolong a song. Done correctly, it can generate excitement and make a good song evenbetter.
7 CHORD PROGRESSIONS THAT WORK ALL THE TIME The G#m is a iii-chord, which is actually not all that common in pop music. C G/D C/E F G F/A G/B C – A great progression that results in an upward-moving bass scale. C G/B Am Am/G F C/E Dm7 C – A harmonized descending bass line. C A7 D7 G C – A progression that uses “secondary dominant chords”. Basically, whenever you change achord
HOW TO USE NON-DIATONIC CHORDS TO GREAT EFFECT IN YOUR How to Use Non-Diatonic Chords to Great Effect in Your Songs. A non-diationic chord is one which does not normally belong to your key of choice. In the key of A major, the seven naturally-occuring chords are: A, Bm, C#m, D, E, F#m, and G#dim. Of those chords, there are countless ways of modifying them by adding tones (Aadd9, for example),using
THE STATE OF MIND THAT MAKES YOU A PROFESSIONAL SONGWRITER In most fields of work, that’s probably the right answer. And in music, I suppose that’s also the right answer. But any time I was asked by a student to define the word professional, I’d usually give something like this as my answer: True, if you get paid for what you do, you can be called a professional. CONTENT | THE ESSENTIAL SECRETS OF SONGWRITING 1 day ago · You’d think, because practically every song we know is designed to be alternating verses and choruses (with other miscellaneous sections thrown in from time to time) that verses and choruses are a necessity for any good song. THE MANY WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR SONGWRITING TECHNIQUE Written by Gary Ewer. Follow Gary on Twitter. “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” eBook bundle includes “Writing a Song From a Chord Progression”. Learn how to write great songs by starting with the chords, and then avoiding all the potential pitfalls of the chords-first songwriting process. Buy the Bundle ($37) or Read More. FIVE QUESTIONS ABOUT ANY GOOD SONG YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO It’s a better approach if you listen to a great song, and then answer some basic questions about that song. If you can answer those questions, you have the chance to apply what you’ve learned to what you do, and keep getting better. The first step, though, is to start keeping a songwriting journal, if you aren’t doing that already. TURNAROUNDS: HOW THEY WORK, AND 10 EXAMPLES Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 E-book Bundle. Kick-start your songwriting career, starting now. A turnaround progression is a series of chords whose most important characteristic is to circle back to the starting point, allowing the music to continue on rather seamlessly. These kinds of progressions are quite common, having been in use for centuries, though they weren TEST YOUR CREATIVITY WITH THESE 7 SONGWRITING CHALLENGES August 29, 2019. by Gary Ewer. When you hear a problem with your song, but don’t know how to solve it, you might find the answer in “Fix Your Songwriting Problems – NOW!”. Get this eBook separately, or as part of “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle”. Buy 'Fix Your Songwriting Problems - NOW!' ($9.95 USD) or Read More. CHORD PROGRESSIONS FOR PENTATONIC MELODIES Choose a key, and play through a couple of octaves of the pentatonic scale. This is your best way to learn the scale, and to get familiar with it on your instrument (or voice). Improvise melodies on that pentatonic scale. Remember to try lower shapes for verse, and move them higher for chorus ideas. Create simple chord progressions andrepeat a
CHORD PROGRESSIONS FOR CHANGING KEY Written by Gary Ewer, from the “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website:. The word “ modulation ” is a music theorists’ term that means “to change key.” Changing key in the middle of a song is a great way to add interest and prolong a song. Done correctly, it can generate excitement and make a good song evenbetter.
7 CHORD PROGRESSIONS THAT WORK ALL THE TIME The G#m is a iii-chord, which is actually not all that common in pop music. C G/D C/E F G F/A G/B C – A great progression that results in an upward-moving bass scale. C G/B Am Am/G F C/E Dm7 C – A harmonized descending bass line. C A7 D7 G C – A progression that uses “secondary dominant chords”. Basically, whenever you change achord
HOW TO USE NON-DIATONIC CHORDS TO GREAT EFFECT IN YOUR How to Use Non-Diatonic Chords to Great Effect in Your Songs. A non-diationic chord is one which does not normally belong to your key of choice. In the key of A major, the seven naturally-occuring chords are: A, Bm, C#m, D, E, F#m, and G#dim. Of those chords, there are countless ways of modifying them by adding tones (Aadd9, for example),using
THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO KNOW ABOUT SONG FORM 1 day ago · In fact, what’s going on is this: the most important thing a song can do is to allow emotion to rise and fall, and we find that the verse-chorus format is one of the easiest ways to get the jobdone.
USING MUSIC THEORY TO COMMUNICATE YOUR MUSICAL IDEAS Written by Gary Ewer.Follow Gary on Twitter. The perfect combination: “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle” and a Study Guide! Dig into the songwriting manuals that thousands of songwriters are using to polish their technique, complete with a study guide to show you how to progress through the materials. CONTENT | THE ESSENTIAL SECRETS OF SONGWRITING 1 day ago · You’d think, because practically every song we know is designed to be alternating verses and choruses (with other miscellaneous sections thrown in from time to time) that verses and choruses are a necessity for any good song. THE MANY WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR SONGWRITING TECHNIQUE Written by Gary Ewer. Follow Gary on Twitter. “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” eBook bundle includes “Writing a Song From a Chord Progression”. Learn how to write great songs by starting with the chords, and then avoiding all the potential pitfalls of the chords-first songwriting process. Buy the Bundle ($37) or Read More. 3 SMOOTH WAYS TO CHANGE KEY 3) Abrupt Modulation. An abrupt modulation, by definition, requires no particular “preparation” for the new key. So you simply need to use your ears and decide if you like what you hear. And yes, even abrupt modulations can be “smooth” if done properly. CREATING GOOD TRANSITIONS FROM ONE KEY TO ANOTHER Finding a chord that pulls a song successfully into a new key can be a challenge. Here are some ideas that might help. _____ Purchase “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-eBook Bundle TODAY, and receive your free eBook “From Amateur to Ace: Writing Songs Like a Pro”.. There is of course no rule that says that all songs have to start and end in the same key. CREATING CHORD PROGRESSIONS THAT BEG FOR THE CHORUS To create song verses and beg for the chorus, start by writing out the seven chords that belong to the key you’ve chosen for your song. If it’s in a major key, try verse progressions that focus mainly on ii, IV, V and vi, moving to I, ii, IV and V for the chorus. If you’re working in a minor key, try verse progressions that focus on iv CHOOSING CHORDS TO FIT YOUR SONG MELODY Chords need to do 2 things: 1- Support the melody, and 2- establish and reinforce the key. _____ Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-eBook Bundle, and learn the 11 principles crucial to any songwriter’s success.. This is a bit of a follow-up to a previous post, “Making Chord Progressions By Categorizing Them. ” In that article, I gave a few examples of progressions that CHORD PROGRESSIONS FOR PENTATONIC MELODIES Choose a key, and play through a couple of octaves of the pentatonic scale. This is your best way to learn the scale, and to get familiar with it on your instrument (or voice). Improvise melodies on that pentatonic scale. Remember to try lower shapes for verse, and move them higher for chorus ideas. Create simple chord progressions andrepeat a
5 CHORD PROGRESSIONS FOR A SONG BRIDGE IV) Fm Ab Eb Ab Fm Ab Bb (4 beats each, hold the Bb for 8) V) Bb Gm Eb Ab Bb Eb Fm Gsus G (4 beats each, with the Gsus and G at the end getting 2) Your bridge progressions will build the necessary energy by concluding with a dominant chord because dominant chords like to resolve to I-chords. As with every musical decision you make, yourears
THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO KNOW ABOUT SONG FORM 15 hours ago · In fact, what’s going on is this: the most important thing a song can do is to allow emotion to rise and fall, and we find that the verse-chorus format is one of the easiest ways toget the job done.
CONTENT | THE ESSENTIAL SECRETS OF SONGWRITING 15 hours ago · You’d think, because practically every song we know is designed to be alternating verses and choruses (with other miscellaneous sections thrown in from time to time) that verses and choruses are a necessity for any good song. ODD SONG INTROS: “LIGHT MY FIRE” Odd Song Intros: “Light My Fire”. Establish the key of the verse (or sometimes the chorus, if that’s different). Establish the tempo and rhythmic feel. Establish the mood. Almost any song in the pop genres that you can name will do those three things. But occasionally you’ll come across songs that sit in a key other than the verse they TEST YOUR CREATIVITY WITH THESE 7 SONGWRITING CHALLENGES August 29, 2019. by Gary Ewer. When you hear a problem with your song, but don’t know how to solve it, you might find the answer in “Fix Your Songwriting Problems – NOW!”. Get this eBook separately, or as part of “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle”. Buy 'Fix Your Songwriting Problems - NOW!' ($9.95 USD) or Read More. FOR MAKING MORE COMPLEX CHORD PROGRESSIONS, START SIMPLE Some Simple Changes. If you start simple and then make that simple progression more complex, you have the important advantage of having the tonic chord still sounding like an important target. Let’s use a simple example to show what I mean. I-IV-V-I. C-F-G-C. C is the tonic chord, and as you can see, it starts and finishes the progression. WHAT YOU CAN COPY FROM ANOTHER SONG Sometimes all you need are lists of chords to get the songwriting process started. The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle includes “Essential Chord Progressions” and “More Essential Chord Progressions.”. Use the suggested chords as is, or modify them to suit your own songwriting project. Buy the Bundle ($37) or ReadMore.
MIXING MAJOR AND MINOR CHORDS TO CREATE POWERFUL SONG Here are 5 chord progressions that successfully blend major and minor chords and strengthen the relationship between verse and chorus. “The Essential Secrets of PAIRING UP A MINOR VERSE WITH A MAJOR CHORUS Thousands of songwriters are using Gary Ewer’s “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-Book Bundle to solve their songwriting dilemmas. Now with a 7th free eBook, “From Amateur to Ace: Writing Songs Like a Pro.” Read More.. You’re likely aware that moving from a minor key verse to a major key chorus is a very popular characteristic of pop music. 5 LYDIAN-MODE CHORD PROGRESSIONS, AND HOW THEY WORK A lydian chord progression has a quirky, eccentric way of grabbing attention. _____ Discover the 11 secrets that pro songwriters have known for decades. “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” eBook Bundle packages are being used by thousands of songwriters to take their music to a new level of excellence.Get today’s Deluxe Bundledeal: Read more
PRE-CHORUS AND BRIDGE: THE SIMILARITIES AND THESEE MORE ON SECRETSOFSONGWRITING.COM THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO KNOW ABOUT SONG FORM 15 hours ago · In fact, what’s going on is this: the most important thing a song can do is to allow emotion to rise and fall, and we find that the verse-chorus format is one of the easiest ways toget the job done.
CONTENT | THE ESSENTIAL SECRETS OF SONGWRITING 15 hours ago · You’d think, because practically every song we know is designed to be alternating verses and choruses (with other miscellaneous sections thrown in from time to time) that verses and choruses are a necessity for any good song. ODD SONG INTROS: “LIGHT MY FIRE” Odd Song Intros: “Light My Fire”. Establish the key of the verse (or sometimes the chorus, if that’s different). Establish the tempo and rhythmic feel. Establish the mood. Almost any song in the pop genres that you can name will do those three things. But occasionally you’ll come across songs that sit in a key other than the verse they TEST YOUR CREATIVITY WITH THESE 7 SONGWRITING CHALLENGES August 29, 2019. by Gary Ewer. When you hear a problem with your song, but don’t know how to solve it, you might find the answer in “Fix Your Songwriting Problems – NOW!”. Get this eBook separately, or as part of “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle”. Buy 'Fix Your Songwriting Problems - NOW!' ($9.95 USD) or Read More. FOR MAKING MORE COMPLEX CHORD PROGRESSIONS, START SIMPLE Some Simple Changes. If you start simple and then make that simple progression more complex, you have the important advantage of having the tonic chord still sounding like an important target. Let’s use a simple example to show what I mean. I-IV-V-I. C-F-G-C. C is the tonic chord, and as you can see, it starts and finishes the progression. WHAT YOU CAN COPY FROM ANOTHER SONG Sometimes all you need are lists of chords to get the songwriting process started. The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle includes “Essential Chord Progressions” and “More Essential Chord Progressions.”. Use the suggested chords as is, or modify them to suit your own songwriting project. Buy the Bundle ($37) or ReadMore.
5 LYDIAN-MODE CHORD PROGRESSIONS, AND HOW THEY WORK A lydian chord progression has a quirky, eccentric way of grabbing attention. _____ Discover the 11 secrets that pro songwriters have known for decades. “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” eBook Bundle packages are being used by thousands of songwriters to take their music to a new level of excellence.Get today’s Deluxe Bundledeal: Read more
PRE-CHORUS AND BRIDGE: THE SIMILARITIES AND THESEE MORE ON SECRETSOFSONGWRITING.COM USING A FLAT-VII CHORD IN YOUR SONG’S PROGRESSIONS Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-ebook bundle, and kick-start your songwriting career!. Altered chords are ones that don’t naturally exist in your song’s key. If you were writing them out using musical notation you would see that HOW TO USE NON-DIATONIC CHORDS TO GREAT EFFECT IN YOUR How to Use Non-Diatonic Chords to Great Effect in Your Songs. A non-diationic chord is one which does not normally belong to your key of choice. In the key of A major, the seven naturally-occuring chords are: A, Bm, C#m, D, E, F#m, and G#dim. Of those chords, there are countless ways of modifying them by adding tones (Aadd9, for example),using
THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO KNOW ABOUT SONG FORM 15 hours ago · In fact, what’s going on is this: the most important thing a song can do is to allow emotion to rise and fall, and we find that the verse-chorus format is one of the easiest ways toget the job done.
THE STATE OF MIND THAT MAKES YOU A PROFESSIONAL SONGWRITER In most fields of work, that’s probably the right answer. And in music, I suppose that’s also the right answer. But any time I was asked by a student to define the word professional, I’d usually give something like this as my answer: True, if you get paid for what you do, you can be called a professional. USING MUSIC THEORY TO COMMUNICATE YOUR MUSICAL IDEAS 1 day ago · Written by Gary Ewer.Follow Gary on Twitter. The perfect combination: “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle” and a Study Guide! Dig into the songwriting manuals that thousands of songwriters are using to polish their technique, complete with a study guide to show you how to progress through the materials. POETRY | THE ESSENTIAL SECRETS OF SONGWRITING The following is an excerpt from Chapter 3 of “Use Your Words! Developing a Lyrics-First Songwriting Process.”. That eBook is currently a free add-on to “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle.”. Poems don’t always make good lyrics, if only because the emotional ups and downs of a poem are often subtler thanis required
WHAT YOU CAN COPY FROM ANOTHER SONG Written by Gary Ewer.Follow Gary on Twitter. Sometimes all you need are lists of chords to get the songwriting process started. The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle includes “Essential Chord Progressions” and “More Essential Chord Progressions.” Use the suggested chords as is, or modify them to suit your own songwriting project. THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN LENNON’S AND MCCARTNEY’S MELODIES The only way to answer this question with any measure of accuracy is, in fact, to generalize, so here we go: 1. McCartney tended to use a larger tone set than Lennon. McCartney’s melodies, on average, use a larger spread between the lowest and highest notes. McCartney’s “Penny Lane” is a typical example of how McCartney would explore 12 CHORD PROGRESSION CHARACTERISTICS THAT MUSIC HISTORY All chord progressions, regardless of genre, work pretty much the same way. Here are 12 features of progressions common to all music. _____ Thousands of songwriters are now using “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” eBook Bundles to improve their technique. Includes”From Amateur to Ace: Writing Songs Like a Pro“. Read more.. If pop music is your only area of interest, you might be CREATING CHORD PROGRESSIONS THAT MOVE FROM MINOR TO MAJOR Create a new progression in this way: Start by writing down the first pair: i iv (Am-Dm). Follow it with the relative major key version of the same pair. The relative major key of A minor is C major, so I IV in C major gives us these chords: C F. Now write down the 3rd and 4th chords in your A minor progression : iiº v (Bdim-Em). 5 WAYS TO MAKE STRANGE CHORD PROGRESSIONS WORK So try using a bass pedal point. Get your bass player to play the note C (or keep the note C in the left hand of your keyboard part) and keep it there for the entire progression. It gives you this: C G/C Bb/C F/C Eb/C Ab/C G/C C. That pedal point C will help make musical sense of the entire progression. Try to begin and end progressions solidly PRE-CHORUS AND BRIDGE: THE SIMILARITIES AND THE Pre-Chorus and Bridge: The Similarities and the Differences. The most recognizable section of practically any song will be the chorus. That’s because it’s likely to contain the “hookiest” part – the melodic/rhythmic idea that everyone will recognize. The verse melody is also going to be recognizable for the fact that it startsthe
THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO KNOW ABOUT SONG FORM 5 hours ago · In fact, what’s going on is this: the most important thing a song can do is to allow emotion to rise and fall, and we find that the verse-chorus format is one of the easiest ways to get the jobdone.
CONTENT | THE ESSENTIAL SECRETS OF SONGWRITING 5 hours ago · You’d think, because practically every song we know is designed to be alternating verses and choruses (with other miscellaneous sections thrown in from time to time) that verses and choruses are a necessity for any good song. ODD SONG INTROS: “LIGHT MY FIRE” Odd Song Intros: “Light My Fire”. Establish the key of the verse (or sometimes the chorus, if that’s different). Establish the tempo and rhythmic feel. Establish the mood. Almost any song in the pop genres that you can name will do those three things. But occasionally you’ll come across songs that sit in a key other than the verse they TEST YOUR CREATIVITY WITH THESE 7 SONGWRITING CHALLENGES August 29, 2019. by Gary Ewer. When you hear a problem with your song, but don’t know how to solve it, you might find the answer in “Fix Your Songwriting Problems – NOW!”. Get this eBook separately, or as part of “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle”. Buy 'Fix Your Songwriting Problems - NOW!' ($9.95 USD) or Read More. FOR MAKING MORE COMPLEX CHORD PROGRESSIONS, START SIMPLE Some Simple Changes. If you start simple and then make that simple progression more complex, you have the important advantage of having the tonic chord still sounding like an important target. Let’s use a simple example to show what I mean. I-IV-V-I. C-F-G-C. C is the tonic chord, and as you can see, it starts and finishes the progression. WHAT YOU CAN COPY FROM ANOTHER SONG Sometimes all you need are lists of chords to get the songwriting process started. The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle includes “Essential Chord Progressions” and “More Essential Chord Progressions.”. Use the suggested chords as is, or modify them to suit your own songwriting project. Buy the Bundle ($37) or ReadMore.
MIXING MAJOR AND MINOR CHORDS TO CREATE POWERFUL SONG Here are 5 chord progressions that successfully blend major and minor chords and strengthen the relationship between verse and chorus. “The Essential Secrets of PAIRING UP A MINOR VERSE WITH A MAJOR CHORUS Thousands of songwriters are using Gary Ewer’s “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-Book Bundle to solve their songwriting dilemmas. Now with a 7th free eBook, “From Amateur to Ace: Writing Songs Like a Pro.” Read More.. You’re likely aware that moving from a minor key verse to a major key chorus is a very popular characteristic of pop music. 5 LYDIAN-MODE CHORD PROGRESSIONS, AND HOW THEY WORK A lydian chord progression has a quirky, eccentric way of grabbing attention. _____ Discover the 11 secrets that pro songwriters have known for decades. “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” eBook Bundle packages are being used by thousands of songwriters to take their music to a new level of excellence.Get today’s Deluxe Bundledeal: Read more
PRE-CHORUS AND BRIDGE: THE SIMILARITIES AND THESEE MORE ON SECRETSOFSONGWRITING.COM THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO KNOW ABOUT SONG FORM 5 hours ago · In fact, what’s going on is this: the most important thing a song can do is to allow emotion to rise and fall, and we find that the verse-chorus format is one of the easiest ways to get the jobdone.
CONTENT | THE ESSENTIAL SECRETS OF SONGWRITING 5 hours ago · You’d think, because practically every song we know is designed to be alternating verses and choruses (with other miscellaneous sections thrown in from time to time) that verses and choruses are a necessity for any good song. ODD SONG INTROS: “LIGHT MY FIRE” Odd Song Intros: “Light My Fire”. Establish the key of the verse (or sometimes the chorus, if that’s different). Establish the tempo and rhythmic feel. Establish the mood. Almost any song in the pop genres that you can name will do those three things. But occasionally you’ll come across songs that sit in a key other than the verse they TEST YOUR CREATIVITY WITH THESE 7 SONGWRITING CHALLENGES August 29, 2019. by Gary Ewer. When you hear a problem with your song, but don’t know how to solve it, you might find the answer in “Fix Your Songwriting Problems – NOW!”. Get this eBook separately, or as part of “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle”. Buy 'Fix Your Songwriting Problems - NOW!' ($9.95 USD) or Read More. FOR MAKING MORE COMPLEX CHORD PROGRESSIONS, START SIMPLE Some Simple Changes. If you start simple and then make that simple progression more complex, you have the important advantage of having the tonic chord still sounding like an important target. Let’s use a simple example to show what I mean. I-IV-V-I. C-F-G-C. C is the tonic chord, and as you can see, it starts and finishes the progression. WHAT YOU CAN COPY FROM ANOTHER SONG Sometimes all you need are lists of chords to get the songwriting process started. The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle includes “Essential Chord Progressions” and “More Essential Chord Progressions.”. Use the suggested chords as is, or modify them to suit your own songwriting project. Buy the Bundle ($37) or ReadMore.
MIXING MAJOR AND MINOR CHORDS TO CREATE POWERFUL SONG Here are 5 chord progressions that successfully blend major and minor chords and strengthen the relationship between verse and chorus. “The Essential Secrets of PAIRING UP A MINOR VERSE WITH A MAJOR CHORUS Thousands of songwriters are using Gary Ewer’s “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-Book Bundle to solve their songwriting dilemmas. Now with a 7th free eBook, “From Amateur to Ace: Writing Songs Like a Pro.” Read More.. You’re likely aware that moving from a minor key verse to a major key chorus is a very popular characteristic of pop music. 5 LYDIAN-MODE CHORD PROGRESSIONS, AND HOW THEY WORK A lydian chord progression has a quirky, eccentric way of grabbing attention. _____ Discover the 11 secrets that pro songwriters have known for decades. “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” eBook Bundle packages are being used by thousands of songwriters to take their music to a new level of excellence.Get today’s Deluxe Bundledeal: Read more
PRE-CHORUS AND BRIDGE: THE SIMILARITIES AND THESEE MORE ON SECRETSOFSONGWRITING.COM THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO KNOW ABOUT SONG FORM 5 hours ago · In fact, what’s going on is this: the most important thing a song can do is to allow emotion to rise and fall, and we find that the verse-chorus format is one of the easiest ways to get the jobdone.
THE STATE OF MIND THAT MAKES YOU A PROFESSIONAL SONGWRITER In most fields of work, that’s probably the right answer. And in music, I suppose that’s also the right answer. But any time I was asked by a student to define the word professional, I’d usually give something like this as my answer: True, if you get paid for what you do, you can be called a professional. USING MUSIC THEORY TO COMMUNICATE YOUR MUSICAL IDEAS 1 day ago · Written by Gary Ewer.Follow Gary on Twitter. The perfect combination: “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle” and a Study Guide! Dig into the songwriting manuals that thousands of songwriters are using to polish their technique, complete with a study guide to show you how to progress through the materials. POETRY | THE ESSENTIAL SECRETS OF SONGWRITING The following is an excerpt from Chapter 3 of “Use Your Words! Developing a Lyrics-First Songwriting Process.”. That eBook is currently a free add-on to “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle.”. Poems don’t always make good lyrics, if only because the emotional ups and downs of a poem are often subtler thanis required
WHAT YOU CAN COPY FROM ANOTHER SONG Written by Gary Ewer.Follow Gary on Twitter. Sometimes all you need are lists of chords to get the songwriting process started. The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle includes “Essential Chord Progressions” and “More Essential Chord Progressions.” Use the suggested chords as is, or modify them to suit your own songwriting project. THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN LENNON’S AND MCCARTNEY’S MELODIES The only way to answer this question with any measure of accuracy is, in fact, to generalize, so here we go: 1. McCartney tended to use a larger tone set than Lennon. McCartney’s melodies, on average, use a larger spread between the lowest and highest notes. McCartney’s “Penny Lane” is a typical example of how McCartney would explore 12 CHORD PROGRESSION CHARACTERISTICS THAT MUSIC HISTORY All chord progressions, regardless of genre, work pretty much the same way. Here are 12 features of progressions common to all music. _____ Thousands of songwriters are now using “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” eBook Bundles to improve their technique. Includes”From Amateur to Ace: Writing Songs Like a Pro“. Read more.. If pop music is your only area of interest, you might be CREATING CHORD PROGRESSIONS THAT MOVE FROM MINOR TO MAJOR Create a new progression in this way: Start by writing down the first pair: i iv (Am-Dm). Follow it with the relative major key version of the same pair. The relative major key of A minor is C major, so I IV in C major gives us these chords: C F. Now write down the 3rd and 4th chords in your A minor progression : iiº v (Bdim-Em). 5 WAYS TO MAKE STRANGE CHORD PROGRESSIONS WORK So try using a bass pedal point. Get your bass player to play the note C (or keep the note C in the left hand of your keyboard part) and keep it there for the entire progression. It gives you this: C G/C Bb/C F/C Eb/C Ab/C G/C C. That pedal point C will help make musical sense of the entire progression. Try to begin and end progressions solidly PRE-CHORUS AND BRIDGE: THE SIMILARITIES AND THE Pre-Chorus and Bridge: The Similarities and the Differences. The most recognizable section of practically any song will be the chorus. That’s because it’s likely to contain the “hookiest” part – the melodic/rhythmic idea that everyone will recognize. The verse melody is also going to be recognizable for the fact that it startsthe
THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO KNOW ABOUT SONG FORM 5 hours ago · In fact, what’s going on is this: the most important thing a song can do is to allow emotion to rise and fall, and we find that the verse-chorus format is one of the easiest ways to get the jobdone.
CONTENT | THE ESSENTIAL SECRETS OF SONGWRITING 5 hours ago · You’d think, because practically every song we know is designed to be alternating verses and choruses (with other miscellaneous sections thrown in from time to time) that verses and choruses are a necessity for any good song. ODD SONG INTROS: “LIGHT MY FIRE” Odd Song Intros: “Light My Fire”. Establish the key of the verse (or sometimes the chorus, if that’s different). Establish the tempo and rhythmic feel. Establish the mood. Almost any song in the pop genres that you can name will do those three things. But occasionally you’ll come across songs that sit in a key other than the verse they TEST YOUR CREATIVITY WITH THESE 7 SONGWRITING CHALLENGES August 29, 2019. by Gary Ewer. When you hear a problem with your song, but don’t know how to solve it, you might find the answer in “Fix Your Songwriting Problems – NOW!”. Get this eBook separately, or as part of “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle”. Buy 'Fix Your Songwriting Problems - NOW!' ($9.95 USD) or Read More. FOR MAKING MORE COMPLEX CHORD PROGRESSIONS, START SIMPLE Some Simple Changes. If you start simple and then make that simple progression more complex, you have the important advantage of having the tonic chord still sounding like an important target. Let’s use a simple example to show what I mean. I-IV-V-I. C-F-G-C. C is the tonic chord, and as you can see, it starts and finishes the progression. WHAT YOU CAN COPY FROM ANOTHER SONG Sometimes all you need are lists of chords to get the songwriting process started. The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle includes “Essential Chord Progressions” and “More Essential Chord Progressions.”. Use the suggested chords as is, or modify them to suit your own songwriting project. Buy the Bundle ($37) or ReadMore.
MIXING MAJOR AND MINOR CHORDS TO CREATE POWERFUL SONG Here are 5 chord progressions that successfully blend major and minor chords and strengthen the relationship between verse and chorus. “The Essential Secrets of PAIRING UP A MINOR VERSE WITH A MAJOR CHORUS Thousands of songwriters are using Gary Ewer’s “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-Book Bundle to solve their songwriting dilemmas. Now with a 7th free eBook, “From Amateur to Ace: Writing Songs Like a Pro.” Read More.. You’re likely aware that moving from a minor key verse to a major key chorus is a very popular characteristic of pop music. 5 LYDIAN-MODE CHORD PROGRESSIONS, AND HOW THEY WORK A lydian chord progression has a quirky, eccentric way of grabbing attention. _____ Discover the 11 secrets that pro songwriters have known for decades. “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” eBook Bundle packages are being used by thousands of songwriters to take their music to a new level of excellence.Get today’s Deluxe Bundledeal: Read more
PRE-CHORUS AND BRIDGE: THE SIMILARITIES AND THESEE MORE ON SECRETSOFSONGWRITING.COM THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO KNOW ABOUT SONG FORM 5 hours ago · In fact, what’s going on is this: the most important thing a song can do is to allow emotion to rise and fall, and we find that the verse-chorus format is one of the easiest ways to get the jobdone.
CONTENT | THE ESSENTIAL SECRETS OF SONGWRITING 5 hours ago · You’d think, because practically every song we know is designed to be alternating verses and choruses (with other miscellaneous sections thrown in from time to time) that verses and choruses are a necessity for any good song. ODD SONG INTROS: “LIGHT MY FIRE” Odd Song Intros: “Light My Fire”. Establish the key of the verse (or sometimes the chorus, if that’s different). Establish the tempo and rhythmic feel. Establish the mood. Almost any song in the pop genres that you can name will do those three things. But occasionally you’ll come across songs that sit in a key other than the verse they TEST YOUR CREATIVITY WITH THESE 7 SONGWRITING CHALLENGES August 29, 2019. by Gary Ewer. When you hear a problem with your song, but don’t know how to solve it, you might find the answer in “Fix Your Songwriting Problems – NOW!”. Get this eBook separately, or as part of “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle”. Buy 'Fix Your Songwriting Problems - NOW!' ($9.95 USD) or Read More. FOR MAKING MORE COMPLEX CHORD PROGRESSIONS, START SIMPLE Some Simple Changes. If you start simple and then make that simple progression more complex, you have the important advantage of having the tonic chord still sounding like an important target. Let’s use a simple example to show what I mean. I-IV-V-I. C-F-G-C. C is the tonic chord, and as you can see, it starts and finishes the progression. WHAT YOU CAN COPY FROM ANOTHER SONG Sometimes all you need are lists of chords to get the songwriting process started. The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle includes “Essential Chord Progressions” and “More Essential Chord Progressions.”. Use the suggested chords as is, or modify them to suit your own songwriting project. Buy the Bundle ($37) or ReadMore.
MIXING MAJOR AND MINOR CHORDS TO CREATE POWERFUL SONG Here are 5 chord progressions that successfully blend major and minor chords and strengthen the relationship between verse and chorus. “The Essential Secrets of PAIRING UP A MINOR VERSE WITH A MAJOR CHORUS Thousands of songwriters are using Gary Ewer’s “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-Book Bundle to solve their songwriting dilemmas. Now with a 7th free eBook, “From Amateur to Ace: Writing Songs Like a Pro.” Read More.. You’re likely aware that moving from a minor key verse to a major key chorus is a very popular characteristic of pop music. 5 LYDIAN-MODE CHORD PROGRESSIONS, AND HOW THEY WORK A lydian chord progression has a quirky, eccentric way of grabbing attention. _____ Discover the 11 secrets that pro songwriters have known for decades. “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” eBook Bundle packages are being used by thousands of songwriters to take their music to a new level of excellence.Get today’s Deluxe Bundledeal: Read more
PRE-CHORUS AND BRIDGE: THE SIMILARITIES AND THESEE MORE ON SECRETSOFSONGWRITING.COM THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO KNOW ABOUT SONG FORM 5 hours ago · In fact, what’s going on is this: the most important thing a song can do is to allow emotion to rise and fall, and we find that the verse-chorus format is one of the easiest ways to get the jobdone.
THE STATE OF MIND THAT MAKES YOU A PROFESSIONAL SONGWRITER In most fields of work, that’s probably the right answer. And in music, I suppose that’s also the right answer. But any time I was asked by a student to define the word professional, I’d usually give something like this as my answer: True, if you get paid for what you do, you can be called a professional. USING MUSIC THEORY TO COMMUNICATE YOUR MUSICAL IDEAS 1 day ago · Written by Gary Ewer.Follow Gary on Twitter. The perfect combination: “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle” and a Study Guide! Dig into the songwriting manuals that thousands of songwriters are using to polish their technique, complete with a study guide to show you how to progress through the materials. POETRY | THE ESSENTIAL SECRETS OF SONGWRITING The following is an excerpt from Chapter 3 of “Use Your Words! Developing a Lyrics-First Songwriting Process.”. That eBook is currently a free add-on to “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle.”. Poems don’t always make good lyrics, if only because the emotional ups and downs of a poem are often subtler thanis required
WHAT YOU CAN COPY FROM ANOTHER SONG Written by Gary Ewer.Follow Gary on Twitter. Sometimes all you need are lists of chords to get the songwriting process started. The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle includes “Essential Chord Progressions” and “More Essential Chord Progressions.” Use the suggested chords as is, or modify them to suit your own songwriting project. THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN LENNON’S AND MCCARTNEY’S MELODIES The only way to answer this question with any measure of accuracy is, in fact, to generalize, so here we go: 1. McCartney tended to use a larger tone set than Lennon. McCartney’s melodies, on average, use a larger spread between the lowest and highest notes. McCartney’s “Penny Lane” is a typical example of how McCartney would explore 12 CHORD PROGRESSION CHARACTERISTICS THAT MUSIC HISTORY All chord progressions, regardless of genre, work pretty much the same way. Here are 12 features of progressions common to all music. _____ Thousands of songwriters are now using “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” eBook Bundles to improve their technique. Includes”From Amateur to Ace: Writing Songs Like a Pro“. Read more.. If pop music is your only area of interest, you might be CREATING CHORD PROGRESSIONS THAT MOVE FROM MINOR TO MAJOR Create a new progression in this way: Start by writing down the first pair: i iv (Am-Dm). Follow it with the relative major key version of the same pair. The relative major key of A minor is C major, so I IV in C major gives us these chords: C F. Now write down the 3rd and 4th chords in your A minor progression : iiº v (Bdim-Em). 5 WAYS TO MAKE STRANGE CHORD PROGRESSIONS WORK So try using a bass pedal point. Get your bass player to play the note C (or keep the note C in the left hand of your keyboard part) and keep it there for the entire progression. It gives you this: C G/C Bb/C F/C Eb/C Ab/C G/C C. That pedal point C will help make musical sense of the entire progression. Try to begin and end progressions solidly PRE-CHORUS AND BRIDGE: THE SIMILARITIES AND THE Pre-Chorus and Bridge: The Similarities and the Differences. The most recognizable section of practically any song will be the chorus. That’s because it’s likely to contain the “hookiest” part – the melodic/rhythmic idea that everyone will recognize. The verse melody is also going to be recognizable for the fact that it startsthe
THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO KNOW ABOUT SONG FORM 3 hours ago · In fact, what’s going on is this: the most important thing a song can do is to allow emotion to rise and fall, and we find that the verse-chorus format is one of the easiest ways to get the jobdone.
CONTENT | THE ESSENTIAL SECRETS OF SONGWRITING 3 hours ago · You’d think, because practically every song we know is designed to be alternating verses and choruses (with other miscellaneous sections thrown in from time to time) that verses and choruses are a necessity for any good song. ODD SONG INTROS: “LIGHT MY FIRE” Odd Song Intros: “Light My Fire”. Establish the key of the verse (or sometimes the chorus, if that’s different). Establish the tempo and rhythmic feel. Establish the mood. Almost any song in the pop genres that you can name will do those three things. But occasionally you’ll come across songs that sit in a key other than the verse they TEST YOUR CREATIVITY WITH THESE 7 SONGWRITING CHALLENGES August 29, 2019. by Gary Ewer. When you hear a problem with your song, but don’t know how to solve it, you might find the answer in “Fix Your Songwriting Problems – NOW!”. Get this eBook separately, or as part of “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle”. Buy 'Fix Your Songwriting Problems - NOW!' ($9.95 USD) or Read More. FOR MAKING MORE COMPLEX CHORD PROGRESSIONS, START SIMPLE Some Simple Changes. If you start simple and then make that simple progression more complex, you have the important advantage of having the tonic chord still sounding like an important target. Let’s use a simple example to show what I mean. I-IV-V-I. C-F-G-C. C is the tonic chord, and as you can see, it starts and finishes the progression. WHAT YOU CAN COPY FROM ANOTHER SONG Sometimes all you need are lists of chords to get the songwriting process started. The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle includes “Essential Chord Progressions” and “More Essential Chord Progressions.”. Use the suggested chords as is, or modify them to suit your own songwriting project. Buy the Bundle ($37) or ReadMore.
MIXING MAJOR AND MINOR CHORDS TO CREATE POWERFUL SONG Here are 5 chord progressions that successfully blend major and minor chords and strengthen the relationship between verse and chorus. “The Essential Secrets of PAIRING UP A MINOR VERSE WITH A MAJOR CHORUS Thousands of songwriters are using Gary Ewer’s “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-Book Bundle to solve their songwriting dilemmas. Now with a 7th free eBook, “From Amateur to Ace: Writing Songs Like a Pro.” Read More.. You’re likely aware that moving from a minor key verse to a major key chorus is a very popular characteristic of pop music. 5 LYDIAN-MODE CHORD PROGRESSIONS, AND HOW THEY WORK A lydian chord progression has a quirky, eccentric way of grabbing attention. _____ Discover the 11 secrets that pro songwriters have known for decades. “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” eBook Bundle packages are being used by thousands of songwriters to take their music to a new level of excellence.Get today’s Deluxe Bundledeal: Read more
PRE-CHORUS AND BRIDGE: THE SIMILARITIES AND THESEE MORE ON SECRETSOFSONGWRITING.COM THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO KNOW ABOUT SONG FORM 3 hours ago · In fact, what’s going on is this: the most important thing a song can do is to allow emotion to rise and fall, and we find that the verse-chorus format is one of the easiest ways to get the jobdone.
CONTENT | THE ESSENTIAL SECRETS OF SONGWRITING 3 hours ago · You’d think, because practically every song we know is designed to be alternating verses and choruses (with other miscellaneous sections thrown in from time to time) that verses and choruses are a necessity for any good song. ODD SONG INTROS: “LIGHT MY FIRE” Odd Song Intros: “Light My Fire”. Establish the key of the verse (or sometimes the chorus, if that’s different). Establish the tempo and rhythmic feel. Establish the mood. Almost any song in the pop genres that you can name will do those three things. But occasionally you’ll come across songs that sit in a key other than the verse they TEST YOUR CREATIVITY WITH THESE 7 SONGWRITING CHALLENGES August 29, 2019. by Gary Ewer. When you hear a problem with your song, but don’t know how to solve it, you might find the answer in “Fix Your Songwriting Problems – NOW!”. Get this eBook separately, or as part of “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle”. Buy 'Fix Your Songwriting Problems - NOW!' ($9.95 USD) or Read More. FOR MAKING MORE COMPLEX CHORD PROGRESSIONS, START SIMPLE Some Simple Changes. If you start simple and then make that simple progression more complex, you have the important advantage of having the tonic chord still sounding like an important target. Let’s use a simple example to show what I mean. I-IV-V-I. C-F-G-C. C is the tonic chord, and as you can see, it starts and finishes the progression. WHAT YOU CAN COPY FROM ANOTHER SONG Sometimes all you need are lists of chords to get the songwriting process started. The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle includes “Essential Chord Progressions” and “More Essential Chord Progressions.”. Use the suggested chords as is, or modify them to suit your own songwriting project. Buy the Bundle ($37) or ReadMore.
MIXING MAJOR AND MINOR CHORDS TO CREATE POWERFUL SONG Here are 5 chord progressions that successfully blend major and minor chords and strengthen the relationship between verse and chorus. “The Essential Secrets of PAIRING UP A MINOR VERSE WITH A MAJOR CHORUS Thousands of songwriters are using Gary Ewer’s “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-Book Bundle to solve their songwriting dilemmas. Now with a 7th free eBook, “From Amateur to Ace: Writing Songs Like a Pro.” Read More.. You’re likely aware that moving from a minor key verse to a major key chorus is a very popular characteristic of pop music. 5 LYDIAN-MODE CHORD PROGRESSIONS, AND HOW THEY WORK A lydian chord progression has a quirky, eccentric way of grabbing attention. _____ Discover the 11 secrets that pro songwriters have known for decades. “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” eBook Bundle packages are being used by thousands of songwriters to take their music to a new level of excellence.Get today’s Deluxe Bundledeal: Read more
PRE-CHORUS AND BRIDGE: THE SIMILARITIES AND THESEE MORE ON SECRETSOFSONGWRITING.COM THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO KNOW ABOUT SONG FORM 3 hours ago · In fact, what’s going on is this: the most important thing a song can do is to allow emotion to rise and fall, and we find that the verse-chorus format is one of the easiest ways to get the jobdone.
THE STATE OF MIND THAT MAKES YOU A PROFESSIONAL SONGWRITER In most fields of work, that’s probably the right answer. And in music, I suppose that’s also the right answer. But any time I was asked by a student to define the word professional, I’d usually give something like this as my answer: True, if you get paid for what you do, you can be called a professional. USING MUSIC THEORY TO COMMUNICATE YOUR MUSICAL IDEAS 1 day ago · Written by Gary Ewer.Follow Gary on Twitter. The perfect combination: “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle” and a Study Guide! Dig into the songwriting manuals that thousands of songwriters are using to polish their technique, complete with a study guide to show you how to progress through the materials. POETRY | THE ESSENTIAL SECRETS OF SONGWRITING The following is an excerpt from Chapter 3 of “Use Your Words! Developing a Lyrics-First Songwriting Process.”. That eBook is currently a free add-on to “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle.”. Poems don’t always make good lyrics, if only because the emotional ups and downs of a poem are often subtler thanis required
WHAT YOU CAN COPY FROM ANOTHER SONG Written by Gary Ewer.Follow Gary on Twitter. Sometimes all you need are lists of chords to get the songwriting process started. The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle includes “Essential Chord Progressions” and “More Essential Chord Progressions.” Use the suggested chords as is, or modify them to suit your own songwriting project. THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN LENNON’S AND MCCARTNEY’S MELODIES The only way to answer this question with any measure of accuracy is, in fact, to generalize, so here we go: 1. McCartney tended to use a larger tone set than Lennon. McCartney’s melodies, on average, use a larger spread between the lowest and highest notes. McCartney’s “Penny Lane” is a typical example of how McCartney would explore 12 CHORD PROGRESSION CHARACTERISTICS THAT MUSIC HISTORY All chord progressions, regardless of genre, work pretty much the same way. Here are 12 features of progressions common to all music. _____ Thousands of songwriters are now using “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” eBook Bundles to improve their technique. Includes”From Amateur to Ace: Writing Songs Like a Pro“. Read more.. If pop music is your only area of interest, you might be CREATING CHORD PROGRESSIONS THAT MOVE FROM MINOR TO MAJOR Create a new progression in this way: Start by writing down the first pair: i iv (Am-Dm). Follow it with the relative major key version of the same pair. The relative major key of A minor is C major, so I IV in C major gives us these chords: C F. Now write down the 3rd and 4th chords in your A minor progression : iiº v (Bdim-Em). 5 WAYS TO MAKE STRANGE CHORD PROGRESSIONS WORK So try using a bass pedal point. Get your bass player to play the note C (or keep the note C in the left hand of your keyboard part) and keep it there for the entire progression. It gives you this: C G/C Bb/C F/C Eb/C Ab/C G/C C. That pedal point C will help make musical sense of the entire progression. Try to begin and end progressions solidly PRE-CHORUS AND BRIDGE: THE SIMILARITIES AND THE Pre-Chorus and Bridge: The Similarities and the Differences. The most recognizable section of practically any song will be the chorus. That’s because it’s likely to contain the “hookiest” part – the melodic/rhythmic idea that everyone will recognize. The verse melody is also going to be recognizable for the fact that it startsthe
POETRY | THE ESSENTIAL SECRETS OF SONGWRITING The following is an excerpt from Chapter 3 of “Use Your Words! Developing a Lyrics-First Songwriting Process.”. That eBook is currently a free add-on to “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle.”. Poems don’t always make good lyrics, if only because the emotional ups and downs of a poem are often subtler thanis required
5 WAYS TO MAKE STRANGE CHORD PROGRESSIONS WORK So try using a bass pedal point. Get your bass player to play the note C (or keep the note C in the left hand of your keyboard part) and keep it there for the entire progression. It gives you this: C G/C Bb/C F/C Eb/C Ab/C G/C C. That pedal point C will help make musical sense of the entire progression. Try to begin and end progressions solidly HOW TO USE NON-DIATONIC CHORDS TO GREAT EFFECT IN YOURC MAJOR DIATONIC CHORDSNON DIATONIC CHORD PROGRESSIONSNON DIATONIC HARMONYDIATONIC MINOR CHORDSDIATONIC SCALE CHARTWHAT DOES DIATONIC MEAN by Gary Ewer, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website: A non-diationic chord is one which does not normally belong to your key of choice. In the key of A major, the seven naturally-occuring chords are: A, Bm, C#m, D, E, F#m, and G#dim.Of those chords, there are countless ways of modifying them by adding tones (Aadd9, for example), using non-chord-tones (Esus4, for example), MIXING MAJOR AND MINOR CHORDS TO CREATE POWERFUL SONGALL MAJOR AND MINOR CHORDSMAJOR AND MINOR CHORDS CHARTMAJOR AND MINOR CHORDS PIANODIFFERENCE BETWEEN MAJOR AND MINOR CHORDMAJOR VS MINOR CHORDSWHATIS A MINOR CHORD
Here are 5 chord progressions that successfully blend major and minor chords and strengthen the relationship between verse and chorus. “The Essential Secrets of SIA | THE ESSENTIAL SECRETS OF SONGWRITING Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-ebook bundle, and learn how to write great songs! ________________ A while back I did a blog post that examined Sia’s “Soon We’ll Be Found”, from her “Some People Have Real Problems” recording. The main point of that article was to look at the way she used alternatingminor-to
CHORD PROGRESSIONS FOR PENTATONIC MELODIES Choose a key, and play through a couple of octaves of the pentatonic scale. This is your best way to learn the scale, and to get familiar with it on your instrument (or voice). Improvise melodies on that pentatonic scale. Remember to try lower shapes for verse, and move them higher for chorus ideas. Create simple chord progressions andrepeat a
POETRY | THE ESSENTIAL SECRETS OF SONGWRITING The following is an excerpt from Chapter 3 of “Use Your Words! Developing a Lyrics-First Songwriting Process.”. That eBook is currently a free add-on to “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle.”. Poems don’t always make good lyrics, if only because the emotional ups and downs of a poem are often subtler thanis required
5 WAYS TO MAKE STRANGE CHORD PROGRESSIONS WORK So try using a bass pedal point. Get your bass player to play the note C (or keep the note C in the left hand of your keyboard part) and keep it there for the entire progression. It gives you this: C G/C Bb/C F/C Eb/C Ab/C G/C C. That pedal point C will help make musical sense of the entire progression. Try to begin and end progressions solidly HOW TO USE NON-DIATONIC CHORDS TO GREAT EFFECT IN YOURC MAJOR DIATONIC CHORDSNON DIATONIC CHORD PROGRESSIONSNON DIATONIC HARMONYDIATONIC MINOR CHORDSDIATONIC SCALE CHARTWHAT DOES DIATONIC MEAN by Gary Ewer, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website: A non-diationic chord is one which does not normally belong to your key of choice. In the key of A major, the seven naturally-occuring chords are: A, Bm, C#m, D, E, F#m, and G#dim.Of those chords, there are countless ways of modifying them by adding tones (Aadd9, for example), using non-chord-tones (Esus4, for example), MIXING MAJOR AND MINOR CHORDS TO CREATE POWERFUL SONGALL MAJOR AND MINOR CHORDSMAJOR AND MINOR CHORDS CHARTMAJOR AND MINOR CHORDS PIANODIFFERENCE BETWEEN MAJOR AND MINOR CHORDMAJOR VS MINOR CHORDSWHATIS A MINOR CHORD
Here are 5 chord progressions that successfully blend major and minor chords and strengthen the relationship between verse and chorus. “The Essential Secrets of SIA | THE ESSENTIAL SECRETS OF SONGWRITING Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-ebook bundle, and learn how to write great songs! ________________ A while back I did a blog post that examined Sia’s “Soon We’ll Be Found”, from her “Some People Have Real Problems” recording. The main point of that article was to look at the way she used alternatingminor-to
CHORD PROGRESSIONS FOR PENTATONIC MELODIES Choose a key, and play through a couple of octaves of the pentatonic scale. This is your best way to learn the scale, and to get familiar with it on your instrument (or voice). Improvise melodies on that pentatonic scale. Remember to try lower shapes for verse, and move them higher for chorus ideas. Create simple chord progressions andrepeat a
HOW AGING AFFECTS YOUR ABILITY TO WRITE MUSIC Take guitar, singing or piano lessons. The better you become as a performer, the more it will stimulate your creative powers and make you a better songwriter. Always perform a mix of old and new songs for your audiences. That’s your way of letting the world know that you’re still creating new music. Written by Gary Ewer. IF THE V-CHORD BORES YOU, TRY THESE SUBSTITUTES If the V-Chord Bores You, Try These Substitutes. Written by Gary Ewer, Senior Instructor, Dalhousie University, from “ The Essential Secrets of Songwriting ” website. • Good songs sell! Check out “ The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6 e-book bundle – available now at a 50% savings! As the Roman numeral implies, the V-chord is the WHEN YOUR SONG SOUNDS TOO MUCH LIKE ANOTHER ONE When Your Song Sounds Too Much Like Another One. Yesterday I wrote about how to take old melodies and make new ones. The end result should be a song that bears no resemblance whatsoever to the original tune, and that’s the intent. That method should allow your own creativity to make something entirely new out of something old. WORKING DIMINISHED CHORDS INTO YOUR PROGRESSIONS So if you feel stuck trying to figure out a way to use diminished chords in your chord progressions, try this basic rule: take any chord within your progression, and build a diminished 7th (a chord with stacked minor 3rds) on the note that’s a semitone below the chord you’ve chosen. By doing that, you’ll turn this: G D Am D Em intothis
THE STATE OF MIND THAT MAKES YOU A PROFESSIONAL SONGWRITER In most fields of work, that’s probably the right answer. And in music, I suppose that’s also the right answer. But any time I was asked by a student to define the word professional, I’d usually give something like this as my answer: True, if you get paid for what you do, you can be called a professional. DISCUSSION | THE ESSENTIAL SECRETS OF SONGWRITING 23 hours ago · Many years ago when I was a junior high school band director, a student asked me,”What is a professional?” Before I could answer, several students said, “Someone who gets paid for what they do.” “Chord Progression Formulas” shows you how to create dozens of great progressions practically instantly by using somepowerful formulas.
FOR MAKING MORE COMPLEX CHORD PROGRESSIONS, START SIMPLE Some Simple Changes. If you start simple and then make that simple progression more complex, you have the important advantage of having the tonic chord still sounding like an important target. Let’s use a simple example to show what I mean. I-IV-V-I. C-F-G-C. C is the tonic chord, and as you can see, it starts and finishes the progression. CHORD PROGRESSIONS FOR PENTATONIC MELODIES Choose a key, and play through a couple of octaves of the pentatonic scale. This is your best way to learn the scale, and to get familiar with it on your instrument (or voice). Improvise melodies on that pentatonic scale. Remember to try lower shapes for verse, and move them higher for chorus ideas. Create simple chord progressions andrepeat a
WORKING FLAT-III, FLAT-VI, AND FLAT-VII INTO A MAJOR Most of these so-called non-diatonic chords fall into different categories such as secondary dominants, modal mixtures, various types of pre-dominant chords, just to name a few. The chords that we’re looking at today in this post, the bIII, bVI, and bVII, are all a type of modal mixture, which simply means that you’d find them in the key of C minor, and they’re “borrowed” and used in CREATING UNIQUE MOMENTS IN SONGS BY CHANGING TIME Read more.. But you can create music that’s unique by playing around with the time signature. First you’ll want to get a clear view of what time signature your song is using, and if you don’t know how to figure that out, do the following steps: 1. Sing your song and tap your hand on your lap. That will give you the basic beat. 7 CHORD PROGRESSIONS THAT WORK ALL THE TIME The G#m is a iii-chord, which is actually not all that common in pop music. C G/D C/E F G F/A G/B C – A great progression that results in an upward-moving bass scale. C G/B Am Am/G F C/E Dm7 C – A harmonized descending bass line. C A7 D7 G C – A progression that uses “secondary dominant chords”. Basically, whenever you change achord
8 TIPS FOR WRITING A SONG BRIDGE Here are 8 things you need to know about writing a song bridge. Write your bridge to happen after the second chorus. Most of the time, you’ll insert the bridge after a second go-through of the chorus: Verse 1 – Chorus – Verse 2 – Chorus – BRIDGE . Create a new chord progression, one that explores an “opposite mode” from thechorus.
PRE-CHORUS AND BRIDGE: THE SIMILARITIES AND THE Pre-Chorus and Bridge: The Similarities and the Differences. The most recognizable section of practically any song will be the chorus. That’s because it’s likely to contain the “hookiest” part – the melodic/rhythmic idea that everyone will recognize. The verse melody is also going to be recognizable for the fact that it startsthe
WORKING DIMINISHED CHORDS INTO YOUR PROGRESSIONS So if you feel stuck trying to figure out a way to use diminished chords in your chord progressions, try this basic rule: take any chord within your progression, and build a diminished 7th (a chord with stacked minor 3rds) on the note that’s a semitone below the chord you’ve chosen. By doing that, you’ll turn this: G D Am D Em intothis
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THE ESSENTIAL SECRETS OF SONGWRITING BLOG – GARY EWER*
DEALING WITH EXCESSIVE PREDICTABILITY IN YOUR SONGWRITING*
THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN LENNON’S AND MCCARTNEY’S MELODIES*
HOW TO MAKE CHORD PROGRESSIONS SOUND STRONGER*
DECIDING ON VERSE 1
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THE BEST SONGS ARE PARTNERSHIPS OF IDEAS DEALING WITH EXCESSIVE PREDICTABILITY IN YOUR SONGWRITING Posted on April 7, 2020April
7, 2020 by Gary Ewer Predictability is not the horrible monster of songwriting. Even songs that sound unique, complex or startling are often following a template established by someone else’s song, with just a touch of innovation thrown in; it doesn’t take much innovation to make a song soundunique.
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starting songs by working with a chord progression, you need to read “Writing a Song From a Chord Progression.” It will give you the pros and cons of this songwriting method, and help you create songsthat really work!_
Buy 'Writing a Song From a Chord Progression' ($9.95 USD) or Read More ------------------------- Predictability is, most of the time, a good thing. PREDICTABILITY IS THE ANCHOR THAT ASSURES THE LISTENER THAT EVERYTHING’S OKAY, that no matter how strange things might sound, there is a strong core within the song that makes it understandable. _EXCESSIVE_ PREDICTABILITY IS A PROBLEM, though. Excessive predictability usually means that you follow a personal template when you write that makes everything sound the same. The typical culprits that lead to excessive predictability in your ownsongwriting are:
* The SAME TEMPO from song to song. * The SAME KEY CHOICES. * The SAME KEY CHANGES (e.g., always moving from a minor key verse to a major key chorus.) * The SAME TOPIC AND POINT OF VIEW in the lyric. * The SAME INSTRUMENTATION. * The SAME FORMAL DESIGN. * The SAME VOCAL RANGE (e.g., if all the songs are placed high in key, you’ll hear the same screaming tension in the voice, song aftersong.)
So as you can see, EXCESSIVE PREDICTABILITY USUALLY REFERS TO YOUR HABIT OF _COPYING YOUR OWN SONGS_, not so much that you’re doing something that other songwriters do a lot. When you approach songwriting in the same way, song after song, you’ve got a problem with excessive predictability: everyone can tell what’s going tohappen next.
Here’s what you can do to solve this problem: * CHANGE UP THE FORMAL DESIGN. If you’re stuck in a verse-chorus-bridge design tendency, start your song in a different way. Try starting with the chorus. Or with an instrumental solo. Or with a slow, unaccompanied version of the chorus, as Eagles did in “Seven Bridges Road” (Steve Young). * DON’T USE THE SAME TEMPO IN CONSECUTIVE SONG PROJECTS. Of course, you can change tempo any time you like (and that kind of experimentation is great), but change things up from your previous song right at the conception stage. Tempo strongly affects mood. * DON’T USE THE SAME KEY IN CONSECUTIVE SONG PROJECTS. And more than that, see what you can do to develop a keener taste in complex progressions, or at least progressions you don’t normally use. I always say that simple progressions aren’t usually a problem, but expanding the palette of chords you like to use is a great way to make a song sound unique. * BREAK OUT OF THE LOVE SONG TRAP. Love still sells, it’s true. But it will help excessive predictability a lot if you can expand on the kinds of things you write about. If you’re not sure what else is out there that can serve as song topics, you need to do more listening in your chosen genre. * TRY LOWER KEYS THAT ALLOW YOU TO EXPLORE LOWER, SULTRIER VOCAL TONES THAN YOU’VE DONE BEFORE. Sure, your money notes may be in your upper register, but low-range singing tends to pull listeners in and make them want to listen to the content of your lyrics. Being curious about other instruments will help as well, and remember that you don’t need to be very good on an instrument to use it as asongwriting tool.
And remember: predictability is not evil. Most good songs need something familiar about them in order to give audiences something to feel comfortable with. The tiniest bit of innovation will give you a song that sounds very innovative. But excessive predicability means you may have to stop, sit back, and really listen to what you’re giving your audiences, and then start the process of taking your songwriting in a new and excitingdirection.
------------------------- Written by Gary Ewer . Follow Garyon Twitter
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THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN LENNON’S AND MCCARTNEY’S MELODIES Posted on April 6, 2020April
5, 2020 by Gary Ewer Generalizing any aspect of a songwriter’s output is straying into dangerous territory. That’s particularly true of the music of Lennon and McCartney. They were arguably the most versatile writers of pop song of their generation, and probably even now. As soon as they wrote a hit, it was back to the drawing board to come up with something completely different. -------------------------_
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Buy the Bundle ($37) or Read More ------------------------- It’s a fun and harmless pastime to try to pinpoint some of the main differences between the melody-writing styles of these two masters of songwriting. What makes a McCartney melody sound different from aLennon one?
The only way to answer this question with any measure of accuracy is, in fact, to generalize, so here we go: 1. MCCARTNEY TENDED TO USE A LARGER TONE SET THAN LENNON. McCartney’s melodies, on average, use a larger spread between the lowest and highest notes. McCartney’s “Penny Lane” is a typical example of how McCartney would explore the upper and lower ranges, and do it fairly early in a song. Other McCartney tunes that explored the fuller range of the voice: “Here, There and Everywhere”, “Got To Get You Into My Life”, “I’m Looking Through You”, etc. Some Lennon songs would use a wide range (“Instant Karma”), but he’d typically take his time exploring that range. It was more typical of Lennon to use a smaller range for each section: a smallish range for the verse, then move upward for a pre-chorus (if the song had one), then even higher for the chorus, and “Instant Karma”shows this clearly.
2. LENNON’S MELODIES WERE USUALLY RIFF-BASED REPEATED IDEAS; MCCARTNEY PREFERRED LONGER-FORM TUNES. “Penny Lane” and “Instant Karma” demonstrate this trait. “Penny Lane” does have a nice hooky bit at the start of the chorus, but the main feature we become aware of right away is the long descending — almost scale-like — melody that starts the song. Other McCartney songs show longer melodic ideas, as opposed to a shorter riff: “Hey Jude”, “I Will”, “Live and Let Die”,etc.
“Instant Karma” shows Lennon’s preference for taking a short vocal riff and repeating it over a changing chord progression. Other Lennon songs that demonstrate this preference: “Dear Prudence”, “I’m Only Sleeping”, “Good Morning Good Morning”, etc. 3. LENNON’S MELODIES TEND TO SPEND TIME SITTING IN AND AROUND THETONIC NOTE.
The tonic note tends to feature prominently in a Lennon melody; Lennon would start melodies on the tonic note more, and use it more, than McCartney would: “Across the Universe”, and “Dear Prudence”. And even if he didn’t start exactly on the tonic note, it would often feature that note as being structurally important, like in the chorus of “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill” and “ComeTogether.”
As mentioned earlier, McCartney would explore a fuller range of notes, even in his harder rockers (“Helter Skelter”). And even the songs that started on the tonic (“You Won’t See Me”, “Blackbird”, “The End”) would quickly move away from that note so that other notes rivalled the tonic in importance. 4. MCCARTNEY MELODIES HAD A FLUID SENSE OF VOCAL RHYTHM; LENNON PREFERRED MORE DRIVING RHYTHMS/PULSE. This observation applies more accurately to the moderate and faster tempo songs. The faster tempo Lennon melodies tended to lock in to rhythmic ideas that were more intense, more energetic and more repetitious, like “Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me and My Monkey”, “All You Need Is Love” and others. McCartney would come closer to allow the natural pulse of the words dictate the specific rhythms of the vocal melody. If you _say_ the words to “Golden Slumbers” without trying to sing it, you’ll see what I mean. There’s a natural flow to the rhythm of the words that gets translated directly into the vocal line. You’ll hear that characteristic also in the rhythmic choices made in “Penny Lane” and “Getting Better.” In “Got To Get You Into My Life”, you can hear how the very quick rhythms of the start of each line of the verses adds a sense of breathless excitement to thetext.
5. MCCARTNEY MELODIES BORROWED STYLISTIC IDEAS FROM MANY GENRES; LENNON PAID MORE HOMAGE TO ROCK & ROLL. Don’t get me wrong, McCartney loved rock & roll, and can write a real rocker any time he wants. But his melodic and instrumental approach was also highly influenced by other genres: music hall (“Martha My Dear”, “Honey Pie”), Parisian ballad (“Michelle”), classical (“She’s Leaving Home”, “Eleanor Rigby”), ragtime “Rocky Raccoon”, and others. Lennon was more a student of rock & roll, and even though he allowed treatments of his songs that pulled them into other genres (“Strawberry Fields Forever” as psychedelic pop, for example), I think it’s fair to say that he loved good ol’ rock & roll, and loved playing through a song with just raw emotion and a simple instrumentation. Probably “Don’t Let Me Down” demonstrates thisthe best.
DIFFERENCES IN APPROACH TO WRITING LYRICS In their early writing, Lennon and McCartney both knew what the job of a songwriter was, and so “Do You Want to Know a Secret”, “I Want to Hold Your Hand”, “No Reply” and even “The Word” are pretty straightforward and easy to understand. As their careers continued from Rubber Soul onward, that’s where we start to see a difference in how they both would tackle a lyric. Lennon was a writer of a kind of impressionism: you have to take in the _entire_ lyric, and your job as the listener is to get an impression — _from the lyric in its entirety_ — of what is beingaddressed.
So if you go line-by-line through “Come Together”, you get what Lennon himself described as “gobbledygook.” But if you take the _entire_ lyric and consider it _all together_, you get a _sense_ of meaning — an _impression_. So if you’re looking for exact “meaning” in the traditional sense, you won’t find it in any specific line of “I Am the Walrus”, “Strawberry Fields Forever”, or “Tomorrow Never Knows.” Even many of the lines in “Baby, You’re a Rich Man”, the verses of which were composed by Lennon, are hard to define in anytraditional way.
McCartney rarely did it that way. If the lyric wasn’t straightforward, like we get in “Getting Better”, for example, he’d give you short, clear vignettes, all meant to blend together to give you his own kind of impression. But it was an _impression made up of fairly clear images_, not in Lennon’s more abstract style. The best example of a McCartney lyric that shows this kind of difference is “Penny Lane.” It’s a series of short, almost unrelated vignettes that all blend together to tell you what life on Penny Lane was like. On a curious related note, the music and lyric of “With a Little Help From My Friends” was composed mostly by McCartney, and the way the melody and words interact sound like it was written by McCartney. But the one line that Lennon wrote “What do you see when you turn out the light?/ I can’t tell you but I know it’s mine” has little to do with any other line. But in true Lennon style, he’s offering an impression, nothing else.SUMMARY
The differences that exist between the writing styles of Lennon and McCartney are a great topic for any serious songwriter to study. The Beatles owe their success in part to the extent to which these two songwriters differed in their musical approach. The only thing that might have made them an even better group (if that were possible) would be to have included more Harrison songs, particularly on the later albums. Harrison’s own songwriting prowess leapt forward enormously in the final years of The Beatles. His four contributions to the White Album were four of the best songs on that record, as were his two songs on Abbey Road. Because Lennon and McCartney were so prolific and so competitive, comparing and contrasting their styles is an activity that every songwriter should take time to do. I’d be very interested in your own thoughts on this, and so please do leave a comment below. ------------------------- _Written by Gary Ewer ._ Follow on Twitter.
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HOW TO MAKE CHORD PROGRESSIONS SOUND STRONGER Posted on April 3, 2020April
3, 2020 by Gary Ewer_
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bundle that thousands of songwriters are using to improve their songwriting technique. “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle” comes with a free copy of “Use Your Words! Developing a Lyrics-First Songwriting Process.”_ Buy the Bundle ($37) or Read More VIEW the TABLE OF CONTENTS ------------------------- One common complaint I hear from songwriters is that when trying to come up with a unique or creative chord progression, it starts to sound like aimless wandering — a confusing mess. I have some tips listed below that I hope will help, but before getting to that list, consider this: DON’T TRY SO HARD TO CREATE A COMPLETELY UNIQUE OR CREATIVE PROGRESSION. There really is no progression that hasn’t been used before. This means that any good progression has already been used. This is not a problem, of course. The uniqueness or creative aspect of your song should come from your lyrics and melodies, as well as your musical arrangement and production. _Those_ are the elements that should be captivating and unique, and many great songs have become huge hits, built on very benign or otherwise standard progressions. These tips below are _not_ tips to help you make creative, unique progressions. The tips are meant to give you something that sounds strong, and something that you know works. So if your chords do, in fact, sound aimless or confusing, here are some tips to help youtroubleshoot them:
* STICK _MAINLY _TO CHORDS THAT COME FROM YOUR SONG’S KEY. If your song is in C major, for example, each note of a C major scale will serve as the root of a chord that naturally occurs in that key. Building 3-note chords above the notes of that scale will give you: C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am and Bdim. * WHEN A CHORD SOUNDS WEIRD, FOLLOW IT WITH A CHORD WHOSE ROOT IS A 4TH OR 5TH AWAY. To simplify this, let’s say that your progression starts with C – Dm – Em… but you don’t know what you should do next. It’s almost always going to work to move up a 4th or down a 5th, so your next chord _could_ be: Am. * KEEP CHORD PROGRESSIONS FROM GETTING TOO LONG. Long progressions that use lots of different chords will lose their connection to the tonic chord, and that makes a progression sound aimless. * USE CHORD INVERSIONS (“SLASH” CHORDS) IF YOUR PROGRESSION SOUNDS _TOO_ PREDICTABLE FOR YOUR TASTES. Inverting chords — placing a note other than the root at the bottom — can breathe life into an otherwise mundane progression. * COMPLEX OR AIMLESS CHORDS CAN ACTUALLY SOUND INTERESTING IN A VERSE OR BRIDGE, BUT CHORUSES SHOULD FEATURE MAINLY STRONG PROGRESSIONS. In this context, _strong_ means _solidly pointing to one chord as the tonic_. So if your song is in C major, the chorus progression should be short and repetitive, making C sound like the tonic. But your verse can sometimes benefit from some tonal ambiguity. Just remember, if you’ve deliberately written a verse to be musically ambiguous, use the chorus to tighten everything up and strengthen the sense of key. ------------------------- Written by Gary Ewer . Follow Garyon Twitter.
_If you’ve got a melody, but you struggle with how to add chords that work, you need to read “How to Harmonize a Melody.” It will show you using an easy step-by-step method, including sound files to help with the process. It’s part of “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle”_ Buy 'How to Harmonize a Melody ($11.95 USD) or Read More Posted in Chord Progressions,
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DECIDING ON VERSE 1
Posted on April 2, 2020April
2, 2020 by Gary Ewer Many songwriters find chorus hooks easier to write than verses. That’s because you can tell right away if a hook is working. It needs to be short, catchy, strong and simple. But verses are more complex structures within a song. It’s sometimes hard to get the lyric just right. You know that it needs to lead somewhat effortlessly into the chorus, but it’s often hard to know if the verse is doing its job. -------------------------_
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copy of “Use Your Words! Developing a Lyrics-First Songwriting Process” when you purchase “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting10-eBook Bundle”_
Buy the Bundle ($37) or Read More ------------------------- In particular, verse lyrics, _ESPECIALLY_ VERSE 1 LYRICS, are tricky. You’ve got to get an audience interested right away, because today it’s just too easy to click away from a song and move on tosomething else.
So here’s a tip for you: WRITE A LOT OF VERSES, AND DON’T WORRY (YET) ABOUT WHICH VERSE IS GOING TO BE THE FIRST ONE. If you’re writing a story song, you’re pretty limited in the subject matter for the first verse: it’s going to be the start of the story. But if it’s a _situational_ kind of song, where you’re setting up the emotions that occur in the chorus, you’ve got a lot of options for what that first verse might be. Having a lot of options doesn’t necessarily make it any easier, though. It can be hard to get things in the right order. Take a song like “Born in the U.S.A.”, and you’ll see what I mean. Springsteen presents the somewhat negative side of what it meant to some to be born in the U.S.A., focusing on guns and war. Each verse has a similar mood, so if _you_ were the one to write “Born in the U.S.A.’, how would you decide what verse 1 should be? There’s probably no one good answer, but there are principles involved. Here’s one possible way to do it: * WRITE A CHORUS HOOK that captures what you want the audience to feel and take away from your song. * Once you’ve done that, WRITE A VERSE WITHOUT THINKING ABOUT OR WORRYING ABOUT LYRICS YET. Just get the feel right. * Now START COMPOSING VERSE LYRICS. I always recommend word lists to help you with this part of the process. Whatever it takes to get some basic vocabulary and phrasing started for you. * WRITE LOTS OF VERSES, knowing that you’ll use one or two of them, and you’ll probably toss the others. You’ll notice that the more you write, the better things likely will get. Don’t be surprised if your first one or two verses sound lame. The more you write, the better idea you’ll get of what this song is _really _about. I’ve mentioned it before on this blog, but that’s exactly what George Harrison did when he wrote “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” He wrote a ton of verses that he wound up not using, but once he had all those verses, he had a lot of options for what would eventually make it to the final recorded version of the song. When you get to the stage where you’re performing your song for others, it will become apparent right away if you’ve chosen your first verse well. It needs to be something that connects quickly and _clearly_ to your audience. And it needs to be a verse that makes the chorus or refrain sound like a logical follower. And if you’re performing your own song, you’ll know right away if everything is working. ------------------------- Written by Gary Ewer . Follow Garyon Twitter
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their songwriting technique. Every aspect of how to make a song better is covered. Stop wasting time — take your songwriting technique to a new level TODAY. Ten eBooks, plus a free one: $37 USD (Immediatedownload.)_
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THE BEST SONGS ARE PARTNERSHIPS OF IDEAS Posted on April 1, 2020April
1, 2020 by Gary Ewer Make a little list of what you consider to be the best songs you know, and you’ll probably see one thing that is in common: each song represents A PARTNERSHIP OF IDEAS. What does that term “partnership of ideas” mean? It refers to the fact that all the various components of a song — the lyrics, the melodies, the chords and so on — work in close collaboration witheach other.
-------------------------_
If you like
starting songs by working with a chord progression, you need to read “Writing a Song From a Chord Progression.” It will give you the pros and cons of this songwriting method, and help you create songsthat really work!_
Buy 'Writing a Song From a Chord Progression ($9.95 USD) or Read More ------------------------- In other words, if the words are quirky and odd, you’ll find that the melodies are usually also quirky and odd. The chords might also be a little surprising and unexpected. In the best songs, the different elements that go together to make up that song tend to share similarcharacteristics.
In that way, great songs are usually even better than the sum of theirparts.
What does this all mean to you as a songwriter? You should be able to take any song you write and subject it to a component-by-component analysis, and see similarities. You should be able to see how all the different parts of the song support each other, and PRESENT A UNIFIED MESSAGE TO YOUR LISTENERS. Start by taking that little list of the best songs you know, and pull them apart and look for the similarities. Think about the mood and sensibility of the lyric, and then think about how the melody supports it. Think about the chords that are used, and how things might have been different if the writer(s) used different chords. Then think about how the subtext of the lyric changes if you think about that song being faster or slower, and how the performer’s choices affected the overall feeling you get from the song. The more each separate component of a song supports the other components, the stronger the song becomes, and the more impact it makes on the listener. A great example of a song that pulls all the various elements of a song together to present a unified image to the audience is Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.” The lyrics may be hard to understand, but you certainly get an “impression” from them – a kind of profundity that comes through also in the long slow build of musical energy, and the subsequent change in vocal and instrumentalstyle.
It is definitely worth the time to take a close look at your own songs and hopefully find the ways that the lyrics, melodies, chords and performance style all support each other. ------------------------- Written by Gary Ewer . Follow Garyon Twitter
_Thousands of
songwriters are using “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting”eBook bundle
to polish
their songwriting technique. Every aspect of how to make a song better is covered. Stop wasting time — take your songwriting technique to a new level TODAY. Ten eBooks, plus a free one: $37 USD (Immediatedownload)._
Buy the Bundle ($37) or Read More VIEW the TABLE OF CONTENTS Posted in songwritingand
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Use Up/Down Arrow keys to increase or decrease volume. I’m Gary Ewer. For years I’ve been helping songwriters understand the basic fundamentals of good songwriting. I do that mainly through the free articles on this blog, and also through my 10-eBook bundle. If you lack consistency in your songwriting, and you want to take your abilities to the next level, everything you need to know is in that bundle package, so please take a look at those ebooks. And if you
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