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The Songwriting Workshop - Raw Materials Part 2(Shawn Bradshaw | Posted 2005-03-06)  As with any endeavor, the more knowledge that you have about a subject the
better. The same goes for music composition. The more that you understand the
inner workings of music, the better your ear is trained, the better you are at
playing your instrument...the better you will be at writing. Often I hear from
misguided individuals that feel understanding music theory will "stifle their
creativity". Lack of knowledge and skill are what really stifle creativity. In
this series of articles on songwriting I am not going to go into the nuts and
bolts of music theory, although I will strongly suggest you make that part of
your study. What I am going to do is give you some practical ways to kick start
the writing process, even without a strong background in theory.
Possible chords built from a C major scale These are not the only possibilities, but they will give you a few choices to get started with.
Even though the chords above are listed as coming from a C major scale, you do not need to make C your primary focus. Instead, experiment with making any chord listed above the main chord of your progression. So you could make a Dm chord your main chord. Or G, F, or even Asus2. Making one chord the primary focus of your progression So the first thing that you are going to do is find the main chord of your progression. Here are some ways that you can make a chord the primary focus of a chord progression. 1. Start and/or end a phase on that chord. 2. Play that chord more often. 3. Hold that chord longer than other chords. Getting starting creating a chord progression Most often music will be written in 4 or 8 measure sections. There are some interesting ways to break out of this common practice. But if you are just starting to write songs, keep it simple and stick with that formula. You might start by writing down 4 blank measures on a piece of paper. I am going to start in 4/4 time, since that is the most common time signature songs are written in. 4 4 | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / | Then start to experiment with some different chord progressions. You could start by finding some chords that work well with each other and change once per measure. The C chord is the primary focus below. 4 C Am G C 4 | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / | Or you could have 2 chords per measure. The Am chord is the primary focus in this example. 4 Am Em Dm G Am C G Am 4 | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / | Also experiment with playing chords for varying lengths. The G chord is the primary focus of the example below. 4 G F C G F G 4 | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / | Once you have a chord progression, try substituting other chords in the same column for each other. 4 G Fmaj7 Csus2 G Fmaj7 G 4 | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / | Be sure and experiment with different ways to play your chord progressions rhythmically. Other common major scales Here are a few other common major scales that you might transpose the above chords to. There are more, but these are the ones that would be most often used in popular music (rock, country, folk etc.). So if you wanted the chord built on the 1st degree of a G major scale, your chord types would be the same as the C chords in the C major scale, just with G as the root (G5, G6, G6/9, Gmaj7, Gmaj7(9), Gmaj7(13), G(add9), Gsus2, Gsus4).
Once you have found some chord progressions that you like, you have some raw materials that you can start to use in your songs. Be sure and write down or record your chord progressions for future use. Next time we will look at some ways to help you come up with some melodies for your chord progressions. © 2005 Shawn
Bradshaw |
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