Schedule Change for Songwriting Lessons

Hi guys! I just watched the last songwriting stream and thought I could share some of the basic things that really helped me understand, hear and feel chord progressions during my music learning journey. 1. Tonic is home. If you take any progression in any scale, major or minor, your I chord will always feel like home. That’s why a lot of chord sequences start or end with the I chord. It gives context and when you come back to it, things feel resolved. For exemple, try singing a major scale note by note, but stay longer on the 7th note before coming back to the 1st one, one octave higher : C – D – E – F – G – A – BBBBBBBBBBB Now feel how much your brain wants to hear that C. Everything is leading towards it. That’s your tonic. You can try the same exercise descending from C and stay longer on the 2nd note of the scale (D in this case), then with a minor scale, ascending and descending. 2. Patterns. I will not go into detail about how chords are built within a scale for the sake of clarity. You simply have to remember these patterns: (Upercase roman numerals are major chords, lowercase roman numerals are minor chords, diminished chords are a bit particular and are represented by the ° symbol) Major key chords are: I – ii – iii – IV – V – iv – iiv° Minor key chords are: i – ii° - III – iv – v – VI – VII Try navigating randomly through these chords on a guitar by playing bar chords. Play what feels and sounds good. Try various combinations. Keep it simple, play two to four chords loops. End with your I chord, your home. Let’s take the E major and minor keys, which are pretty convenient on guitar. You have this whole palette at your disposal: E major: E major – F# minor – G# minor – A major – B major – C# minor – D# diminished E minor: E minor – F# diminished – G major – A minor – B minor – C major – D major - How do some of these combinations feel? Take notes about these changes. Try giving them names that make sense to you. Think about their flavours. ([V – I] might feel strong and intense, [I – vi] might feel melancholic). No rules, just hearing how things sound and make you feel on a personal level. - Do you recognize parts of songs you already know ? Note them and create yourself a reference catalogue. (For exemple : [IV – I – V – I] → Lou Reed – Waves of Fear) Notes: - This is a quick view within specific keys, when you get comfortable with this, feel free to introduce new chords that technically don’t fit into minor or major keys but still feel good to the ear. Two great and common examples of borrowing a chord from another key would be the [IV – iv – I] and the [V – i] progressions. You can go in some pretty wild and unconventional places, everything is possible. - Playing with chord progressions is a game of creating tension and releasing it. Try building tension and find a way to resolve everything in a way that follows your intentions. - Purpose and emotion are key: if you feel stuck while composing, go back to your first intentions, what are the ideas and emotions you want to evoke or convey through your song? Is there a particular chord combination that could transcribe this feeling? Where do you want things to go next? - YouTube is a fantastic learning resource, here are two references I kept going back to when I was lost or when I was curious about learning more: - Andrew Huang - Learn music theory in half an hour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgaTLrZGlk0 - David Bennett goes through famous songs that share the same chords progressions: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlx2eo2tD6KpfGmE-MXwcIRQh21neAKsK These are just tools, you can ignore parts of them or create new ones. Feel free to adapt these ideas to your own way of understanding and appreciating music, have fun!

florian soi