A piece of writing with no punctuation or paragraph breaks even when the words involved make sense can be confusing and hard to understand it doesn’t let the reader know the rhythm of the words or mark out the different ideas a lack of proper sentence structure turns a relatively good set of words into a mass of nonsense.

- No-one would write language like this, but if you don’t understand musical cadences, you might be writing songs like this.

Cadences are the chord changes that come at the end of musical sentences. They occur at the end of pieces and sections, but also at the end of lines as well.

There are two basic jobs they do:-

A cadence can sound final like a full stop/period

or

A cadence can sound like it needs to carry on – like a question mark.

The ‘Classic’ cadences.

At college you learn of four common cadences:

Perfect – Chord V to chord I eg. G to C – this is the classic ending ‘full stop’ cadence.

Imperfect – I to V the opposite of the perfect eg. C to G – the classic way of making your musical sentence sound unfinished.

Plagal – An ending cadence you hear in lots of hymns – Iv to I eg F to C. This also sounds finished.

Interrupted – V to Vi eg. G to Am. This sounds unfinished because after the V chord we expect to hear I. Instead we hear vi – a minor chord that makes it sound as if the music has to continue.

These aren’t the only options however. In the various modes there are plenty of other chord changes that can sound finished, or unfinished.

The basic principle is: move from an ‘unfinished’ chord to a ‘finished’ chord and it sounds final. Do the opposite and it sounds as if the music is going to carry on.

Here are some other cadence possibilites:

In A aeolian G -> Am sounds finished, Am -> F sounds unfinished.

In E phrygian Dm -> F sounds unfinished, F -> Em sounds finished.

How to use this information?

Look at your songs – do you have the right mixture of ‘finished’ and ‘unfinished’ phrases? A good place to have an unfinished cadence for example is just before the chorus – end unfinished and you’ll set up the right energy for the start of the chorus.

Think about where you need moments of tension – that’s where you want an unfinished cadence. Think where you need an ending or a moment of release – that’s where you need to return to the home chord via something like the perfect cadence.

A really interesting questions turned up from the fanbridge sign-up page.

Hi I’m new to songwriting, I would like to write in a neo-soul style . What are the typical chord progressions used in this style?

Why is that a really interesting question? Because I’ve never heard the term ‘Neo-soul’ before. As a rock/indie/whatever singe songwriter I’ve never really been into soul related music styles, so this gave me the opportunity to do some really interesting research.

Neo-soul, it seems, is the kind of music that people like D’Angelo and Erikah Badu and similar were making from about the mid 90s. RnB realted, but rather than heading down the produced-in-the-box computer driven route that pop rnb followed, neo-soul is a bit more natural, more focussed on real instruments and groove.

And wow do these songs grooooooove. Listen to this, by D’Angelo:

I know the question is about chords, but first lets talk about that groove – dead simple, slow tempo, swung with a slightly busy kick drum. Really laid back, really sexy as befits the song.

(And really interesting to contrast with the groove from the pop-rnb from the likes of Destiny’s Child).

Chords?

There’s not much variety here – this kind of music is about groove and repetition, not harmonic contrast. The jazz roots show though, Brown Sugar uses the same four chords throughout:

Em9 Em9/A Bm F13

So the key is Em9 and the progression is all about stating that Em tonic chord, creating tension by moving away, then returning again to the tonic in a loop.

The fifth chord is a classic contrasting chord, and the F13 is a slightly more unconventional, but no less interest contrast to the Em tonic.

Even more sparse, but performing a similar trick is Erikah Baduh’s ‘On & On’ which uses the chords: B7#5 Em9

So here we have simply a contrasting chord, followed by the home Eminor.

Again, the interest comes not from harmonic change, but from all the things that go around the repeating chords and groove.

Another interesting contrast to this is ‘Cry Me A River’ by Justin Timberlake which uses a chord progression that wouldn’t be out of place in a neo-soul song, but in a much more upbeat pop way.

So, in answer to the question, what kind of chords might you use in a neo-soul song?

• First get your self a laid back, swung, slow funk groove.
• Then play a minor9 chord, maybe Aminor9 (ACEGB)
• Add a couple chords to contrast, maybe Em9 (E G B F#) Bb7+13 (Bb D F Ab G) ?
• Or perhaps Am F7 E7?

Tonic minor chord, followed by chord v or something similar, repeated to a slow funk groove.

Any more suggestions? That’s what the comments are for.

‘Help, I’ve run out of chord progressions’ was the gist of a forum thread over at the 50/90 site.

User Temily said: ‘It’s only day three and I’m already stuck for chord progressions. Does anyone have any extras they feel like sharing?’

Some people replied with specific progressions they like. Others directed people to ‘chordmaps.com’ which is a great site even if the design is like going back to the internet of the late 90s.

These were great contributions – people talked about all the standard chord theory – circle of fifths, V – I, common chromatic chords.

All good advice, and perhaps the sort of thing I should be talking about on indiesongwriter.net.

However, I’m not going to talk about the obvious chord theory stuff because a. you can find that stuff elsewhere (Google Gary Ewer, he’s great for this stuff) and B. because I’m one of those annoying people who always wants to be contrary and disagree.

My contribution was:

Other tips which may or may not be good ones:

• The best chord to put after C is Eb or F#. Or both.
• E, Eb and D are good notes to sound at the same time.
• Chords without 9ths or clusters are boring and wrong.
• You can put any major chord after any other major chord.
• The same with minor chords.
• Every chord wants to fall a semitone. Or rise a semitone.
• Don’t have chord progressions of 4 or 8 bars long. 3 or 5 is good.

Let’s explain my facetious little list:

• The best chord to put after C is Eb or F#. Or both.

Why did I suggest F# or Eb after C? Because both of those chord contradict the key of C. Whether on a macro or micro scale, this is often a good idea to do.  Letting the listener only hear C F and G with the occasional daring leap to maybe an Aminor or Eminor can easily become dull. Throwing in either a section, or just the occasional chord that comes from somewhere else is a great way to make things more interesting.

Do you need to know loads of theory to do this? It can help, and I would recommend learning as much as you can but all you really need is an ear. Find something that sounds unexpected but right and use that. Don’t worry if it’s original, that’s boring. Find something that’s new to you.

This is an important principle so I’ll repeat it – play with expectations. Don’t always give the listener what the expect.

• E, Eb and D are good notes to sound at the same time.
• Chords without 9ths or clusters are boring and wrong.

My favourite chord voicings are those that contain clusters and notes that are only a tone or semitone apart. Dense chords can be very evocative. But possibly not all the time – simplicity has its place too, particular during hook lines and choruses.

• You can put any major chord after any other major chord.
• The same with minor chords.
• Every chord wants to fall a semitone. Or rise a semitone.

Absolutely true – if you don’t know what to do next, maybe moving the same kind of chord around the fret/keyboard until something sounds right is the way to do it.

• Don’t have chord progressions of 4 or 8 bars long. 3 or 5 is good.

Everyone does 4. Don’t do it! (All right, having 4s and 8s most of the time but the occasional 3 is perhaps the best way to do it.)

So there you are. A few ideas for chord progressions. And hopefully you won’t run out of ideas.

PS. Chord progressions do not exist in isolation. Best to be thinking of melody and lyrics and structure as you write ‘em.

There’s a sure-fire way of writing killer chord progressions: Write them backwards.

Thinking of the end point of your chord progession first, and then working towards it, ensures that you’ve got a progression that makes sense and doesn’t ramble.

In essence, you can come up with a working chord progression if you make sure it sticks to these steps:

• States the tonic chord
• Moves by a series of logical steps to a ‘tense’ chord
• Resolves that tension by returning to the tonic via a cadence

What does a chord progression usually do?

Often they start with the tonic, then move through a set of different chords before finding there way back to the tonic.

So C Am F G C starts on the tonic C, then moves through others before returning to C.

Em C G D Em (used in a lot of pop songs at the mo.) starts with the tonic Em then moves through others to return to Em.

Both of these end in what we call a Cadence.

The Cadence

The cadence is the end of a musical phrase. Think of it as the last two chords of a progression. V to I (Eg. G to C or D to G) is one of the most common cadences, and playing that is a great way to make a progression sound finished.

Lots of very common chord progressions work towards just this cadence.

For example, the classic ii V I used in many jazz songs eg. Dm G C – the G and C at the end form that cadence.

IV to I is another well known example.

C G/B F C for example ends in this cadence.

There are others too – in the minor key you often get the seventh chord moving to the tonic – eg. D to Em or G to Am.

Why am I mentioning cadences?

They’re the perfect device to put at the end of a progression, but how does that help me write a chord progression backwards?

Here’s the idea. Choose a cadence, let’s say G to C. Makw that the end of your chord progression.

Now all you need to do is move logically towards that G and you’ll have a chord progression that makes sense.

As an example, let’s decide we’re going to have a progression of 5 chords. I’ve just decided that the last two are G and C.

I’m also going to choose C as my first chord, because that’s the key I’m in.

C ___ ___ G C

I have two blanks to fill in. As the movement from G to see is a fall of a fifth, I’m going to approach the G in the same manner.

Fall of a fifth?

G is the fifth note of the C scale: C d e f G.

So moving from G to C is a fall of a fifth.

I want two chord that fall in fifths towards G, so I’ll extend the scale:

C d e f G a b c D e f g A

D is a fifth above G. A is a fifth above D.

In C major it just so happens that the D and A chords are both Minor.

So here’s my chord progress:

C Am Dm G C

Sounds okay. What’s the point?

The point is that by using logical principles I came to chord progression that works.

Chords that fall in fifths like this are very common, particularly in Jazz and early 20th century popular song. They can sound a bit dated, but maybe that’s what you want.

The most common of all is the simple cycle of fifths chord progression:

I – IV – viio – iii – vi – ii – V – I

C F Bdim Em Am Dm G C

The chord progression I used in our example is just an extract of this longer common chord progression.

It also follows the ideas I set out at the start. It:

• States the tonic chord (C)
• Moves by a series of logical steps (of a fifth) to a ‘tense’ chord
• Resolves that tension by returning to the tonic via a cadence (C to G)
  

Do I have to use fifths?

Not necessarily. Falls of a fourth for example, are very common.

I mentioned this chord progression above:

Em C G D

The cadence here is unfinished – on a D – which then finishes when the chord progression goes back to the E minor on the repeat.

(This is also a modal cadence slightly different from the ‘main’ four cadences that more classical music might focus on, but still just as effective)

Let’s look at what happens leading up to that D:

G is a fourth above the D. C is a fourth above the G.

So this chord progression also:

• States the tonic chord (Em)
• Moves by a series of logical steps (of a fourth) to a ‘tense’ chord
• Resolves that tension by returning to the tonic via a cadence (D to em)

Alternatives

There are lots of different ways of doing this – different cadences with different sounds to them – more interested chord choices you could make (Try the cycle of fifths, but make every chord a dominant 7. It’ll still work)

The basic point though, is sound. Decide how the chords are going to end first, then work out how you’re going to get there.

Have you ever found yourself frustrated with the chords you’re using? As if you’ve used all the chord progressions that could possibly exist, not just once but hundreds of times. I have, and I know lots of others have as well.

According to this rather good article on chord progressions even Johnny Greenwood from Radiohead has felt the same.

Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood once said “There are only 12 power chords, and I think we’ve had about 20 years of them, so maybe it’s time to move on.” He even went as far as to issue a message (half-jokingly) to the bands fans to send him in any unusual chord progressions they could write.

So what’s the solution? I can think of a few possibilities.

1. Are you sure you’ve exhausted all the possibilities?

Have you really tried every possible chord progression? What about jazz chords? Gospel Chords? Sometimes learning something new about chord progressions is what we need. A new nugget of information can help you find something fresh to say.

2. Don’t think vertically, think horizontally

In pop music we often think vertically – a C chord in this bar, an Aminor chord in that bar – notes stacked on top of each other, changing all at the same time. That isn’t how our system started though. Western music developed from single lines – by accident we happened to develop a written system that allowed us combine more complicated lines of melody (that’s a huge oversimplification, but you get the idea) – chords happened through the combination of single lines blending together.

So why not write like that? Don’t have any instruments playing chords, give them melodies and riffs and see what you come up with that way.

3. Stick to percussion

Do you really need chords?

4. Use a drone

A drone can be a wonderful thing – one note, or perhaps a perfect fifth to define your tonal centre, but everything else is fluid – the key could be major, minor or modal, the pulse can shift and vanish, the bar line stops being a barrier. Why not forget chords, and just use a drone?

We all feel Johnny Greenwood’s frustration from time to time. Hopefully those 4 ideas will get the grey matter firing.

For the comments:

Anyone else have any ideas?

Stuck for an idea? Need something to get the juices flowing?

One way to find new songwriting ideas is to use a scale you’re not familiar with:

1. You could try a Japanese pentatonic scale eg. ABCEF.

2.You could use the dimished scale E F#G A Bb C C# D# E (as the lead guitar does at the beginning of Radiohead’s Just).

3. You could use the whole tone scale eg. E F# G# Bb C D

I amused myself today by creating a chord choices flowchart:

Click Here