Category

Chords and harmony

05.17.09

Eurovision 2009 – Alexander Rybak – Fairytale Basics, Chords and harmony, Form in songwriting, Melody | (13)
NB.I've since written a follow up to this post which can be found here I watched Eurovision 2009 on Saturday. I even drank Bucks Fizz and managed to get through the interminably long scoring section without getting bored and turning over. I've watched Eurovision for the last three or four years, and the standard is getting better. Now the rules have been changed to mollify the geographical bias of some countries, it's nearer to being a song competition than it has for a while. Were there any world beaters this year? No, even the best songs were merely okay. For this post, let's ...
05.06.09

How To Harmonise – Any Questions? Chords and harmony | (2)
Edit: The free ebook 'How to Hamonize' is now available. Click here! 'How to Harmonise' is by far the most popular search item for this site. Taking inspiration from this, and knowing this is the topic that interests you most, I've begun putting together a little ebook together. Yes, like Worksheets for the Songwriting Guitarist, it won't cost a thing except an entirely no obligation you-can-leave-any-time sign-up to the Songwright mailing list. The Ebook will be called 'How to Harmonise - a Songwriter's Guide'. Before I start off though, I thought I'd ask you for your harmonising questions. What don't you get ...
04.26.09

Take That, Kings of Leon, Foo Fighters, and many many more… Chords and harmony | (0)
There's a moment in 'mission documentaries' (those TV programs that involve members of the public overcoming some lifestyle problem, or solving some idiot task) that is always illustrated by the same kind of music. It's the moment of triumph, where we see the contestants suddenly smiling and wearing clothes that fit them, their lives changed for ever by their ability to lose five pounds and go two days without consuming their own body-weight in fried lard. Invariably it is accompanied by a song like this: or this: Now, fans of Kings of Leon might object to their favourite artist being compared to Take ...
04.08.09

Basics – More Guitar Chord Shapes Explained Basics, Chords and harmony | (0)
Following on from yesterday's post, here are two other guitar chord shapes with the root, third, fifth and octave labelled. The E Shape The D Shape
04.07.09

Basics – Guitar Chords Explained Basics, Chords and harmony | (2)
A couple of people have emailed to ask if I could go through my recent post about the C chord shape in a little more detail. Happy to oblige. Every major chord contains these notes: The Root Note The Major Third The Fifth Guitar chord shapes often have the same note twice in different octaves. For example, the note I've labelled 'Octave' in this diagram is the same note as the root. There are lots of common changes you can make to this chord shape to get other chords. In fact you can make the same changes to any chord shape. Eg. To create a minor chord, ...
03.29.09

Basics – The Five Guitar Chord Shapes. Basics, Chords and harmony | (0)
I'm going back to basics for the guitar playing songwriters amongst you. The more experienced guitar players won't find much new in these articles, but for those of you who have been playing for a little while and know a few chord shapes, this should help to bring together the different shapes you're using, help you draw connections between them, and show you how you can begin to create and understand some new chord shapes. CAGED There are essentially five chord shapes on the guitar:- C A G E and D (easy to remember, they spell the word 'CAGED'). This week we're ...
03.09.09

A February in Songwriting Chords and harmony, FAWM, Form in songwriting, Songwriting Structure, improvising | (0)
So how was your February? Mine was not nearly as productive as I thought it was goiong to be. I signed up to Febraury Album Writing Month, got all geared up to write, and then what did I achieve? Five songs, one of which wasn't really new at all. In fact it wasn't even a song. Seven Curses Download Seven Curses Started life as an audio sketch this one. Beyond the initial chorus I had absolutely no inspiration, so I had to rely on songwriting 'tricks' instead. These included the key change in the verse, the rather banal horro-film lyrics, and throwing in a ...
02.08.09

Quick Songwriting Tip – Shared Notes Chords and harmony | (0)
To create original chord progressions, we often use chords that don't belong together, chords that don't have a shared key.The problem with such progressions is that they can sound disjointed - as if they shouldn't be togather at all. One way to solve this problem is to compose a melody that does hang together, despite the chords. One way to do this is to exploit any notes that the chords share. A common chromatic chord in C major, for example, is E major (try playing C major, E major, F major). E major isn't in the key of C, but if you ...
10.29.08

Basics – How to Harmonise a Melody Using Primary Chords Basics, Chords and harmony | (7)
Edit: The free ebook 'How to Hamonize' is now available. Click here! How can I harmonise my melody? You can harmonise any melody using just three chords. Really? Great! Which three? I, IV and V. Erm... no, you've made a mistake, chords have letter names: A, C, F, G... They do, but they can also be given numbers. Roman numerals are used to generalise. Every major scale is different, but they all have the same structure, so they have the same kind of chords. Chord I is always a major, chord IV is a fourth up and major, chord V is a fifth up and major. For ...
10.19.08

Miss Music Nerd – My New Favourite Blog Chords and harmony, Other People | (1)
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="216" caption="Nerds - an American stereotype. In the UK being smart and having glasses is considered cool when you're a teenager. No, really it is."][/caption] You all know by now that I'm a total music nerd. So it should be no supirse that my new favourite blog is www.mismusicnerd.wordpress.com Here's how Miss Music Nerd describes the site: Welcome to Miss Music Nerd, where classical music is cool and popular music is taken seriously… but not too seriously. As your host, I will bring you observations, tidbits, ramblings and ruminations about many aspects of music The latest post is about the use of ...