Ideas and Advice for Real Songwriters (formerly songwright.co.uk)
Category
key change
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02.18.08Stealing Ideas from Radiohead’s CreepLast post I mentioned some common chromatic chords. Over the weekend I also got involved in a very silly debate about the comparative 'cultural significance' of Radiohead and Aqua. It involved the sort of long pretentious discussion I was thankful to have left behind in my student days, and I should probably be ashamed of myself, but it was fun. And it also made me think of that overplayed early Radiohead hit 'Creep'. The chord progression in this song is worth a look because it uses two chromatic chords I mentioned before. The song is in the key of G, and starts of ...
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02.16.08Chromatic chords – A few optionschromatic adj. Relating to colours or colour Chord choice can be a tricky thing for songwriters. It's often a balance between the desire to be musically interesting and the need to not confuse the listener with too outlandish a change. Thankfully, the modern listener is actually pretty sophisticated. After all, western audiences have had about three hundred years to get used to chords I IV and V in the major key, and just as long to get used to the modal harmonies from folk and all sorts of other harmonic ideas. Making a choice If there are all these different chord ideas ...
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01.28.08Stealing Ideas from Madness – House of FunHouse of Fun is a breezy, quirky, cheersome little pop song by Madness. It has an up-tempo ska groove to it and a video that steals liberally from Monty Python sketches. It's great fun, but this is Songwright so the important question is: are there any songwriting ideas we can steal from this song? Of course there are! And in particular House of Fun includes a fantastic idea for changing key. 1. The structure Intro, verse 1, verse 2, chorus, verse 3, chorus, middle section, verse 4, chorus to end. That, in a nutshell is the stucture of 'House of Fun'. Each section is very ...
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01.14.08Key Changes – Part three: Stealing Ideas from Iron MaidenWho says key changes are just for boy bands? Yes, I'm abandoning any hint of respectability I might have retained. I like cheesy heavy metal. Love it. And in this post we're going to see a very different use the basic key change idea we talked about before. First a little background Last post I mentioned the interview I did with Sean McGhaughey. During that interview, I talked about the dissertation I wrote when I was at Uni. It was about genre distinctions in Heavy Metal. (Don't laugh) This reminded me of Aces High by Iron Maiden, a song that fits neatly ...
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01.09.08Key Changes – Part TwoHaving established that changing key is a valid way of adding interest and contrast to a song, how might we achieve it? First a recap Last post-about-key-changes we reached a conclusion: Being ‘in C’ means two things. Only the notes from the C scale The C note as a ‘home’ or tonic note Which can be generalised as Being in a key means two things: Using only the notes from that key Using one of that group of notes as a 'home' or tonic note Therefore... da da daaaaa! To change key you can do one of these or both: Change the group of notes you're using. Change the note you're using as ...
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12.13.07Key Changes – Part OneThis is the first of several posts that will look at key changes. Key changes? I hear you wail, The cheesey bit in the final chorus of boy band ballads? I have no need of such cheap tricks! Well, no I don't just mean that particular cliché, although a key change in the final chorus doesn't have to be cheesy. What I mean is all the ways tonality can change in a song. That could mean the simple 'everything up a major second' technique we've heard too many times in pop songs, but it could mean a 'pitch of axis' change, a ...
