So that chords color and underpin melodies in vivid ways, and also serve as “passing chords,” working as connecting tissue between chords that allow a melody to move into new places.Īmong previous generations of songwriters, such as George Gershwin and Cole Porter, a great love and brilliance with chromatic chord progressions abounded. And all of music has to do with this dance of tension and release.
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But dissonances create tension, which can be resolved.
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One cannot resolve a melody with a diminished chord. They are not ugly, but they contain dissonance. There are those who suggest certain chords, such as diminished ones, are “ugly,” and to be avoided. Learning every chord, and every variation of chord, is a vital way of discovering, and supporting, melodies.Īnd every chord matters. In songs it is the melody which matters, not the chords.īut chords can be used as a great tool by which to discover compelling melodies. Yet over that foundation, the melody would soar.Īnd that is the important lesson. Often in his songs, as in “Free Fallin’,” written with Jeff Lynne, he would use one chord pattern, which repeats through the whole song, both verses and chorus.
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Whereas, as Tom said, you can write a great song with two chords. If those chords don’t propel a melody in a compelling way, and if they don’t serve the song, they are not helping. We don’t write songs to impress other guitarists with our use of strange chords. I used a chord in it you have never heard in a chord progression ever !’ So I would listen to the song, and tell them, ‘You want to know why you have never heard that chord in a song? Because it doesn’t sound good! Take that chord out.” “So many times,” he said, “a guy would come up to me and say, ‘Tom, you have got to hear my new song. He understood that, in the wake of Hendrix especially, a lot of guys became serious guitarists, and wrote songs more about the chords than the song itself. Fogerty, who has written whole songs like “Commotion” all on one chord, often will use only two, explaining that by staying on one chord so long that the move to another becomes monumental. James Brown and other soul purveyors taught us with the right groove and bass-line, such as the classic “I Feel Good,“ only one chord is needed, a lesson John Fogerty said he learned. Chuck Berry cooked up genius with only two chords sometimes, as he did it in his classic “You Never Can Tell,” which is only I and V. Countless famous songs are built on diatonic progressions of these chords, showing that with a good tune and groove, many chords are not necessary.īlues are mostly composed, essentially, of the I, IV and V, as are so many folk and country songs. This pattern of chords is identical in every major key. If you’re in a major key of C major, for example, the diatonic chords are the I (C major), II (D minor), III (E minor), IV (F), V (G), and the VI (A minor) and VII (B diminished). But in diatonic chord progressions, which are fundamental to most blues, country, folk and rock & roll, every chord is in the usual tonal toolkit. Both camps are tonal – meaning that they are always rooted to a key. What becomes quickly evident if you do this much, is that all the songs we know are either diatonic (staying in one key only) or chromatic (moving in and out of more than one key). As you can with any famous song, from Cole Porter through Sia and beyond. How did John Lennon, for example, create that greatly visceral and swampy vibe of “Come Together”? All you got to do is go online to find its chords, as you can now with virtually any famous song, so as to ascertain immediately how he did it.
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The best way to learn about these progressions and see them in action is to reverse-engineer songs you love. Although some legendary melodists, such as Burt Bacharach, have spoken of their inclination to compose melody apart from any chords, the majority of songwriters discover and invent melodies by playing chord progressions, both ones they knew and new ones they devise. So all savvy songwriters develop over time a vocabulary of chord changes, and one that is hopefully always expanding, to inspire, empower and enrich melodies.īecause not only will the chords enhance a melody with momentum - the propulsion of the tune –- and a foundation, they also are vital to the generation and discovery of new melodies. But unless a song is a cappella, though, that melody does not exist on its own, but within the harmony – the pattern of chord progressions - that surrounds it. It contains the melody of the song, of course, the single-line sung tune which transports the lyrics. But just as lyrics contain a multitude of sub-categories and considerations, so does music. Often when discussing songwriting, we divide it into its two main elements, words and music.