Songwriting Basics

Whatever your instrument, you may well find writing to be one of your earliest and most satisfying musical preoccupations. A little theory goes a long way in this area, and the lack of knowledge about how to put together chord progressions puts off many people who'd otherwise start writing sooner. It's very easy, however, so before we start talking about structures and arrangements, let's knock the theory on the head.

Which chords will fit together?

Here's a brief summary of how to work out which notes are in a given key. The system works out which notes fit together based on the distance between them. This system works for any key:

Key of C : C D E F G A B C Whole-tone, Whole-tone, Semi-tone, Whole-tone, Whole-tone, Whole-tone, Semi-tone. Key of G : G A B C D E F# G

Using this system you can work out which notes are in the key. Each note in the key generates a chord. In other words each note in a key can be used as a root note of a chord. By doing this, and drawing only from the other notes in the key, we can produce 7 different chords. But how do we know which chord in a key is a major and which a minor? We work it out by harmonizing the series of notes. Harmonizing just means stacking various notes on top of the notes in the key. In other words we take each of the notes in the key, use it as the root note of a chord, and stack various other notes in the key on top of them. This is how the chords in a key are formed. If we harmonize ANY major scale (which by the way, is the same as a major key), we'll get the same types of chord.

Here's a list of them (when we talk about single notes in a key we use Arabic numerals to number them i.e. 1, 2, 5 meaning the 1st 2nd and 5th notes in the key. To save various headaches, we use Roman numerals to describe chords in a key i.e. I, II, V instead of 1, 2, 5)

In a major key:

The I chord is always a major triad (another word for a major chord).

The II chord is always a minor triad (another word for a minor chord).

The III chord is always a minor triad.

The IV chord is always a major triad.

The V chord is always a major triad.

The VI chord is always a minor triad.

The VII chord is always a diminished triad.

But how do we know which minor 7, major 7 and dominant chords are in the key? To be brief, here's a summary of which chord types we get:

I chord : major 7

II chord : minor7

III chord : minor 7

IV chord : major 7

V chord : dominant 7

VI chord : minor 7

VII chord : minor 7 flat5

Putting chords together.

There are two main ways of writing chord progressions. One is to write the melody first, and then harmonize it with chords, as a classical composer would. This just means adding other notes, in this sense known as intervals, to the melody notes to build chords. The second is to make up the chords first, and then write a tune to fit over the top of it. Often, we would use a combination of the two methods, but the second (chords first, then tune) is more common in rock, pop, blues, indie etc., so we'll discuss that.

Let's think about the song structurally to begin with. Maybe we've got some lyrics already, maybe not, but we'll assume that we want chords for a verse section, a chorus and a middle 8, for the sake of argument. The easiest way to guarantee a given section doesn't suck is to write it all in one key. So let's say this song is going to be miserable and moody (after all, it's incredibly hard to write happy songs that are any good, isn't it?), and so the verse will be in a minor key. Call it E minor. The chords we've decided upon are Em, Bm7 and C. Now, we don't have to write the chorus in the same key as the verse, but it doesn't want to be a really bizarre and outlandish change, because that will destroy our nice, miserable atmosphere. Let's say we want the chorus to lift, mood-wise, from the verse. Em is the relative minor (ie the sixth chord) of G major (every major key shares its notes with a 'relative' minor key). So let's make the chorus a set of chords from G major - say, G, D, Am and C. We've cha nged key, but the chords are all derived from G major, so it sounds like the song has moved on, but it still fits. Now we come to the middle 8. The song probably wants to change a little bit more radically for this section, otherwise all these similar ch ords will get boring. So let's use Bm, A, G and D for the middle 8, which are all chords in the key of D major. We've now got a more noticeable key change in the song, but by starting the section with a chord that was in the previous key (Bm is the III c hord of G major),we've prevented it from sounding weird. Now that we've got our chords, we need to put these sections in order and arrange the song.

Arrangement.

The process of arranging a song consists of four main stages : Structuring, creating parts for the instruments, rhythm and giving the song a dynamic progression.

Structures : Far too many songs go verse, chorus, verse, chorus, middle 8, 2x chorus to end. This is sometimes called a strophic structure, and it's incredibl y dull and dreary. On the upside, it tends to give you a 3 minute pop song at a tempo of about 120 bpm, and on the downside we've heard it all a thousand times. So why not try two verses before the first chorus, or a chorus to start (like "Smells Like Te en Spirit"), or verses of unequal length (a favourite REM trick), or end with half a verse?. And the middle 8 doesn't have to be in the middle, either (or be 8 bars long, come to that). Why not end the song with a long middle 8 "workout"? Or not have cho ruses, but alternate verses and instrumental "middle 8" sections? Or have two or three different verse chord progressions? Go a bit mad. We don't want all the songs to sound the same, do we?

Instrumental parts :

Now we have to decide which instruments carry the chords, which play melody lines, which carry the rhythm of the song, and so on. To keep things simple, let's say we've got guitar, bass, drums and vocals to work with. Who's going to establish the chords? We can safely assume it's not going to be the drummer. It might be the guitar, playing the chord progression, while the bass rhythmically plays a repeating riff of only a couple of notes. Or the bass might play the root notes of the chords while the guitar plays a melody which harmonizes wi th the vocal tune. Or maybe the vocal tune is the only thing that tells us what key we're in (a bit weird but it can sound brilliant - ie Bjork's "Human Behaviour"). In order to stop the song sounding too repetitive, you'll probably want to vary the role each instrument plays from verse to verse. It's usually best to have most (not necessarily all) of the choruses sounding similar, though.

And what about the middle 8? Is it a guitar solo? Is it just the chords played with a new rhythm, or is there a r epeating melody over it? Why not have the first half with a new vocal tune over it, and the second half an instrumental (The Police did this a lot)? An idea for something which always sounds interesting : try repeating a guitar melody from the intro or v erse in the last chorus, or vice versa.

The rhythm : Many good songs are memorable because they have a catchy rhythm. It may be a rhythmic chordal riff which all of the instruments follow (like "Smells Like Teen Spirit" again). This is equally true of many awful songs ("Smoke on the Water" etc). People like Paul Weller rely very heavily on a rhythmic motif to make songs with a pretty straightforward chord progression sound interesting. The great thing about creating a rhythm for a song is that you ca n rip one off someone else, and provided the chords are different, no-one can tell. Try it with classical rhythms as well : just change the notes, add some distortion, and it can become blues or grunge.

Dynamics :

Even a good tune will die a horrible d eath if there isn't a variety of loud and soft passages. Nirvana relied entirely on quiet verses to make the choruses sound heavy when they came in. Peter Gabriel is a master of varying dynamics and tempo, as well as sparse and dense textures in a song. Try beginning the song with only quiet guitar chords, or a capella vocal, and then piling in with drums and bass for the first chorus. Alternatively, the last verse might be just vocals over a bass and drum groove, with guitars crashing back in for the l ast choruses. The song might begin quiet and build up throughout, or have a soft respite in the middle, or build up and then release again at the end, but it should feel like it progresses somewhere dynamically.

Now that we have arranged the song, a fe w words are in order on the topic of melodies. Vocal and guitar melodies work in very much the same way. When playing a solo,we use riffs or phrases to build up to a main note. This is often a bent note, and is often the root note of the chord or key.

If we want to be more interesting, the note might be the 4th or 7th, etc. Vocal tunes are the same. There are always a few important notes in a chorus tune, with less memorable passages in between. The relationship between these notes and the chord underne ath them determines how interesting the tune sounds. The best tunes are usually composed of either notes from the chord beneath which sound satisfyingly familiar, or notes which stand out over the chord, like the 4th or 9th. The most individual tunes are often a bit weird, but still somehow catchy (ie Living Colour's "Pride"). This is a difficult kind of melody to write, but usually one can create this effect by using a note which isn't in the chord beneath and then resolving to note that is there (ie t he 4th resolving to the 3rd). Better is using a note from a different key (a modal note), like the #4, then resolving to a chord note. The notes we use to get between these important parts of the tune are called passing notes.

These are just a few idea s to be going on with, and at the end of the day the most influential factor in your writing is going to be STYLE. Unfortunately, only a songwriting partner can help you there. Nevertheless, if you understand the basic theory behind assembling a coherent chord sequence, and you know how these basic arrangement ideas sound, you're ready to start breaking the rules. That, in the end, is what will make your writing stand out. Good luck.

Carl Homer