Channel: New Secret Guitar Teacher

Category: Music

Tags: learn guitarplay guitarguitar tutorialguitar lessonsongwritingwrite chord sequenceshow to write songssecret guitar teacherwrite chord progressionscompose songsnick minniondiatoniccomposesecretguitarteacherhow to compose songshow to play guitarsong structure

Description: See how to create simple chord sequences and directly apply music theory to write songs. Looking at diatonic chord sequences and using Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Released" as an example learn how to construct sequences yourself. Find hundreds more lessons, videos and tutorials at the Secret Guitar Teacher site! Sign up now for a free 30 day trial secretguitarteacher.com -- Abridged Script: We have now arrived at the level on the Pyramid of Guitar Music Theory where we can start directly applying what we learn to writing songs. In this short video we are going to take a brief look at Diatonic Chord Sequence structure. The word diatonic here means: ‘using only the notes from the major scale’. So, referring back to what we looked at a couple of levels ago, if we take the notes of the G major scale and pile them up on each other like this we produce a series of chords that we describe as being diatonic to the key of G major. I can actually play these chords like a scale and you can hear that they belong together very nicely and flow naturally from one to another. Now and then you will hear a song constructed to use the chords of the key in exactly this order. My favourite example of this is Bob Dylan’s song: I Shall Be Released. But songs like this are the exception rather than the rule. In most cases the ways songs are constructed work by dividing the 6 main chords of the key into two groups. The three major chords, those built on steps I IV and V of the scale, are called Primary Chords and the three minor chords, built on the 2nd, 3rd and 6th steps of the scale are referred to as secondary chords. You may have noticed that I haven’t mentioned the 7th and 8th chords. Well, the 8th chord is the same as the key chord – just an octave higher. So, in this discussion it behaves as a primary chord. And the seventh chord is effectively made redundant because the fifth chord actually does a better job of fulfilling its function of leading back to the key chord. The primary chords are so called because they, more often than not, form the basic structural framework of a chord sequence. If you watched the last video in this series – the one on Cadences, then you will already have some idea of what we are saying here. Songs are often built around sequences that have a kind of circular feel about them. For example, if I play G for a couple of bars followed by C and D. You can hear how the G functions to establish the key at the start… then the movement to the fourth – C in this case - introduces a degree of tension, which is then ramped up to maximum by moving to the 5th – D in this case. This chord, known as the dominant chord in the key, practically demands that we move back to the key chord. That’s the authentic cadence at work. So that one simple sequence really showcases the functioning of the primary chords. Now, if we want to, we could alter the sequence by adding in a secondary chord. The secondary chords help smooth things out a little - a bit like sanding off the corners on a block of wood if you like. Let’s replace the second bar G with the ii chord – Am for example, or with the iii, or with the vi. You can hear that each of these adds a slightly different flavour, but none of them disturb the basic circular sense of flow dictated by the primary chords. As with all creative processes, less is often better than more but, in theory, you could go on adding secondary chords to the sequence to smooth it out even further. A good trick in choosing chords is to pick those based on notes 5 steps above the chord that follows. So, I might add a Bm (chord iii) before the Em to smooth out that change, then an Am (chord ii) before the D. So we end up with all six of the basic chords diatonic to the key, squeezed into one line. I hope you can hear that the addition of the secondary chords has not significantly altered the circular feeling of the flow of the sequence. But supposing I want to end this circle off and give the sequence a sense of coming to its conclusion? Well the trick again is to think backwards. I know I want to end with the key chord – G. So, I ask myself what’s five steps above that “G A B C D”: so let’s replace the Am in the second to last bar with a D. So now we have a whole sixteen bar sequence that could be used as a verse or chorus of a song. On part three of the Guitar Music Theory course we go over this subject of diatonic chord sequence structure in greater detail and pass on a whole host of practical tips and tricks that you can use to write songs that immediately sound good and have a real musical flow to them. So why not head on over to the Secret Guitar Teacher site now and take advantage of our free trial membership.