Songwriting & Beyond…

Hey everybody. I notice that many folks out there are a little frustrated with creating original chord progressions. Emails come into my inbox daily about this subject. I’m about to hit the facts in this post HARD.

Here’s the truth of the matter: Nearly EVERYTHING you hear on the radio today is re-cycled chord structures in ONE way or ANOTHER. To find a chord progression that’s 100% original is like finding a needle in a haystack. It’s not even worth going there.

And nor should you try and point one out OR more importantly, try to create one . I promise you if you sit down all day and all night, and try to create a completely original chord sequence, you will drive yourself crazy.

Let me tell you something …do you know where the real authenticity comes from? It’s not from chord progressions. It’s from not melodies. It’s not from lyrics. It’s not from song production or vocal arrangement…

…It’s actually comes from an amalgamation of ALL the above.

If you sit down and focus on ‘being totally original’, you’ve lost the real perspective. I’m a great believer in the philosophy “whatever you focus on expands”, and I believe it’s a mistake to isolate a ‘variable’ (ie. melody, lyrics, chords) in a song and focus on it solely to make it sound as original as possible. Why? Because you’re energy is expanding on the WRONG area.

What you should do, is Instead of trying to create something with total originality, focus on the whole experience you’re tying to give your listener. Remember this: The chords you create are merely a blanket to your lyrics and melodies. They act as an ‘accompaniment’ to your words and tunes - not the other way around.

Now sometimes I have an internal debate in my own mind my as to whether or not I should at least TRY to be totally original. And I can tell you with absolute certainty that when I do TRY to be 100% original with my chords, the songs don’t turn out as good as I’d hoped. Strange? Not really. Remember, whatever you focus on expands. So If I focus on being totally original, I may get something completely original …but it will probably be at the mercy of a average sounding song … see what I mean?

To illustrate my point further, how many songs have you heard that have intricate chord progressions - of which have been massive worldwide hits? In comparison to those with relatively ’simple’ chord progressions, the answer is “not many at all”.

I understand, that some songwriters find it difficult because they feel they don’t KNOW enough chords to do anything remotely different to the songs they’ve already written.

The answer to this is simple: You need to build up a song library and then store it in your brain.

Here’s direct quote from one of my earlier blog posts:

Here’s the thing. Have you built up a song library in your head? If not, build one from today onwards.

Why? Because searching for tunes and chord sequences will be an absolute cinch when you already have a few hundred floating around in your head from songs you have already learnt and played.

And yes, I’m talking about OTHER people’s songs. Whatever style you’re into, you should learn a new song from that genre EVERY WEEK. I’ll say it again, learn one NEW song from the style that you love every week.

Example:

You prefer Rock? >> Learn how to play and sing songs from Aerosmith, Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Green Day, Linkin Park, etc.

You like folk? >> Learn how to play and sing songs from Bob Dylan, Fairport Convention, Neil Young, etc

You prefer pop? >> Learn how to play and sing songs from Prince, Elton John, Phil Collins, Beatles, etc

You prefer R&B? >> Learn how to play and sing song by Stevie Wonder, Boyz II Men, Erykah Badu, etc.

Please don’t scold me over the definitions for these artists above… lol. For me , it’s not even about style and genre. It’s more about what you like, and then learning it (on the piano in my case) and then trying to sing it.

This does two things. One, the chord progressions of other artist and groups get burnt in my memory. Secondly, the melodies are subconsciously recorded in my brain too. So it serves a dual purpose.

Actually, I’ll add a third to that list. You generally become a more competent musician!

This will be crucial to your songwriting success.

Shamir