It goes without saying that a good chord progression can be fundamental to a quality song, but when you find yourself staring at a blank screen, how do you get started and string an appropriate set of ...

Which comes first: chords or meloody? That's the chicken and egg question facing any music maker staring at a blank DAW screen, and there's no right answer as to which you need to nail first. And ...

The ii-V-I has been referred to as a chord progression, a turnaround, and a cadence depending on the circumstances it is used. It is most known as the jazz progression as it is the backbone of many ...

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Songwriting can be an arduous process sometimes, and there are occasions when we need all the ...

Artists Greg Lester on how he crafted the classic nylon-string guitar solo in the Spice Girls’ 2 Become 1 Artists “I remember saying to Clapton, ‘You try playing that one riff for eight minutes!’”: ...

Do you associate minor chords with sad music and major chords with happy music? If you do, you probably grew up surrounded by music that follows the basic rules of Western music theory. But not ...

Some songs sound simple until you actually try to play them. This video breaks down how to figure out chords to tricky songs step by step. We look at bass notes, harmony clues, and common misdirection ...

To celebrate the 30th anniversary issue of American Songwriter (Jan/Feb 2015), “Measure for Measure” served up a smorgasbord of 30 handpicked, solid gold chord progressions. This e-book supplements ...

This chord progression genuinely makes no theoretical sense, but that’s exactly why I had to turn it into a song. Sometimes ...