Surely trying to explain how songs work is like analysing a joke - if you explain it, you destroy the magic? Well, yes and no.
There is a spark of inspiration that distinguishes a great song but equally, for the learner (like me), there is a whole set of building blocks that are common to almost every song. (Prog fans look away now).
Understanding these building blocks will help you to:
- work out songs by ear more quickly because you know what chords might come next
- recognise similar song structures so you can expand your repertoire more quickly
- write from a position of knowing what works rather than just trial and error
- improvise more fluently over common chord changes in any key.
What's not to like? Here we go.
1. KEY
A song is a melody sung or played over a bunch of chords that sound good together. So what makes it sound good? The melody and the chords work well together because they are built from a family of notes called a key. Key is another name for a scale - a series of notes connected in a specific pattern. When you ask "What key is this song in?" you are asking "What scale (series of notes) has been used to write the melody and build the chords?" So Key = Scale.
Knowing the key of a song is the first step in understanding how it is played.
2. SCALES
Musical notes are arranged into scales (families?) that produce a specific sound or feeling. The notes in a scale are separated by specific gaps (called intervals or steps). On a guitar these steps are made by the frets on the neck: two frets between notes makes a whole step (W) and one fret makes a half-step. It is the pattern of intervals that gives a scale its unique sound or feeling.
Let's start with the major scale. The major scale is the root of all western music, from rock and roll to pop, folk to classical, blues, jazz, etc.
You'll be familiar with the major scale if you've ever seen The Sound Of Music and sung along with the song "Do-Ray-Mi". The steps in the major scale are:
W - W - H - W - W - W - H or 2 frets - 2 frets - 1 fret - 2 frets - 2 frets - 2 frets - 1 fret. Play this pattern up any string to hear this. Start with an open string, then play the second fret, then fourth etc.
So scales are notes played in a particular pattern. Melodies are made by playing notes from a scale one at a time (not in order).
3. CHORDS
Chords are notes from a scale played/strummed/picked at the same time. Songs use melodies and chords built from the same scale. So how do we make chords from a scale? It is really easy.
For simple chords, take 3 notes each separated by two steps in the scale.
The C Major Scale - C D E F G A B C
Take C E G and you have a C major chord, take D F A and you have Dm. Keep writing this out starting on each note of the scale and you'll get the chords of the C major scale:
C major D minor E minor F major G major A minor B7b5 C major
I ii iii IV V vi viib5 I
This applies to any scale in any key. The pattern of chords in a major scale is ALWAYS: major-minor-minor-major-major-minor-diminished-major. Remember this it is useful.
Once you've got this in your head, your good to go in any major key.
So if you have a melody in C major, all of these chords can be used to accompany it. Equally if you have a song or piece that uses this series of chords, you can use C major to create a melody (or solo) over it. The viib5 chord is not used very much.
The roman numerals are a shorthand for writing out chord progressions in any key. So if you see something like this written down:
Key - C Verse | I / / / | I / / / | I / / / | I / / / | IV / / / | V / / / |
It means play 4 bars of C major followed by 1 bar of F and 1 bar of G.
4. HOW SONGS WORK
We know how to build chords from scales so that we can put melodies with chords that work. The final part of the 'how do songs work?' puzzle is which chords to use. Certain combinations (progressions) of chords produce well known sounds and feel, and these get repeated in thousands of songs. This means learning or writing songs is easier if you can recognise common structures.
For example, almost every blues song ever written (and consequently lots of rock and pop) use the progression:
| I / / / | I / / / | I / / / | I / / / | IV / / / | IV / / / | I / / / | I / / / |V / / / | IV / / / | I / / / | I / / / | In A the chords are
A A A A D D A A E D A A
This is the 12 bar blues. In pop the number of bars may be different but I - IV - V is incredibly common.
Lots of pop songs also use I - ii - IV - iii - V. In the key of D, this progession is Valerie by The Zutons/Amy Winehouse.
What to do next?
1. Complete this simple song grid using what we've covered. Then you can use it to help find out the next chord to use when writing or learning songs.
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Major Scale Song Grid
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|
Chord
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I
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ii
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iii
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IV
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V
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vi
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viib5
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I
|
|
Major
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Minor
|
Minor
|
Major
|
Major
|
Minor
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Flat5
|
Major
|
|
Key
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C
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Dm
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Em
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F
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G
|
Am
|
B7b5
|
C
|
|
|
D
|
Em
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F#m
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G
|
A
|
Bm
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C#
|
D
|
|
|
E
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2. Listen to songs and use the grid to help you work out which chords come next.
3. Listen to how some songs have different verse/chorus/bridge patterns and some have a single progression that repeats over and over throughout the song.
NOTE: Many songwriters 'borrow' notes and chords from outside the scale to create a specific effect. This is a topic for another time.
