My arsenal for songwriting so far. Any suggestions?The

A

Alexxxander

Member
Wanna share My arsenal for songwriting so far:

Ears
Scales and their modes: maj, min, har minor, Mel min, harm major, double har maj, dim w h, dim h w, full tone, Aug, Neapolitan maj and min, few Indian and japan fukkked up penta scales

Modulation technics
Borrowed chords
Slash chords for voice leading, inversions
Sec supertonic
N6 bII
SubV (tritone sub)
Sec subdominant
Sec dominant
SubV/V (bVI, kinda aug6 chords)
Backdoor dominant bVII
Sec leading tone

Any other suggestions? What else can be useful to learn in music theory? Big thnx

Edit:
Chromatic mediants
Tritone related shit
..and imagination ;)
Suspensions, retardations, nct
 
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Having an interesting chord progression does help form a good basis for a song . It will allow for any melodic line over it to deviate further . Besides this focusing on dynamics and getting the tempo to give energy .that said there's some great songs with chord progressions which don't really do all that much . In these cases other factors are making up for it either rhythmic energy ,arrangement ,dynamics,tempo variation and so on
 
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Already have a tune? Then it’s finding the right sounds.
no tune? Then it’s finding the right sounds to inspire a tune.

use Kontakt to find a sound you’ve never heard before, see if the new sound produces a song.

occasionally, I might find inspiration is a pre-done rhythm pattern.

my classical pianist friend who is a musical genius compared to me and taught music theory in college as a job writes by using his crazy knowledge of classical music. He takes ideas from historic works and reworks them, into a new piece. A chord progression from one composer, but a melody style from another. A clever technique from another and then the work is bolting bits together and turning it into a new waltz or whatever.

Me? I’ll often work with chord progressions first, but looking back on hundreds of pieces of music to work out the particular mode, or key, or chord type name, I’d have to start from scratch. No need to waste my brain power on that. My friend has also encouraged me to start in different keys if you want to compose something new. Avoid C, G and F. Ive taken years to understand it does sound different. Ab and Eb are now my favourites, and on the piano, I’m discovering black notes conjure up new ideas!
 
If you want big hit Repeating a line often goes down well.
On a chaise longue,On a chaise longue,On a chaise longue
On a chaise longue,On a chaise longue,On a chaise longue
All day long,On a chaise longue,On achaise longue.......
 
I get that Alex, but how does your list help you produce a new song? We're not being funny, but I don't see how thiose things help you write a song? Feel free to explain how you do it, I'd genuinely love to know, but some of those music theory elements (to me) would not help me one jot write a decent tune! You've got to be a real jazzer to even understand backdoor progressions - I certainly don't - and will never want to - they're stretching theory to silly extremes. When you hear Elton John or Andrew LLoyd Webber get one into a Musical, I'll study a bit harder.
 
Like I mentioned earlier, I leave theory for when I'm practicing scales and chords but I HAVE stumbled onto chord progressions while practicing that I developed into songs but I don't think it's a productive way to do it. Most times I have a sound and beat in my head and I explore the notes as I play. I will sound out chords and hand positions on guitar or keyboard without knowing what the chord is until I break it down after the fact. Many chords I can identify by ear but there are a lot that I can't, especially open chord shapes with extensions up and down the neck which seem to have endless possibilities.
 
Slouching Raymond said:
Alexxander, songs have words! Songs are mostly about words. There is nothing in your original post about words. You are missing something big for a songwriter.
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You make a great point. Even if there are no words, humming a melody is a great way to create one. Some of my best melodies have come while developing lyrics.
 
That video makes a lot of sense (but is crazily annoying) IF you are writing SATB music. Nobody writing chords and a top line really needs to understand counterpoint. The rules are fine when you look at chords as being the A, T and B, but even then, modern music breaks many of those rules and still works, because it is not the counterpoint ideal of each line being a separate tune. I suppose that if you were going to create a bit of Bach-esque of other choral style work, then knowing the techniques of counterpoint would make sense, but if you play by using chords, you tend to use notes travelling within the chord for the next one - like moving one or two notes, leaving the other. You end up going from the three note with the root to the left to the second inversion perhaps of the next chord - which is good economic practice in chord voicing - but it's not counterpoint. Stripping out you three not chords in the left hand and adding the lemony line on top sort of becomes counterpoint - but by accident, not design. Each line tends to follow the counterpoint rules, because they are broken down chords, but the moving second from the bottom line is not really the tenor line in typical counterpoint.

My view is it's a flawed technique to use to generate a single melody with supporting chords. merging the A,T and B lines creates a chord accompaniment, but I'm sitting here looking at a pop music piano version - merging the melody and chords then stripping them out to counterpoint reveals loads of parallell 5ths and octaves plus the lines doing what the guy in the video describes, but counterpoint, or 4 line harmony is hardly what most songwriters work with? Oddly, Richard Carpenter was clearly very good at counterpoint, because lots of his harmonies are counterpoint - dead on the musical nail. The Carpenters 'style' is hardly a current popular one though, is it?
 
rob aylestone said:
That video makes a lot of sense (but is crazily annoying) IF you are writing SATB music. Nobody writing chords and a top line really needs to understand counterpoint. The rules are fine when you look at chords as being the A, T and B, but even then, modern music breaks many of those rules and still works, because it is not the counterpoint ideal of each line being a separate tune. I suppose that if you were going to create a bit of Bach-esque of other choral style work, then knowing the techniques of counterpoint would make sense, but if you play by using chords, you tend to use notes travelling within the chord for the next one - like moving one or two notes, leaving the other. You end up going from the three note with the root to the left to the second inversion perhaps of the next chord - which is good economic practice in chord voicing - but it's not counterpoint. Stripping out you three not chords in the left hand and adding the lemony line on top sort of becomes counterpoint - but by accident, not design. Each line tends to follow the counterpoint rules, because they are broken down chords, but the moving second from the bottom line is not really the tenor line in typical counterpoint.

My view is it's a flawed technique to use to generate a single melody with supporting chords. merging the A,T and B lines creates a chord accompaniment, but I'm sitting here looking at a pop music piano version - merging the melody and chords then stripping them out to counterpoint reveals loads of parallell 5ths and octaves plus the lines doing what the guy in the video describes, but counterpoint, or 4 line harmony is hardly what most songwriters work with? Oddly, Richard Carpenter was clearly very good at counterpoint, because lots of his harmonies are counterpoint - dead on the musical nail. The Carpenters 'style' is hardly a current popular one though, is it?
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Thnx. Good insight. I’m just sharing info for those who might be interested.
I only got 3 best rules from all that voice leading chaos: play everything in the same area by keeping common tones and move everything else by step. I can’t find nothing better than this so far.
Have a good beer and day!
 
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