Cyberscribble

This is, obviously, part one of a multi-part blog on songwriting from a music theory perspective. Like most things you would learn, the information herein will probably make little sense at first or feel like parts are missing. Well, parts are missing. Eventually, everything will be touched upon, and we’ll make it full circle back to the beginning. Since we will make a full circle, it is not necessary to follow these blogs in order. If you’ve arrived at part four first, don’t worry. If part one leaves you scratching your head, don’t worry. It will all start to make sense once you get the whole bird’s eye view. So, let’s venture on, shall we?
In the major-minor system, of which a vast majority of modern music is composed, there are 12 major keys and 12 minor keys, one each for every note of the chromatic scale. We’ll address exactly what a chromatic scale is in a different post for those not familiar. Minor keys are relative to major keys – again, we will detail this in a future post. For now, our discussion will be limited to the major keys.
All major keys are derived from a seven-note major scale. The major scale follows a particular pattern. That pattern is not important right now, except that since all the major keys follow the same exact pattern, the theory behind them is exactly the same for all the major keys. That’s good news ‘cause that means we only have to learn one set of guidelines, and we can apply them to all the major keys.
Because a major scale has 7 notes, a major key will have 7 diatonic chords, one for each note of the scale. Three are major chords, three are minor, and one is diminished. The diminished chord is rarely used and will be tabled for future discussion. That leaves us six chords to worry about – 3 major, 3 minor. We will abbreviate these chords with Roman numerals, using capital Roman numerals for major chords and lowercase Roman numerals for minor chords.
The three major chords in each major key are I (one), IV (four), and V (five). The three minor chords are ii (two), iii (three), and vi (six). Thus, each major key has the following chords – I, ii, iii, IV, V, and vi. Simple so far, right?
Each of these chords has one of three musical qualities to it – tonic, subdominant, or dominant. Tonic chords give a feeling of rest or completion. These chords have minimum tension. Subdominant chords have a feeling of mild tension, as if something is leading somewhere – sort of a definite middle point that can go off in any direction. Dominant chords hold maximum tension. Dominant chords feel like they have a strong need to resolve to a tonic chord to give the ear a sense of completion. The tonic chords in a major key are I, iii, and vi. The subdominant chords are ii and IV. And the lone dominant chord within a major key is the V chord.
In the case of songwriting, most song parts – verse, chorus, bridge – are built around a chord progression. A chord progression is a repeating series of chords. A progression in its most basic form follows a path from a tonic chord (rest) to a subdominant chord (mild tension) to a dominant chord (maximum tension) and back to a tonic chord (completion).
The prime example of this, and a popular progression used in countless song parts, is the I, IV, V progression. The first chord is the I chord (tonic), followed by the IV chord (subdominant), followed by the V chord (dominant), then returning to the I chord (tonic).
There are tons of variations on this particular progression. One common one is to place a IV chord in between the V chord and its return to the I chord. In this case, the progression ends up being I, IV, V, IV. Examples of this progression can be heard in “Louie, Louie” by The Kingsmen, “Wild Thing” by The Troggs, “Hang On Sloopy” by The McCoys, and “The Joker” by Steve Miller Band. Other variations can be heard in “Here I Go Again” by Whitesnake, “Keep Your Hands To Yourself” by Georgia Satellites, and “Family Tradition” by Hank Williams.
So, that’s all well and good, but how can you use this information in your own songwriting? Well, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to experiment with chord progressions that follow a tonic, subdominant, dominant, subdominant (optional) chord progression.
Chord progressions usually last a number of beats that is a multiple of four, so you’ll want your chord progression to span 4, 8, 16, or 32 beats. It’s easiest, in my opinion, to start with a 16 beat progression so each chord would last four beats. If your progression only has three chords, you’ll need one to last 8 beats. Chords are usually shown in even numbered beats so a I, IV, V progression could look and sound like I, IV, V, V or I, I, IV, V.
OK, so real life here. Let’s pick the key I feel is easiest to deal with, G major. In G major, the I chord is G (tonic). The ii chord is Am (subdominant), the iii chord is Bm (tonic), the IV chord is C (subdominant), the V chord is D (dominant), and the vi chord is Em (tonic). Thus, a I, IV, V progression in G could be G, G, C, D – each chord lasting four beats.
Here are some progressions that follow the tonic, subdominant, dominant pattern in G. Each chord lasts four beats. Try them out and experiment with your own!

• G, C, D, D
• Em, C, D, C
• G, C, Am, D
• Bm, Am, D, C
• Em, Bm, Am, D
Until next time…