Lesson #5: How To Put Chords Together And Write Songs Quickly And Easily

To do this, I want you to go get the tonaly app. It’s on iTunes and I’m sure it’s on Google Play as well. 

What this apps does is allow you to see and hear the chords of the circle of fifths instantly. 

So choose a key in there, like G major which we’ve been using, and identify which is the IV, the V, the ii, etc. 

A lot of songwriting can be boiled down to just picking chords from the key signature. 

And this is because…..

G major scale = G – A – B – C – D – E – F#

G major chord = G – B – D 

A minor chord = A – C – E 

B minor chord = B – D – F# 

C major chord = C – E – G 

D major chord = D – F# – A 

E minor chord = E – G – B  

F# diminished chord = F# – A – C 

Every note of every chord comes from the scale.

This is what we call “diatonic” harmony. 

Now this is a vast oversimplification. 

There are chords used together for certain reasons. 

Many common chord progressions are created out of this system to make the sound of various genres. 

But there’s something a lot of people leave out when talking about harmony….

And how it applies to lots of songwriting in popular genres like rock, blues, metal, jazz, etc….

Lots of chords used in chord progressions won’t fit into this nice little diatonic harmony system. 

Lots of progressions use the F chord along with G and D. 

Many progressions in minor, especially classical, combine a major III chord with a minor vi chord. 

The IV is often made into a minor iv chord. 

Whenever you do this, that is, using notes outside of a key signature like G major…..

You’re using chromatic harmony. 

It’s not just dark sounding chords, if you’ve heard of this before. 

It’s just a concept to bundle anything that doesn’t stay strictly within the 7 notes of a scale or key signature. 

It absolutely blew my mind when I discovered this, and I hope it has for you too. 

Songwriting, in a nutshell, is just putting chords together and singing over it. 

There’s a lot more to it, and it’s not nearly as easy as that…..

But that’s it.