The basis of pretty much all music is the major scale, (or the Do Re Mi scale as I tend to call it).How well do you know it? Sorry, I don’t mean to put you on the spot. I think one of the best things we can do as songwriters and musicians is to get to … Continue reading Saturday Songwriting: Buckets of Stars

I love checking out what has worked for other songwriters, and seeing what I might learn from them, so I found myself looking at Rolling Stone Magazine’s 500 Greatest Songs of all time.   500 is a lot of songs and a lot of chord changes to investigate. (Not to mention a lot of lyrics, rhythms, … Continue reading Saturday Songwriting: The Middle of a Lake

This week I’m wrapping up a loose end I noticed when I used BEAD Guides Chord Flow to pair Major Chords with their relative minor chords and what I call their “Alt-Substitutes.” (Here’s the sheet). I noticed that every chord in that map has two chords they might use as substitutes. All of them except the chords … Continue reading Saturday Songwriting: Strange Light

Lots of teachers treat the diminished chords like something dangerous and scary, or something there isn’t much use for, or something that’s just to complicated to understand. Diminished chords are sort of rebels living by their own rules. Maybe that’s why teachers set them off to the side of the map where it reads; “Thar be Dragons.” But … Continue reading Saturday Songwriting: Votives

This week I’m sharing two musical ideas using BEAD Guides Chord Flow that I think of almost like a seesaw, because I feel like they balance each other. I don’t think there’s really any musical principle that makes that true—it’s just the way I feel.  Each is probably the most common change made to the … Continue reading Saturday Songwriting: Off the Table