Songwriting: Chord Sequences And Harmony

Harmony is basically a musical relationship between chords and melody. In song writing, chord sequences are the basis of creating harmony. Before I go further, I want to introduce you to a system of naming and notating chord progressions using Roman numerals. Typically, these roman numerals are notated based of the major scale. To further illustrate this, let us use the C major scale as an example.

I	ii	iii	IV	V	vi	vii *	I
C	D	E	F	G	A	B	C

- Upper case numerals indicate that the chords are major. C major, F major, G major

- Lower case numerals indicate that the chords are minor. D minor, E minor, A minor

*The seventh degree chord is always a diminished chord and usually found in genres such as jazz. (Ignore this chord for the time being)

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Example of Using Music Rules to Write Songs

I	IV	vi	V
C maj	F maj	A min	G maj
F maj	Bb maj	D min	C maj

These are the most fundamental "music rules" that governs most of the songs in any keys. However, these musical rules are broken frequently and we will not cover this area in this course for simplicity.

In the list below are some of the popular chord sequences that can be found in music.

- I vi IV V ( C major A minor F major G major ) Unchained Melody

- I V vi IV ( B major Gb major Ab minor E major ) Collide

- I V IV ( G Major D major C major ) Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door

- vi IV I V (C minor Ab Major Eb Major Bb Major) Apologize - One Republic

For a start, you can take these chord sequences and come up with your own melodies over them.

**** Do not fall into the danger of being over dependent on song progressions. The pitfall is that many people repeat the exact same progressions over and over again. ****