THIS ONE CHORD TIP will IMMEDIATELY Help You Write BETTER SONGS!

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If you want to learn how to write a song, understanding how chords work is essential and in this video we look at how you can create interesting and impactful chord progressions using the basic concept of HOME and AWAY functions. This fundamental piece of music theory is a valuable tool for songwriters of all levels.
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ABOUT KEPPIE
Hi I'm Keppie. I'm a professional songwriter, and songwriting teacher. I've been teaching song and lyric writing for over 10 years now for some of the best contemporary music colleges in the world- Berklee Online, the Sydney Conservatorium of Music's Open Academy, as well as for the Australian College of the Arts. At other times, I've taught for the Australian Institute of Music, as well as the LA School of Songwriting.
My goal is to help people write better songs! My experience in the classroom, with thousands of students at this point (many going on to find careers and success in music), is that your songwriting, like all things, can get better with meaningful, deliberate practice. My intention is to share the skills, knowledge, information, and ideas that I've gathered with anyone who wants to improve their songwriting.
Keppie's music is here:
www.keppiecouttsmusic.com/music
ABOUT BENNY
Hi I'm Benny. My passion for music and creativity stretches across multiple disciplines and art-forms. I am a founding member and songwriter / lap-slide guitarist for one of Australia's best and most bearded country-bluegrass-folk bands, THE GREEN MOHAIR SUITS. To date the Mohairs have released 4 full-length albums and tour both nationally and overseas.
I am also the Founder and Head Producer of SILAMOR STUDIOS, a boutique studio specialising in Composition for Film, TV and Interactive Media. I write extensively across various instrumental and lyric-based genres and has been commissioned for major projects by Adobe, Cathay Pacific and Audible. I currently release original songs under the name SILAMOR.
I am also passionate about education and have taught song and lyric writing as well as film composition for JMC Academy, Collarts and the Australian Institute of Music. I design and regularly facilitate workshops on creative process and innovation.
Links to Bennny's music are here:
The Green Mohair Suits
open.spotify.com/artist/7M3Zf0UKjXdQO2mXvxDPX4?si=Y24zyBFjSlqSLteteq8RhA
SILAMOR
open.spotify.com/artist/5HOpae5ijIPDXJTtAnkLBN?si=qEX2btO0QM6PbqLIx7TQZw
www.silamor.com/music
Work Flow Audio: kzbin.info/door/GWDe9zfvue5uYw1m8r-UlA
#howtowriteasong
#howtowritesongs
#songwriting
#chords
#musictheory
#musictips
#writingsongs

[@alanredversangel]

Its so obvious but so true. I love how every "mama" in bohemian rhaspody hits on the tonic major chord, because where else would mother be?

[@Willie_Wahzoo]

In natal chart astrology, the 4th house is associated with both home and the mother.

[@ianwise3451]

@@Willie_Wahzooo

[@dwaynegayle9020]

And here they go again, I've used your techniques for a year now. You are both making me a better writer. I've been trying to be more intentional. Instead of haphazardly putting chords together. My lyrics are good. They deserve a better composer of music. You're helping me become him. I wish I could hire him, that's not an option, it seems I'll need actually do actually do it. I see progress because I take these videos seriously and try to use your ideas and structures. Im stealing........the right way. Although it's not stealing it was offered up😂

[@htws]

Musical concepts are for anyone, Dwayne. You're awesome.

[@aJ-4T7]

I haven’t come across ANYONE on the Internet who could explain this concept so well.

[@christopherhudson3551]

Thank you two for bringing some structure and discipline to the art of song writing … it has been sorely needed!

[@LambertDriveStudios]

I have been writing and recording for many years and the information you are sharing is still blowing my mind !! Absolutely stoked I stumbled upon your channel and I can’t wait to keep learning and applying !! Amazing wholesome stuff

[@mathewsarts]

Loving your videos! The content is always top notch, but it's your honest and genuine "vibe" that brings me back every time. Keep up the great work!

[@liamonconlocha4898]

This video represents the sun in all songwriting videos on YT, it keeps drawing you back to the insights that make sense and never just babble on, all information is functional, just like functional harmony

[@Pulse2AM]

I picked up this tip from another channel, it's where chords "want" to go. It doesn't mean you have to use them but if you're stuck for the next chord in a progression it can get you out of a jam. 1 - anywhere 2 - 5 3 - 6 4 - goes to 1 or 5 5 -1 6 -2

[@mcfluffie6111]

You guys are great! Thanks for the videos! Learning so much!

[@mystikrebel1089]

Very interesting and helpful. thanks Keppie and Benny !

[@freds5335]

This was wonderful, informative and inspiring! Amazing talent. Thank you!

[@seandodson1969]

Brought it all to life for me. Thank you.

[@welshaccenttutorials3104]

Love that solar system analogy

[@tonyroma7599]

thank you so much. you both are great teachers. I now have been able to understand what music is about.

[@christopherhorner8272]

Continuity versus contrast, you can understand that without any diatonic theory, but diatonic theory definitely helps with variations/options.

[@ravenwildandfree7816]

You two are so brilliant and kind, I learned, felt loved, and enjoyed the music ✨💖✨

[@htws]

So glad! Thank you for the lovely and kind comment 😊

[@vawcreations5887]

THANK YOU GUYS THAT WAS SUPERB

[@brunopradoimperceptivel]

Thank you!🙏

[@JGrimaldi7723]

Wow. So simple yet so powerful... Thank you for shedding light on something I may or may not have stumbled upon inadvertently for a lifetime. It makes so much sense now. Great work Keppie and Benny! Thank you 🍻

[@htws]

You're so welcome, John! Glad it was helpful :)

[@EngRMP]

That was so much fun to watch (and listen to). I'm not a song writer, or singer... I just am learning guitar. But, it was really interesting to hear this description of the chords, and hear a melody set to a chord sequence.

[@jxrx4577]

Yes. Well done! I’d love more of this please!!

[@htws]

More to come!

[@JuniperCo]

Really interesting & informative, brilliant thanks 🙏🏽 xxx My new favorite KZbin channel 🎼

[@garethpoole1645]

👋A really good primer to song writing, in my, (not very informed!), opinion. I'm looking forward to exploring the rest of the series so thank you for sharing your' talents 👍👍

[@hamptonmanufacturing3566]

I just love learning new things.

[@felipelotas5609]

What amazing way to explain those ideas...As beautiful as effective and powerful. Just one run of the video and my has changed for ever. SUSCRIBED!!!

[@jeffmiller7653]

Great song!!

[@francesgrafton7566]

You are the best...clear, concise, following great sequence! Frances Grafton

[@htws]

So glad it's helpful Frances.

[@RD-zj6vc]

I like to think of the sub-dominant chords (the ii and the IV) as "facing away with home behind you" and the dominant chords (The V and the vii half-dim) as being away but facing home. I consider the iii and the vi to be substitutes for home. Or like the bases in baseball. You're "safe" there, but not at home plate.

[@taggart8]

Great explanation….thanks for this analogy that helped me make sense

[@mpg9788]

How about this? “What was I thinking, when I said darlin’ let me go?” But I let my heart do the thinking and I lost control. It’s like my heart’s got a mind of its own.” Your channel is great. I love how you guys put yourselves “out there”, and take chances letting others hear your work. This channel has given me the opportunity to open my mind to new ideas. Thank you.

[@Tom-fh9fj]

Excellent presentation. By the way, I love the tune that you used as the example.

[@htws]

Thanks Tom!

[@johncostigan6160]

So many new songwriters fall into the trap of "I just invented the E chord" and waste so much time avoiding tried and true songwriting techniques. You are showing the Stuff that wins Ball Games. Very valuable techniques.Thank-you.

[@chimpooey9083]

You were great in Portishead.

[@SteveRockstein2]

thank you

[@gasparucciox9706]

really good

[@good_king_guitarman1334]

This is Play School for musicians - just waiting for Big Ted and Jemima to make an appearance :) In all seriousness though, this is fabulous music education, thank you for taking the time to make these videos.

[@mickavoidant4780]

Your F Am G verse in C major is the F lydian mode.

[@johnlind5819]

You two are fantastic! To use this concept with a slightly different variable ... a unique chord is present in multiple keys (i.e. Am is in the 6 keys of C, G, F, Am, Dm & Em). This can help a musician understand what key a song is written in for soloing and chord substitution ... and especially for songwriters, for melody writing and modulating. I LOVE your channel ... my first look everyday! Thanks, John Gig Harbor, WA

[@taggart8]

Good explanation John.I think the next logical step would be to show the specific 😊musical intervals of major and minor chords.😊

[@pgnandt]

With seven chords for a key I was taught to label them as follows. I- Tonic, ii- Pro-tonic, iii- Super-tonic, IV- Sub-dominant, V- Dominant, vi- Super-dominant, vii- Sub-tonic.

[@noahjarvis8759]

Yo I legit remember seeing this guy at jmc Brisbane city, teaching a masterclass!

[@htws]

Yeah, that was a fun workshop. How's your guitar playing going Noah?

[@Sam_Saylor]

cheers

[@alicejohnmusic]

Please make more videos on non-diatonic chords that are acceptable to use, I don’t understand this

[@gordonmonaghan133]

Here's a thing. I wrote a SIMPLE song entitled "Song for a Yuke"; song structure verse, verse, chorus 1, chorus 2, verse, finish. If we take the key of C maj, the chords used in the song are Dmin, E min, Fmaj, G maj and A min. So, although the song is in the key of Cmaj (I'm assuming), the Cmaj chord does NOT feature in the song!

[@salparadise8581]

so to summarise ...here comes the sun!

[@KellieSuePeters]

The V chord? As the Tonic?

[@lumi2015]

Hi! Great video to help people better understand how to choose their harmony-however, there are some important information that I can’t tell you intentionally or unintentionally forgot to leave in the video, I’ll write them here. (I recommend others who are reading this comment to be familiar with scale degrees) There are other functions to describe the other 6 diatonic chords other than “tonic”. We know this to be tonic, subdominant and dominant. How we identify tonic chords is by finding if a chosen triad includes the tonic and mediant scale degrees. These two chord tones are the most important for providing rest and stability-this is also why we consider vi to be tonic in most cases. Its third and fifth are also found in the root and third of the tonic chord, and can be substituted from one another. (Also a good thing to take into account, it is also the tonic of the relative minor, both share a similar “tonal gravity” with each other that is often found with keys that have minor 3rd relationships with each other. If you have delved into a bit of Bartok pitch axis theory you may know what I’m eluding to.) Subdominant harmony diatonically encircles ii & IV respectfully. (To those unknowledgable in functional harmony, notice how chords with a relative minor/major relationship share the same function?) The identifiable pitches for subdominant harmony: supertonic & subdominant. These tones are below the dominant in the relative major & minor respectively, which beautifully describes their relationship to the rest of the keys very well. They serve to lead to the dominant most commonly after a tonic chord has been established. Dominant function: As the name suggests, this function is the strongest there is in functional harmony. These wish to lead into tonic functioning chords and that is due to how it contains the most important scale degree in this type of harmonic construction-the leading tone. The leading tone has an immense tendency to resolve to the tonic a half-step above, which give dominant functions their characteristic sound. Our dominant chords are as follows: iii, V, viio. These all have one thing in common: the leading tone. Some will argue that iii has tonic function and that only has ground if it is but a shell voicing of a I7 to give the bass player room to play the root. In its essence, it is most commonly dominant. It’s also why the famous progression in “Hey there Delilah” works so well; that leading tone in iii gives a strong pull back to I, you can almost see it as a “tether” back to tonic. Please include these topics in future videos like these, it is good to give the full explanation so people can improve their own understanding of building their harmony :) And one last thing I wish to note before I end off here: harmonic function exists in minor as well, it just works differently depending on what approach you take. There is the classical stance of borrowing from harmonic minor (minor with raised 7th) & Melodic Minor (same as Harm. minor but with raised 6th) to make sure our dominant harmony includes the leading tone for stronger voice leading back to i. Then there’s negative harmony where we flip our given pitches across the circle of fifths to find a substitute for it in minor. In this context, SD-D-T patterns are swapped, it becomes D-SD-T instead. For as to why this is so, we must look at how the natural minor is constructed. We lack a leading tone that is needed for dominant harmony to serve its function as it does in major; but do not be wary, as there’s still a substitute for this absent leading tone, the flatted submediant. When taking the leading tone degree of a chosen key across the circle of fifths we find it becoming the pitch mentioned above. The b6 has a strong tendency to resolve downward to our fifth scale degree just as how the natural seventh wishes to ascend up to tonic. (One thing I should mention is that our tonic and dominant are preserved no matter how many times you apply negative harmony to the parallel major, in a sense, tonic and dominant have “polarity” and pitches that wish to resolve to it in opposite but closely related movements.) This gives the conclusion as to how iv and iio resolve so nicely to tonic compared to v. Because subdominant harmony in natural minor has this b6 scale degree it gives rise to a stronger cadence that dominant harmony cannot. (Also note: know how the most quintessential collection of pitches for dominant is the 3rd & 7th from V7? Because these are not only tritone intervals, but also resolve in contrary motion to the chord tones in the tonic chord 1 & 3? This occurrence is also found with subdominant function in natural minor. When you take the iio chord we find out tritone intervals (also known as aug4/dim5) are found in this chord and resolve in contrary motion to the 3rd & 5th of i.) I hope this is found useful to anyone here, I hope you can take my feedback into consideration.

[@matthewtayloryowieresearch1912]

Go to the top of the Class, says this mentally-guitarded guitarcheologist cynical curmudgeonly guitarcheopteryx & guitar killer since '79 if I may.. ...bravo maestro bravo👏Didyabringyabongalong Station, Central QLD.🎸

[@avedic]

Your info is fine. But.....jesus man, read the room. Make your OWN video, eh? Think about it. Your info is perfectly fine....super dense and boring and full of itself, sure. But also legit. So tighten it up, try again, and do your own thing. They didn't "forget" to leave out your info. They have something else going on.

[@lumi2015]

@@avedic The information I provided is only, as you put it, "boring" if you do not put it to practice. If you were to put it to practice, you will be able to construct exciting progressions. Having a good grasp to the foundation of functional harmony will improve your ability as both a song writer and composer.

[@avedic]

@@lumi2015 you kinda missed my point tho. First, I already know most of the info u presented, so that's moot. It's just....again, like I said, read the room, you know what I mean? Imagine if someone made a ten minute video about the basics of photography. And then someone posted a multi paragraph comment about how they oddly didn't go in depth about f-stops and lens aperture and film grain and asymmetrical composition based on ratios and darkroom chemical development recipes etc etc... If you saw a comment like THAT, tell me you wouldn't think "jesus, is this what you're like at parties? 🙄" To reiterate...you didn't exactly"read the room" when u posted your comment did you? Tbh, I've been guilty of that myself with comments, so it's not just you. But it was this time ;P

[@rayjayvids]

Nicely described guys … Home and Away. A bit too much nodding though, imo.

[@andrewtea]

Ok, now I have so many questions. Like how do I know which key this song is supposed to be in, when I´m not using the tonic chord in the verses? It could be in D, right, not C. And how does it work with a chord like C(add9). Is it the key of C, then? Or can C(add9) be the key. And how come it sounds great with D major, when this is not even in the 7 chords you listed for C. This musical theory makes me crazy.

[@charliepoe4935]

I wish y'all would post more about the chords y'all actually use in songwriting. In your less informative videos, you use major7 chords and dominant 7 chords. I want to know how to do that.

[@martyaussie4538]

The home chord, The chord to rule all chords ;-)

[@awblax1]

The planets do not orbit the sun like the diagram shows but that doesn't matter. The comparison is still good

[@nathanlotze851]

Why did u play 😅the g chord?

[@SteveReaves]

Oh no! We're talking the Circle of Fifths... IN SONGWRITING! You get a "like" from me!

[@reppepper]

So what’s the tonic chord in Sweet Home Alabama? Just messing with ya. See Adam Neely.

[@TheRobh62]

I feel like I have just watched "Play School".

[@reppepper]

*its own, not it’s own.

[@billbaldwin3564]

Much ado about nothing. Chord families are important and useful but the chord sequences that sound good and fit the song are best determined by ear not some formula that resolves. Trust your ear unless you’re tone deaf.

[@pgnandt]

Tension/resolution. My ear always tells me to resolve. Trick is, when to do it. I think this was a bad example of was intended here. That illustration was missing the tonic above the 7th. There's a reason why the 7th is called the subtonic.

[@petedambski3792]

Sorry. The earth is a flat and stationary, Plan-ET. LOL.

[@lebe220]

Roger Waters is King.

[@bobdonovan4505]

that mole on face needs to go please

[@mm37too]

The essence of douchebaggery

[@christopherhorner8272]

Vacuous much?