How To Write A Song With One Set Of Chords

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is David Jackel on behalf of Expert Village and I'm going to talk to you about building a song on one set of chords. One thing that not all the songwriters often do is they over think a song. They make it very complicated, they throw in lots of different chord changes, rhythmic changes, anything to spice it up in the pure more sophisticated. The problem with this is that even if the song is complicated, it's not interesting. I found that some very creative songs can be built around one set of chords. It forces the writer to think about doing as much as you possibly can with a limited pallet. A while back I wrote a song based around these four chords and the challenge for me was to find a way to keep it interesting and keep the song engaging. So I came up with a verse that went....so that was one part. Then I came up with another part that went....now you notice the difference between the two is that the first one is more melodic, the second one is more rhythmic. I used really just about one or two notes in the second part going back and forth and spacing out. Having that kind of difference is really cool, because by having the same chords people hear something that sounds familiar and then as you alter the melody on top of it, they have an anchor on the chord structure but you hold people's attention by changing the melody that you're playing on top of it. Then I even came up with a chorus that use the same chords that went....and that's when I change the chord and I throw in that F-sharp. But most of this song is just these four chords. Songwriters especially Pop songwriters want to write something that you're going to remember. If you throw out too much information you're not going to remember all of it. So don't be afraid to work with something that repeats. Think of it as a challenge, think of it as a way to within certain restrictions come up with a whole bunch of different ideas."