>> One of the things that we want to
know as a songwriter,
first of all, is, what chords can I use?
The higher art of songwriting is,
well, why would I choose that chord over that chord?
We're storytellers and we want to choose
our chords to help us tell
the story like somebody would film score a movie.
Let's just start with the first chord,
C. [MUSIC] Feel how there's no motion,
just feels like, and that's home.
That's a really important thing for songwriters to know.
The three primary chords that
you literally could just write songs
for the rest of your life would be
the one chord which is C major [MUSIC],
the four chord which is F major [MUSIC] ,
and the G chord , which has five major [MUSIC] ,
I need to hear that classic [MUSIC].
You can make an entire career out of
just these three primary chords, 1,4, and 5.
They're really journey songs.
They really are great storytelling songs.
You can hear [MUSIC] how this feels like,
okay, there is no motion or home.
[MUSIC] Feel that motion like something's happening here.
Whatever you want to say as a lyricist is that,
notice that these chords are telling
a story that you could offer a lyric to.
[MUSIC] and that's even greater.
[MUSIC] I'm going to miss you,
when this is over,
We'll come back, again some day.
Something like that. Just like think
about what stories are these cords telling?
How can I offer something to it as
a songwriter to let that match how I'm feeling?
Or if I'm writing to that,
how can I match that feeling?
These are the three bright,
bold and if you were going to give these in emotion,
which I'd love for you to start thinking about,
how do these chords feel and
what emotion are they going to
bring to me as a songwriter?
That one is going to be home and safe
and solid and four is going to be
bright and bold and then
the five chord is going to be even
brighter and bolder, so 1,4,5.
Now that you know what the one chord,
the four chord and the five chord bring to you as
a songwriter, the primary chords.
Let's look at the secondary chords in the key
of C major, D minor.
[MUSIC] That's pretty sad,
you see how we're not bright anymore.
E minor [MUSIC] ,
A minor [MUSIC] and
mostly used either in R&B or as a passing chord,
we have our B diminished [MUSIC].
You've heard how that just feels really extreme.
It depend on what you're writing,
if you are going to use that chord.
But for now we'll just bypass
that seventh diminished chord [MUSIC] and we'll
just talk about the D minor,
the E minor and the A minor,
and what emotion that brings to you
as a songwriter, how do they feel?
What are they offering?
Let's just take a phrase that as it stands,
you don't really know what it means,
if I said to you,
I remember love, you
don't know if love was great or love was
tragic because I haven't used tone of
voice or body language or facial expressions.
We start to think about the tools of
songwriting is like the body language of the song.
The harmony is going to really bring an emotion to that.
Maybe you'll know what love felt like.
Let's just turn on the tonic chord C,
just to create some motion.
[MUSIC] and I'm going to go to the secondary chord,
which is D Minor.
[MUSIC] I remember love [MUSIC].
It doesn't feel as bright as the four chord,
but it feels like, okay, what does that feel like?
[MUSIC] I remember love, just like it,
just a slight minor feeling to that
and maybe it didn't go as planned.
But let's say that we're now going to go to the E minor,
which is the three minor chord.
[MUSIC].
I remember love, like what happened?
That just feels that E minor, by the way,
very underused chord for songwriters,
that three minor chord,
it just feels a little more complicated.
Maybe nostalgic.
It's a little darker.
What do you want to be able to say there?
What is love, feel like then?
[MUSIC] I remember love,
like it was that summer and they
said all we have is a week,
but it's going to be great and you are like, okay, am in.
You look back on it finally,
you knew it was going to be over,
but you're glad it happened.
Maybe it's that.
Then there's A minor which most songwriters would agree,
brings a definite sadness.
[MUSIC] I remember love,
love doesn't remember me, [LAUGHTER]
because that's an A minor chord.
You're going to attach your own emotion labels
to these chords and you're going to decide how they feel,
and of course, genre and
tempo are going to change everything.
Right now we're just dealing
clearly with writing a slower type of a song.
But what I want you to start to do is
make these emotional connotations
with these chords so that you
really use them well in your song.
Because if you're trying to say,
I remember love and it's devastating,
but you're not really
connecting with how the cord feels you could
end up with, [MUSIC].I remember love.
That feels like the sun was out and it was awesome.
That's the five chord.
If you really wanted to feel more emotionally
nuanced in more of a complication or it's darker,
is something wasn't great about it,
try that E minor, [MUSIC] The three
minor [MUSIC].I remember love.
Do you feel that, that bitter,
sweet nostalgia from that E minor chord?
However you start to define this for yourself,
I find it helpful for me to say,
perhaps it feels like
you're going to make your own connections,
but you're still going to start to build
a harmonic emotional vocabulary for
yourself as a songwriter so that instead of just
grabbing a chord because you know it's available to you,
you're going to grab it because you know,
that's how the song needs to feel right now.