Re: Confused Over Chords and Scales

Date: 11 Apr 2003 15:32:45 GMT
Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.songwriting
Size: 2,394 bytes

>Subject: Re: Confused Over Chords and Scales
>From: "Larry A. Tilander" email-address-deleted
>Date: 4/10/2003 9:18 PM Pacific Standard Time
>Message-id: <email-address-deleted>
>
>Gee, you'd have thought someone would write a book. A key usually
>consists of at least three chords, though AC-DC for instance use two
>because they aren't clever enough for three. >
Shouldn't that be 'clever enough for one' ? ;-)
On how to write a song?
Maybe it's better to ask that question of a successful writer (as in out there,
available to a buying market, showing up in the charts - the real charts as
opposed to the 'pay a fee and see where we place you on our charts) and who
competes, successfully, with the market in real time.
Danny and Sara come to mind.
Early in some writers 'careers' they believe that more is better/more
sophisticated/let's get out the Thesaurus', but as/if they progress they
understand the thinking behind K. I. S. S.
Not a dumbing down, but the ability to communicate with less rather than more.
All the wrapping up in a more and more convoluted chord structure is a clue to
'there is not much of a melody, so I have to do all this window dressing to
distract the listener,' and 'yes, parts of this lyric make no sense, but that's
just 'you' etc.
Write a nice melody.
Add some good lyrics (avoiding the popular sidestepping of 'well, not everyone
gets that bit/it means different things to different listeners/so 'you' don't
get it? with the added, quizzical lift of an eyebrow which is supposed to lead
you to the idea that 'he' of course 'gets it.')
Remember that often the line that people love to debate the meaning of is often
put there, as John Lennon said, "Because it rhymed!"
Just MO and don't bother to reply, you with the sneering remark of 'you write
country' (I also write rock, Christian, Pop and AC) or point out run on
sentencing and split infinitives and all the other put downs from the grammar
police.
Have a nice day.
Dolores I'm sure someone must have
>written all this down though. Try a music store. In the meantime,
>E-A-B is easy.
>
>Wonky Kernel wrote:
>> X-No-Archive: yes
>>
>> What does it mean when a song is written in the key of C? Does it mean
>> the song can only use those notes from the C major scale? That sounds
>> awfully boring. Can a song use more than one scale?
>>
>> Thanks!
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