Golden Ticket: Embrace Your Mistakes (Ticket 72)

Every artist needs fresh inspiration and sometimes mistakes can be a source of new sounds and ideas. Now, more than ever, musicians and producers have the tools to scrub every error from a recording but the end result can be flat, dehumanised and boring. Whether we screw up when the tape is rolling or mess up in rehearsal and then decide to keep the results, sometimes throwing a spanner in the works is the smart thing to do.

Or at least leaving the spanner where you dropped it.

Mistakes can make the listener feel they are really THERE or that the vibe is laid back or 'real' and not cleaning up your tracks is a great way to achieve this. Keeping count-ins, or even flying them in from other takes: I Saw Her Standing There, Taxman, Revolution 1, or catching snippets of conversation: Revolution 1 (0:00), Level With Yourself (0:53), Little Wonder (0:39). It's the equivalent of professionally lighting your 'no make up selfie'.

Keeping mistakes and retakes (e.g. the start of Bob Dylan's 115th Dream) help to humanise the artist; doubly so if they end up swearing in frustration: Hey Jude (2:58), Louie Louie (0:53), Good Riddance (0:00).

Vocals entering early is another common 'keeper'. Robert Plant comes in a whole four bars early on the second verse of Stairway To Heaven (1:32)* and James Blunt's premature arrival in You're Beautiful (0:23) is so obvious it warranted it's own parody.*

Singers sometimes struggle to get the words out and that stuttering can be serendipitous if your song is about barely containable teenage rage (My Generation) or accepting your failings (You're Only Human – 3:19).

Mistakes in the recording process itself can be useful. Both Revolution 1 (3:23) and Let Me Roll It (4:22) have extra beats caused by bad tape editing. Flying In a Blue Dream opens with other-worldly voices (0:02) – the result of picking up radio interference during recording. My own cover of River of Suffering catches the sound of a police car passing outside the studio (3:09).

The Right Time For Mistakes

To conclude – mistakes should be embraced when you're looking for fresh inspiration, want to bring the listener closer, humanise the artist, or just communicate a sense of fun and not taking yourself too seriously. If the nature of the mistake reflects the subject material of the song that's even better. And who knows? They may even advance your career.

When Ella Fitzgerald performed Mack the Knife in Germany for a live album, she forgot the lyrics to one of the many verses. Undaunted, she started freestyling lyrics (1:55, 2:50, 3:44, 4:00) throwing in a killer Louis Armstrong impersonation along the way (3:16). That performance won her, not one but, two Grammys*.

Revolution 1 – The Beatles (0:00, 3:23)

Level With Yourself - David Bazan (0:53)

Little Wonder - David Bowie (0:39)

Bob Dylan's 115th Dream – Bob Dylan (0:00)

Louie Louie – The Kingsmen (0:53)

Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) – Green Day (0:00)

My Generation – The Who (0:05, 0:16, 0:30, 0:36, 0:41, 0:45, 1:20, 1:25, 1:58, 2:04).

You're Only Human (Second Wind) – Billy Joel (3:19)

Let Me Roll It - Paul McCartney and Wings (4:22)

Flying In a Blue Dream – Joe Satriani (0:02)

The River of Suffering – Matt Blick (3:09)

For an expanded playlist for this songwriting tip – go here

See also

Why you don't learn by your mistakes – lessons from a chimpanzee

Footnotes

Second verse of Stairway To Heaven

This is far from obvious but compare the chord sequences on 'verse 1' (0:52) and 'verse 2' (1:32) it's clear that Plant sings 'chorus 1' (1:19) once but Page plays it twice. Plant then sings verse 2 over one chorus progression and one verse progression then runs out of lyrics, leaving Page an extra four bars to fill in with some nifty fingerpicking. This 'mistake' would have been clearly obvious to all involved at once the reason it remained is – it's kind of cool!

Warranted it's own parody

You're Pitiful - "Weird Al" Yankovic (0:12) mercilessly mocks Blunt's entrance. In a similar way, someone on Sting's version of Shadows In The Rain (0:00) pays homage to bassist Joe Swift on Fingertips - Part 2 by Stevie Wonder (2:22) by repeated asking what key they're playing in.

Two Grammys

Ella Fitzgerald won Best Female Vocal Performance (Single) and Best Female Vocal Performance (Album) for Mack The Knife at the1960 Grammy Awards.

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Golden Ticket 4: Plant A Chorus; Grow An Intro

The beginning is the most important part of the work.

- Plato

Many songs begin by cycling through the verse chords till it's time for the vocals. This wastes valuable time that could be spent acquainting the listener with the main themes.

Instead of starting with minor elements start with the hooks – the chorus refrain, a riff, or a fill that stands out. Create a unique section that puts the hooks front and centre, so that when the listener hears the chorus for the first time it already seem familiar. This approach can work well for codas (outros) and instrumental sections too.

Skippable Theory

This concept is the heart of classical composition. Pop songs are modular – each section (verse, chorus) having little in common with the others - but classical music throughout most eras relies on the development of melodic themes that grow and evolve through the piece. For example, a vast amount of Beethoven's 5th Symphony (running over 30 minutes) could be said to derive from the first four notes.

Beatles Application

The Beatles exposure to this concept undoubtedly came through George Martin (a graduate of The Guildhall School of Music and Drama) who, as a producer, helped to arrange their early hits.

Four songs perfectly encapsulate this idea.

She Loves You has two hooks that appear in the title line of the chorus, 'She loves you' and 'yeah yeah yeah'. The intro is essentially the same as the chorus but replaces the swing line* ('with a love like that') with another title line (and throws in an extra 'yeah' for good measure).

Can’t Buy Me Love follows a similar pattern (though drawing it's source material from the bridge) – the title/swing/title/swing pattern of the bridge becomes title/title/title in the intro, and the underlying chord progression is altered to make this work.

Help! has a more complex development. Though the chorus is title/swing/title/title, each title line is different and the one-word title is partially obscured by the number of words in each line ('Help me if you can I'm feeling down'). The intro throws the hook into sharper relief by creating new lines that isolate the title ('Help! … I need somebody'). They also halve the length of the chord progression (two bars per chord instead of four) and, again, change the structure to title/title/title (with an extra 'Help!').

The chorus of I'm A Loser has title/swing/title/swing. The intro removes the second swing line but keeps the chords. So lyrically/melodically the intro cuts bars 3-4 of the chorus but harmonically (i.e. chords) cuts bars 5-6.


More Beatles Applications

The Beatles use of development isn't limited to mining the chorus for intro ideas.

The harmonica intro on Please Please Me is a mutated version of the verse melody. The outros of All My Loving and From Me To You contain 'reimagined' material from the main hooks and the coda of Here Comes The Sun restates a pattern from the bridge (1:29 and 2:58).

The verse melody of Piggies supplies the theme developed in the intro, solo and outro and similarly the connecting links in Blackbird (0:23, 1:42) are derived from the guitar parts in the verse and chorus.

In the pre chorus of She Loves You they reuse the title while George plays a chordal version of the 'yeah' hook as a fill (0:29) and create an entirely new outro section by using the 'yeah' hook three times over an altered version of the pre chorus chords (2:06).

Guest Artist – Passenger

You can hear this approach on the intro of Let Her Go by Passenger. An altered version of the chorus melody is played by piano, glockenspiel and acoustic guitar over a different chord sequence. When the chorus enters (0:26) the instruments revert to playing part of the chorus melody.

Suggested Application

• Examine your chorus for the hook lines (usually centred around the title). Strip away the rest of the vocal line and try to create a new section that throws the hook into sharper relief. Especially look at replacing swing lines with title lines.

• Look for instrumental hooks scattered throughout the song and experiment with ways of repeating them more often. If you can identify more than one try recombining them into a single section (as The Monkees do in the intro of I'm A Believer).

• Play a simplified, instrumental version of the vocal melody hook.

*swing line – Any line of a chorus that does not contain the hook/title

Further Reading

Ticket 9: Create new parts from melodic or chordal fragments
Ticket 53: Write a 'jazz-style' intro verse
Ticket 61: Introduce your song's most unusual element as soon as possible
Shane Adams: Writing A Killer Chorus


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Golden Ticket: Create Instrumental Hooks (Ticket 3)

The rhythm's in the guitars 

- Paul McCartney

Summary

Don't let the vocals be the only source of melody in your song. Share it around the instruments. Don't let every gap between singing be 'dead space'. Fill some with compelling instrumental melodies. Write a part that will make the listener break off from the vocal melody to 'sing' some other part (as Frank Sinatra literally did in his cover of Something (3:58 and 4:06).

Skippable Theory

One of the most common ways to introduce an instrumental hook is to build your song around a riff. (A riff, or ostinato, is a repeated musical figure). In rock and metal the riff is so central that it often displaces the vocal line as a the main element (think of how 'un-melodic' the chorus melodies of Smoke On The Water, (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction or Walk This Way are compared to their riffs.

A second way is to write a fill or lick (which usually occurs once per song, or once per section) in holes left by the vocal melody.

A hook is an intrinsic part of the song and usually the most popular part. Compare the original and unplugged versions of Layla. When Eric Clapton replaces the opening lead guitar melody with a few strummed chords the heart of the song is lost.

Beatles Application

The Beatles generally preferred chord progressions over riffs, but early covers like Twist And Shout (0:00), Money (That’s What I Want) (0:00) and Words Of Love (0:00) had strong, simple riffs that paved the way for classics like I Feel Fine (0:06), Hey Bulldog (0:00) and Paperback Writer (0:06). A riff doesn't automatically have to open the song – think of the choruses of Helter Skelter (0:42 and 0:45) and Get Back (0:43*), and simple riffs derived from underlying chords can be effective, as in the case of Ticket To Ride (0:00) and In My Life (0:00). A riff doesn't have to be played on guitar. The Beatles riffed on harmonica (Love Me Do) (0:00), piano (Lady Madonna) (0:00) and horns (Got To Get You Into My Life) (0:11 and 1:05).

The Beatles created some memorable instrumental fills from fragments of the vocal line (see ticket 4) but others were 'original' – like the breaks that end the choruses of Here Comes The Sun (0:23), and Let It Be (1:41*) and the chord-based fills that punctuate the verses in Please Please Me (0:12 and 0:19) and Yer Blues (0:24).

Counter melodies are another source of hooks, ranging from simple descending notes on piano in Hey Jude (0:51) and guitar in Help! (0:01) to the elegant string lines in Eleanor Rigby (0:04, 0:31, 1:08 and 1:21).

It's no surprise that a supremely melodic band produced so many 'hummable' solos; simple - And I Love Her (0:00), rhythmic - While My Guitar Gently Weeps (0:00), harmonically complex - Michelle (1:25) and technically challenging - And Your Bird Can Sing (0:51).

Lastly they highlighted the hooks with unusual instrumentation and recording techniques; mellotron and swarmandal - Strawberry Fields Forever (0:00 and 1:18), french horn - For No One (0:49), piccolo trumpet - Penny Lane (1:09), harpsichord – Piggies (0:00 and 1:06), sped-up piano - In My Life (1:28) and sped-up piano/guitar - A Hard Day’s Night (1:19).

Featured Song And Recommended Artists

In I'm A Believer by The Monkees there are two distinct hooks; on organ (0:28) and electric guitar (0:46). These are highlighted in three ways; by occurring where there are no vocals, by the instruments being kept low in the mix at all other times and by being put 'front and centre' – introduced together at the opening of the song (0:00). The electric piano solo (1:37) is another memorable hook, it's sound buried in the mix till that point.

All rock bands employ riffs but Led Zeppelin, AC/DC and Black Sabbath are masters of the art. And anything can be a hook, from drum fills (In The Air Tonight (3:40) - Phil Collins) and intros (Run To The Hills (0:00) – Iron Maiden) to bass lines (Another One Bites The Dust (0:00) and Under Pressure (0:00) by Queen), from keyboard lines (The Final Countdown (0:13) - Europe and Tainted Love (0:03) - Soft Cell) to horn parts (Sir Duke (0:00) – Stevie Wonder and Baker Street (0:23) - Gerry Rafferty). Unusual combinations work well like the sampled strings on Bitter Sweet Symphony (0:17) by The Verve and the electro theremin on The Beach Boys Good Vibrations (0:25).

Reader Application

• If you are someone who primarily creates melodies by singing, try giving a melody line to an instrument instead of writing lyrics for it. Eric Clapton's lead guitar melody on Wonderful Tonight (0:57) could have become a 'chorus' e.g. “You look so good, You look so nice, You look so Won-der-ful To-night”... but thankfully it didn't! Don't automatically 'give' every melody you compose to the vocalist.

• If you are an instrumentalist write some riffs! You may have to simplify your chord progressions or your vocal lines to make room, but it will be worth it.

• Experiment with fills that are not just 'noodling' – melody is not exclusively the singers domain.

• If you have some 'chops' on your instrument and are prone to overplaying when you write try humming a riff, or restrict yourself to playing guitar or keyboard with one finger.

• Once you have a hook consider how to make it stand out. Having other instruments drop out is one way. An unusual instrument or sound is another possibility. Indeed trying out an unusual instrument can often inspire you to create a hook in the first place.

*timings are from the Let It Be album version

Further reading

Ticket 3: Create Instrumental Hooks
Gary Ewer: Exploring a Deeper Definition of a Song Hook

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Golden Ticket: Chromatic Descent Starting From The Root (Ticket 17)

Summary

Put a descending chromatic counter melody within your chord progression, starting from the root note of the chord.

Skippable Theory Lesson

Play the notes E - D# - D - C# - C. This is a descending chromatic line.
Play G and B above each note of the descending chromatic line. This puts the idea into an E minor chord.
Play G# and B above each note of the descending chromatic line. This puts the idea into an E major chord.

Beatles Application

The Beatles probably learned this concept from Lenny Welch's 1962 single A Taste Of Honey (0:14) which they covered the following year. There the line is F# - F - E - D# within the chords F#m - F#m (maj7) - F#m7 - B major. This same basic sequence is extended in And Your Bird Can Sing (0:36) F#m - F#m (maj7) - F#m7 - B7 - D and Something (0:27) Am - Am (maj7) - Am7 - D9 - F.

In the examples above the first three notes of the melodic line remain on the same chord but putting the first four notes on the same chord yields this pattern from Cry Baby Cry (0:11) Em - Em (maj7) - Em7 - Em6 - C7 and a similar one from I Me Mine (0:31) Am - Am (maj7) – Am7 - Am6 - Fmaj7. Michelle (0:00) extends this pattern to six descending notes (F - E - Eb - D - Db - C) and six chords Fm - Fm (maj7) - Fm7 - Fm6 - Bbm - C.

Every use of the line in a major key is harmonised differently by The Beatles. The most straight forward is the verse of Something (0:05) where the four note line is placed over a C - Cmaj7 - C7 - F progression. The same line is harmonised as C - Cmaj7 - Gm7 - A7 in Sun King (0:58) and in the key of F it appears as F - Fmaj7 - F7 - Gm in Strawberry Fields Forever (0:00) and F - Caug - Fm7 - Fm6 in Fixing A Hole (0:06).

Guest Artist: Frank Sinatra

Rodgers and Hart were early proponents of this progression using C - Cmaj7 - C7 - C6 in the refrain of their 1937 Broadway hit My Funny Valentine which was later covered by Frank Sinatra (0:02). A mere two years later Sinatra sang over the minor version of the changes on the Harry James And His Orchestra recording of All Or Nothing At All by Lawrence/Altman (0:09). And in 1969 he tackled both in his signature song My Way (0:07 and 0:18).

Application

Though the simplest application is to insert the line into one chord there are many other possibilities. In C major for instance a C - B - Bb - A line over a Cmaj chord would create a C - Cmaj7 - C7 - C6 progression, but you could harmonise the same line with C - G/B - Gm/Bb - F/A or even C - Em - Bb – F. In the key of Am an alternative progression might be Am - E/G# - G - D/F#. Try adding different notes around the line and see what you can come up with.

As well as experimenting with the chords you can use different inversions. Try placing the moving line at the top of the chord - as in the verse of Something (0:05), the middle of the chord - Strawberry Fields Forever (0:00), or the bottom of the chord - Got To Get You Into My Life (0:21). George Harrison's solo song Try Some Buy Some – takes this last option to extremes Em - Em/D# - Em/D - Em/C# - Em/C - Em/B - B7 followed by Am - Am/G# - Am/G - Am/F# - Am/F - Am/E - F#dim (0:00 and 0:13).

Don't just use the minor variation when playing in a minor key (eg. Am in the key of Am) as George does in I Me Mine. The progression, due to it's chromatic nature, works just as well on the ii, iii or vi intervals of a major key. I’ll Be Back is in A major but the progression is Bm - Bm (maj7) - Bm7 - C#m (1:03) – starting on the ii chord. And Your Bird Can Sing is in D major but the progression appears on F#m – the iii chord. And Something's second use of the progression (0:27) starts on Am (the vi of C major). So explore what you can do on those intervals too.

See the full list of songs using this ticket here.

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Golden Ticket: Keep The Tonics Apart Till The End (Ticket 74)

How to write a McCartney-style flowing, non-repeating, melody

I'm going to interrupt the regular (ha!) Hey Jude posts to look at one way McCartney manages to write such memorable, yet non-repetitive melodies.

In the musical language the tonic note and the tonic chord function as a 'full stops' [US – 'period'] in the music. The effect is particularly strong when they happen at the same time. Here are three examples (all verses) where McCartney cleverly uses the tonic and it's chord sparingly and delays them occurring together till the end of the section. In this way McCartney uses our inbuilt longing for resolution to keep us hooked till the very end.

Hey Jude

Hey Jude starts on the tonic chord (F) with the melody moving from 5th to 3rd (Hey Jude). Landing on the third is just enough to give an open ended feel and keep a sense of forward motion. Try singing Hey Jude on C to F (5 to 1) or A to F (3 to 1). Lands with a thud doesn't it?

Next comes a tonic NOTE, the high F on sad SONG AND make but far from resolving this sits very unstably on top of a C7 chord.

The next time we hear the tonic CHORD the melody descends through D C Bb to A (a 6th to the 3rd) on Be - te - e - er. Again landing on the 3rd feels unfinished.

There are some 'blink and you miss them' tonic NOTES over a Bb chord (let HER inTO) before we land on the tonic CHORD again but this time the word HEART is sung on the 5th.

Another fleeting F, this time low (THEN you can start), before finally melody and harmony unite on the tonic to make it BettER. But then we're off again on another delayed gratificational mystery tour as we launch into the next section.

Mother Nature's Son

Here we're in the key of D.

Line one starts and ends on the tonic chord but the melody starts and ends on the 5th.

On MOTHER naTURes son we get the (high) tonic NOTE over the Bm (vi) chord giving us a partial resolution.

Fast moving 3rd, 5th and 6th's appear over the tonic CHORD in line three (all day long), though the tonic chords are D/A's and feel slightly less resolved in themselves than straight D major chords.

We conclude with high D notes over a D major (tonic) chord on EVeryONE.

Again Paul is delaying the point that the tonic chord and tonic note coincide to the very end of the section.

The Long and Winding Road

Here we're in the key of Eb major.

Though the second note is a high Eb (the LONG and) we start on a Cm chord (vi).

By the time we hear our first fleeting tonic CHORD (Eb maj) the melody lands on a Bb (the 5th) (that LEADS to your door) this only lasts for 2 beats anyway before twisting round with an Eb7 (I7) giving the false impression that we're about to change key to Ab major*.

The next time we hear the tonic NOTE (will neVER disappear) it's sitting unstably on a Gm chord (iii). This idea repeats exactly on alWAYS leads me.

Between these twin motifs the melody descends C Bb G F Eb on the word BEFORE. This time the low tonic note is sitting on top of a Db/Eb chord, which functions in exactly the same way as the Eb7 chord - pulling strongly towards an Ab major chord.

Finally, as I have written about before, the melody ascends directly to the tonic note C C D Eb Eb (lead me to YOUR DOOR) at the same time as the chords move in a very strong 'circle of fourths' movement** (Fm Bb7 Eb) towards the tonic chord.

Practical Application

Many melodies never 'get off the ground' because they are rooted (literally) to the ground, returning to the 'root note' over the 'root chord' again and again through their course. With this method of melody writing, both tonic note and tonic chord can appear - but not together (or at least for any length of time). Keeping them apart till the very end of the section builds suspense.

*This is the same V of IV move recognisable in the link between the verse and the bridge in Hey Jude.

**This is often referred to as circle of fifths which is something of a misnomer as the chords are travelling BACKWARDS through the circle of fifths, thus from Fm we move up a fourth to Bb7 and then up a fourth again to Eb major.

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Golden Ticket: The Rising 5th (Ticket 32)

Here at long last is a full discussion of the rising 5th ticket in downloadable podcast form!

or download here.

Here's a full list of all the songs used in the podcast

Minor 

James Bond Theme from Dr No – intro – Monty Norman
Savoy Truffle - chorus - The Beatles
Besame Mucho (cover) – verse - The Beatles (Velázquez/Skylar)
Secret Agent Man – intro - Johnny Rivers
Blackberry Way – verse – The Move
The Mission - 1st verse and solo – Queensryche
Brian Wilson (Album Version) – coda - Barenaked Ladies
Love Me And Leave Me – intro - The Seahorses
White America – intro - Eminem
Chains – intro/verse - k.s. Rhoads
Hey Bulldog – chorus - The Beatles
The Fool On The Hill – end of chorus - The Beatles
Cry Me A River – verse – Arthur Hamilton
Hangar 18 - intro and verse - Megadeth
Glass Onion - instrumental break - The Beatles
Better For Me If I'd Never Been Born -end of chorus – Matt Blick
Ain't Misbehavin – mid 8 - Fats Waller

Major

I'll Be On My Way - intro – The Beatles
Don't Ever Change (cover) – intro/bridge - The Beatles (Goffin/King)

Take Good Care Of My Baby (cover) - intro – The Beatles (Goffin/King)

From Me To You – bridge into verse – The Beatles
Ask Me Why – bridge - The Beatles
All Or Nothing At All – mid 8 – Altman/Lawrence
Raining In My Heart – verse - Buddy Holly
The Rain Song – instrumental break - Led Zeppelin
Isolation – intro/verse - Plastic Ono Band
(Just Like) Starting Over – intro – John Lennon
Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive – Bing Crosby And The Andrews Sisters
Because – intro, verse - Dave Clark Five
Kind of a Drag – intro/chorus - The Buckinghams
It's a Laugh – chorus - Hall & Oates
Old Before I Die - end of verse – Robbie Williams
It's All Been Done – pre chorus/bridge - Barenaked Ladies
Maybe This Time (from Cabaret) – verse – Kander/Ebb

Major and Minor

Losing My Mind (from Follies) verse/bridge – Stephen Sondheim
Mis-Shapes – Pulp

thanks to Nancy Rost, Cliff Middleton, Thomas Spademan, John Argentiero, Rick Amorphis, Rod 'Downburst' Johnson & The Songwriting Secrets of the Beatles by Dominic Pedler

More tickets to write and golden ticket posts

Other versions -
UK The Songwriting Secrets ... (Kindle)
USA The Songwriting Secrets ... (Hardback)
USA The Songwriting Secrets... (Kindle)

Golden Ticket: The Seven Drop

How do you use the 'seven drop' (Ticket 60) in one of your songs? Easy! Just start on the root chord and then immediately descend to the chord built on the seventh tone of the scale. In minor keys this is nothing special - it just gives you Em to D or Am to G etc - but in major keys things get interesting...

the 'correct' I – VII change in the key of C would be

C to B dim (B D F)

 or

C to B half dim 7 aka Bm7b5 (B D F A)

But that's a weird jazzy chord and many rock/pop guitarists don't like it (or even know it!).

So the Beatles tended to make things more complex by using simpler chords that don't fit in the key, like

C B7 (B D# F# A)

I VII7

or

C Bm7 (B D F# A)

I vii7

(out of key notes are in bold)

So we get progressions like I'm So Tired

      A  G#7   D                    E7
      I   VII7   IV                  V7
I'm so tired I haven't slept a wink


or Sexy Sadie

G          F#7      Bm
I           VII7      iii
    Sexy Sadie,          what have you done?

The verse of Martha My Dear doesn't have chord changes per se as it's made up of several interweaving lines but the progression that's implied is

Eb                                    D5           Gm
I                                       VII5          iii
Martha my dear though I spend my days

There's more going on than meets the eye (ear?) tonality wise here, because the root note and key here is actually F, but I'll save that for the next post. For now all we need to know is that our ear assumes the initial Eb is the root until we get to the end of the phrase.

Another example is Radiohead's Karma Police (directly inspired by Sexy Sadie) where the chorus has the same chord progression as part of Sadie's verse


Sexy Sadie 

C                      D                 G      F#7
IV                    V                  I       VII7
    You made a fool of everyone


Karma Police

C              D             G      F#
IV            V              I       VII
     This is what you get


The most famous/obvious example of this is Yesterday

F               E7sus4            A7                         Dm
I                VII7sus4         III7                        vi
Yesterday             all my troubles seemed so far


It's interesting that almost all these examples are from the beginning of the verses. So you could say the ticket works most effectively as a means of pulling the rug out from listeners the second they set foot in(on?) the song.

And also, whether we're going on a brief trip to a new key or heading for a home we didn't realise we had, the next step is often the same. Start on a major chord, drop a semitone to the seventh and then drop a fifth to the third degree of the scale.

     I – VII – III
eg C - B   -   E or Em

Next time we'll pause to look at some essential background work. What key is Martha My Dear in, and where exactly is the 'one'?

Golden Ticket: Madrigalism

In my post about The Long And Winding Road I introduced a rather abstract songwriting tip (Ticket 49) which was to have the music reflect the theme of the lyrics in some overarching, profound or hidden way. At the simplest level this is called word (or text) painting or, in broader terms, madrigalism.

Here's a few exploratory thoughts on this with examples from other artists.

Word Painting

The simplest way to make your music reflect your lyrics is word painting - including a few notes or a sound effect that illustrates your lyrics at that point. Think of the keyboard part that follows "visible shivers running down my spine" (1:16) in Watching the Detectives (Elvis Costello) or the cymbal/bell/chime after “sends shivers down my spine” (2:05) in Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen). Pink Floyd have a little bell sound after "Just a little pin-prick" (2:49) in Comfortably Numb  and A Day In The Life's “woke up, got out of bed” is preceded by the sound of an alarm clock.

All of these could be classed as icing on the cake and are usually little 'post production touches' (with the exception of Paul's alarm call which was on the original track).

Groove, Timbre, Range

More fundamental to the start of the songwriting process is the letting the lyrics dictate the whole groove of the song.

Iron Maiden give two good examples with the galloping rhythm of Run To The Hills (0:48 onwards) and The Trooper (strangley enough also 0:48 onwards) accompanying tales of Crimean calvary battles and Native American warriors.

Trains also suggest a particular groove as Elvis Presley (Mystery Train) and Johnny Cash (Folsom Prison Blues) can testify. And lyrics can even suggest the timbre and range. Spinal Tap found the perfect way to accompany Big Bottom – play it on THREE bass guitars!

Mood

Next, what about ways to embody the mood? Eminem's Lose Yourself captures the claustrophobic battle against obscurity by a constantly pushing rhythm that never escapes the driving D bass note.

Private Investigations (Dire Straits) on the other hand is about a world weary private detective. The track is painfully slow and the always descending, always modulating chord progression (0:53) is like puzzle to be solved.

One Season by The Roches is a tale of love gone sour. Though the tune starts rationally enough but, as the relationship becomes more dysfunctional, so do the backing vocal harmonies (starting around 2:23).

In my own song [Everything Is] Broken I tried to reflect brokenness not only in the lyrics (which are full of broken things from coffee cups and plumbing, to peace treaties and marriages) but in broken vocal phrases and odd time signatures with missing beats. Even the very last word of the song is missing.

Melody Shape

More fundamental than mood or groove, the lyrics can shape the very melody that supports them. The ever rising "Love lift us up where we belong" in the Nitzsche/Sainte-Marie/Jennings hit is one technique that's been around at least since Handel wrote “Every valley shall be exalted...”, but one of the smartest examples must be Roger's and Hammerstein's Do-Re-Mi from The Sound Of Music.

Everyone knows the chorus

Doe- a deer, a female deer
Ray- a drop of golden sun
Me- a name I call myself
Far- a long long way to run
Sew- a needle pulling thread
La- a note to follow so
Tea- a drink with jam and bread
That will bring us back to do oh oh oh

but not everyone knows the context. The song is about musicians practicing their scales. So we have a song about scales using the solfège words for the intervals (Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti-Do) where you sing the very intervals you are singing about. Genius.

Chord Progression, Structure

That same kind of literalism can shape the chord progression or even the overall structure. Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen) describes the chord progression he is playing in the lyrics - “It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth, the minor fall, the major lift” just as Cole Porter had done 40 years earlier in Every Time We Say Goodbye, "How strange the change from major to minor". Natasha Beddingfield went for a similar, though less accurate, effect in These Words “Threw some chords together, the combination D-E-F”. (The chords are actually Bb/D, C/E and F but that doesn't quite sing as well!). At the subtle end of the spectrum you have The Long And Winding Road's weary trek to the 'home' chord. At the other end the song becomes a musical in-joke as in 10CC's, I Bought a Flat.

I bought a flat
Diminished responsibility
You're de ninth person to see
To be suspended in a seventh
Major catastrophe
It's a minor point but gee
Augmented by the sharpness of your
See what I'm going through
Ay to be with you
In a flat by the sea


and Matching Mole's (Robert Wyatt) Signed Curtains doesn't so much break the fourth wall, as demolish the whole house.

Opposites

Lastly, you can deliberately do the opposite of what your lyrics say. This works best in humour songs or when it serves to reveal something about the subject. Gilbert and Sullivan's pirates bellowing about how quiet and sneaky they are in With Cat-Like Tread (The Pirates of Penzance) only confirms how useless they are. And Mary Poppins, who sings lullabies entitled “Stay Awake” and slides up bannisters, natural goes UP when singing “a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go DOWN”.

Conclusion and application

The great thing about this approach is can work in several ways and be employed at different stages of writing and recording.

First it can function as a way to beat the blank page. Rather than just strumming aimlessly with a set of lyrics or a title, ask yourself what kind of groove would suit the concept, what instrumentation, what tempo? Or what melodic shape would the key individual lines naturally take?

The method can also serve to function as what some authors call a 'spine' for your story (or song). Some key idea that give your song a sense of internal logic or identity. Whether it's plain to the listener or not isn't so important. Some things are obvious, some things only reveal themselves on the 10th (or 100th listen) but they do give a unity to the song.

Finally you can just use it as inspiration to add little finishing touches to a mix with sound effects or momentary overdubs.

So to recap, cheat sheet style, consider working on

• Word Painting/sound effects – 'shivers', alarm clocks
• Groove/Timbre/Range – Horses, Trains
• Mood – Lose Yourself, Private Investigations
• Melody Shape – Do Re Mi
• Chord Progression/Structure – Hallelujah, Every Time We Say Goodbye
• Opposites – A Spoonful Of Sugar

Know any other examples of these techniques?
Have you used them successfully in your own songwriting?
Leave me a comment!


Thanks to everyone on FAWM, MattBlick.com and Twitter who suggested ideas and songs for this post, especially Ashley Chittock, Cheekmeat, Rod Johnson, Nancy Rost
, David Hendricks, Thomas Spademan of Cookiefinger and, of course Wikipedia.

The Minor 4 Chord (pt.5)

From the 1 to the m4

Read part one here

Lennon & McCartney first used this chord progression (E to Am in the key of E) in the verse of That Means A Lot. The song was intended for the Help album but didn’t make the grade and was given to P.J. Proby (you can hear the Beatles version on Anthology 2).

When Rubber Soul came along they had another stab at using (it on the verse to What Goes On where the progression move from an E7 to an Am (I7, iv)

The E7 other day I saw you
As I Am walked along the road
But E7 when I saw him with you
I could Am feel my future fold

The results were similarly underwhelming.


Finally they hit gold with the bridge of She Came in Through the Bathroom Window.

A Didn’t anybody Dm tell her? A Didn’t anybody Dm see?


This little change also crops up in the chorus of The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill –

C Hey G Bungalow C Bill, Fm what did you C kill, Fm Bungalow C Bill (I, V, I, iv, I)

The song then momentarily transposes to A and repeats the same progression.


That kind of wraps up my series on this unusual but very Beatlish chord, except that I've found about 5 more songs that I missed the first time around. You can find them and more here.

And in the meantime keep putting this 'out of key' chord into your own songs until it becomes a natural option.


Read the other posts about the minor 4 chord here
1: Introduction
2: Major 4 to minor 4
3: Minor 6 to minor 4
4: Minor 2 to minor 4
5: 1 to minor 4 

The Minor 4 Chord (pt.4)

From the m2 to the m4

(Read part one here)

This a very Lennon change – he used the exact same progression three times to great effect, most famously in

Nowhere Man

Em Making all his Gm Nowhere plans for D nobody
(and all the other lines that end the verses)

(ii, iv, I)

It also crops up in the verses of

Across The Universe

Po- Em -ssessing and ca- Gm -ressing me. D Jai…
In- Em -citing and in- Gm -viting me. D Limitless…

(ii, iv, I)

and With The Beatles track

All I’ve Got to Do

F#m Call you on the phone
& you’ll come running home
Yeah Am that’s all I E gotta do.

(ii, iv, I)


Other songs

The progression dates back to the first album where it made an appearance on Do You Want To Know A Secret, in the verse just after “Do you promise not to tell”

G#m Gm Woh F#m oh Am oh E Closer…

(iii, biii, ii, iv/bVI, I)

McCartney plays a C under the Am making it sound even more complex than it already is.

He covers his tracks in a similar way (on piano this time) on the intro to Honey Pie. Instead of playing Am - Cm - G (which would be Nowhere Man transposed) he plays Am/D - Cm – G.

Em She A6 was a Am/D working girl Cm north of England G way

(vi, II, ii/V, iv, I)

As well as appearing in the verse of You Won’t See Me the bridge has the following progression


Bm Time after Dm time you re- D dim fuse to even A listen

ii, iv, iv dim, I (key of A)

A final alteration comes from the chorus of She Loves You (also in the key of G) where, instead of approaching the iv (Cm) from the ‘in key’ Am he uses a major (A7).

She Em loves you yeah, yeah, yeah
She A7 loves you yeah, yeah, yeah
With a Cm love like that
You D7 know you should be G glad

(vi, II, iv, V, I)

Try using this chord pattern in your songwriting. here's the progression in some common keys (the last chord is the root). Keep 'em in your songwriting tool box...

Em - Gm - D

Bm - Dm - A

F#m - Am - E

Dm - Fm - C

Am - Cm - G

1: Introduction
2: Major 4 to minor 4
3: Minor 6 to minor 4
4: Minor 2 to minor 4
5: 1 to minor 4 

The Minor 4 Chord (pt3)

The Beatles were masters of slipping chords that didn’t fit the key into their songs. Chord like the minor 4 (iv). Last time we were looking at progressions where they went from the major 4 (IV) to the minor 4 (iv) like this change from In My Life (the iv is Dm)

There are A places E I remember all my D life Dm though A some have changed

25 or 6 to 4

Now lets look at the second most common change – from the minor 6 to the minor 4 (vi to iv)

Ask Me Why (Verse) -  vi, iv, II7, V, I (Key of E)

That C#m I, I, I, I, I should Am never, never, never be F#7 blue B

She Loves You (verse) - I vi iv, V (in G)

She G loves you and you know that can’t be Em bad,

She Cm loves you & you know you should be D glad

Any Time At All (verse) -  I, iii/VII, vi, iv/bVI (in D)

D If you need some F#m/C# body to love,

Bm Just look into my Gm/Bb eyes

I Will (verse tag, as a weird passing chord) - I7, IV, V, vi, iv, I (in F)

F7 Sing it Bb loud so C7 I can Dm hear you Bbm F

The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill (verse) - III, V, vi, iv (in C)

He’s the E all-American G bullet-headed Am Saxon mother’s Fm son

The Night Before (verse) - vi, iv, vi, iv, I (in D)

Bm Now today I Gm find,

Bm You have changed your Gm mind D treat me…

The iv resolves to the I chord in every song except Ask Me Why & You Won't See Me..

For a modern example check out If It Kills Me by Jason Mraz. The Chorus progression (in D) is I, iii, vi, iv

D Well all I really want to do is

F#m love you, a kind much closer than

Bm friends use, but I still can't say it after

Gm all we've been through

Once again your homework is simple. Try to get this chord progression into one of your songs!

Related Posts:

1: Introduction
2: Major 4 to minor 4
3: Minor 6 to minor 4
4: Minor 2 to minor 4
5: 1 to minor 4 

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The Minor 4 Chord (pt.2)

From the 4 (IV) to the minor 4 (iv)

Last time we had an introduction to the minor 4 chord (iv), now lets take a look at where the Beatles use it in their own songs. First a couple in the key of A


In My Life – verse I, V, IV, iv, I

There are A places E I remember all my D life Dm though A some have changed


You Won’t See Me – verse I, I7, IV, iv, I

A we have A7 lost the D time that Dm was hard to A find


I Call Your Name is in the key of E and the end of the verse goes II, IV, iv, I

I never F#7 weep at night A I Am call your name E7


When I’m Sixty Four is in C – verse I, I7, IV, iv, I,

C If I ‘d been out till quarter to three C7 would you lock the F door
Will you still Fm need me C will you still…

(Though they sound nothing like each other the sequence in When I'm Sixty Four is exactly the same as You Won’t See Me)


Hello Goodbye is also in C – Chorus IV, iv, I

I don’t know F why you say good - Fm/Ab – bye I say hel—C – lo

(Notice the iv here is in the first inversion, with the Ab in the bass rather than the F. It’s still the minor 4 though).


Lastly Blackbird is in G – verse IV, iv, I

All you C life Cm G/B you were only waiting for this moment


(Almost all McCartney songs! Hmmm….)

There are a few other songs that hint at this change – the chord pops up in Dear Prudence’s main guitar pattern, as a passing chord in Her Majesty (thought it may be a mistake) and on the ‘unreleased’ What’s The New Mary Jane?

They used it. So can You!

This progression has cropped up a lot post-Beatles too. Oasis used it (surprised? – me neither) in Don’t Look Back In Anger

F so I start a revo Fm lution in my C head
Cos you F said the brains I Fm had went to my C head


And Green Day’s - Wake Me Up When September Ends is another example.

C wake me up Cm when September G ends


Next time we’ll look at songs where the Beatles use the minor 4 (iv) alongside the minor 6 (vi).

1: Introduction
2: Major 4 to minor 4
3: Minor 6 to minor 4
4: Minor 2 to minor 4
5: 1 to minor 4 

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70+ Songwriting Tips From The Beatles
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The Minor 4 Chord (pt.1)

"your song sounds like this"

Time to take a look at a classic Beatles Chord progression. One of the interesting things that Lennon & McCartney did in a majority of their songs was use at least one chord that didn’t belong in the key.

The minor 4 for instance (written like this – iv).

1 Minute theory lesson

(skip it if you know what a minor 4 is)

In major key you have 3 major chords built on the 1st 4th and 5th degrees (I, IV, V) of the scale.

In C that would give you C F G.

In the key of G that would give you G C D.

These all fit together rather nicely (you could even say blandly). But what many Beatles songs do is introduce the minor 4 chord (iv) as well as the major 4 (IV) so you’d have C F G and Fm in the key of C or G C D and Cm in the key of G. These particular minor chords don’t really ‘fit’ and sound a bit ‘spicy’.

1 minute musical history lesson

The Beatles didn’t invent this. They probably stole it from the rock n’roll subgenre called doo-wop. Here’s a typical doo-wop chord sequence

G  G7  C  Cm
G  D7  G  D7

You can hear the progression from IV to iv to I in the bridge of Devil In Her Heart

C I’ll take chances  
Cm for romance is  
G so important to me

and it also pops up right on the end of the fade out of Chains.

A word from Macca

Paul McCartney called going from C & F to Fm “the normal thing [to do]” 
(Many Years From Now p122).

So try using it this week. You don’t want your songs to be abnormal do you?

(Here’s the chord in some popular keys)

E A Am B 

G C Cm D

A D Dm E

C F Fm G

D G Gm A

Read pt 2 - major 4 to minor 4
Pt 3 - minor 6 to minor 4
Pt 4 - minor 2 to minor 4 
Pt 5 - 1 to minor 4

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70+ Songwriting Tips From The Beatles
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