How To Write Songs - Writing Killer Chord Progressions with a little Chromatic Magic!

Bring your chord progressions to life with some simple yet powerful techniques used by professional songwriters around the world!

In this video, we continue the discussion on taking a chromatic approach to your songwriting, starting with some basic principles before moving on to advanced music theory. Our main focus throughout this video is to examine the movement between chords, how to connect chord sequences and utilise all 12 notes. We also explore chromatic chord options, break down tritone substitutions and play around with walking bass lines.

Putting this all together will give you powerful and creative ways to construct your songs, allowing you to break free of predictable patterns and gain control over your stylistic choices.

Want a musical sketchpad with built-in music theory that helps you create beats, songs, and musical snippets? Check out HOOKTHEORY:

SECTIONS
00:00 - Intro
00:48 - Connecting Chords
01:57 - 'Dock Of The Bay'
03:13 - Playing the Blues
04:46 - Line Clichés
06:06 - Filling In The Gaps
12:22 - 'In Every Country'
14:30 - Tritone Substitution
17:27 - Walking Bass Lines
19:04 - Wrap-Up

MUSIC IN THIS VIDEO
'(Sitting On) The Dock of the Bay' by Otis Redding and Steve Cropper - Stax Records 1967
'James Bond Theme' by Monty Norman - 1962
'In Every Country' by Ben Romalis
'Little Black Mosquito' by Ben Romalis

ABOUT BEN

Ben's passion for music and creativity stretches across multiple disciplines and art-forms. He is 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.

Ben is also the Founder and Head Producer of SILAMOR STUDIOS, a boutique studio specialising in Composition for Film, TV and Interactive Media. He writes extensively across various instrumental and lyric-based genres and has been commissioned for major projects by Adobe, Cathay Pacific and Audible. He also currently releases original songs under the name SILAMOR.

Ben is passionate about education and has taught song and lyric writing as well as film composition for JMC Academy and the Australian Institute of Music. He also designs and regularly facilitates workshops on creative process and innovation.

Links to Ben's music are here:

The Green Mohair Suits

SILAMOR

SOME MORE FROM KEPPIE & 'HOW TO WRITE SONGS'

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[robertrussell]

Brilliant inspiring lesson, thank you so much. You and Keppie are so generous. Love my time with you both.

[newandreview]

Thank you. I was a hard rock player singer and writer in the seventies. I now understand, from this how the progressive rock masters Gilmore, Steve Howe, Hackett, Morse, etc got their amazing scope of playing from. Once again your teaching is not too dissimilar from learning a colour wheel and how the colours can be mixed into different hues and shades.

[karlpk]

Wow, what a great vid -- incredible clarity in your explanation. As someone who has written pop-y songs standard keys and passing chords, I can see how some of these chromatic shifts and 7flat 9s can really jazz up bridges and pre-choruses. You have a subscriber!!

[alaster]

Your very talented and bright, so much to learn, i have just started and I'm overwhelmed right now but at 62 I'm not sure i can afford the ten or more years to learn it all !! Still i am loving your brilliant way of teaching that ties it all together ...maybe learning the basics for a beginner is just as hard as learning the more advanced cords, and as they sound more expressive and colourful they could save lots of time in the long run provided i can learn the theory your teaching, many thanks for your sound advice and teaching👌

[liquidsolids]

Thanks for the inspiring and well thought-out lesson. I really enjoyed the explanation of the diminished–flat9 relationship. Looking forward to the next one!

[imannonymous]

Simply amazing and beautifully complex.
Yes, thank you for this inspiring and useful information, explained, perfectly

[migueldemaria]

Beautifully explained, really helpful stuff!

[jasonmathis]

Thanks. I tritone substitution as well as the gap/diminished concepts are definitely things I'll play around with. Appreciate the video.

[rajeevnaralasetty]

Oh man, he's a good teacher. This video definitely will add a really special spin to my playing. Thank u sir.

[btang]

This session is GOLD! You shared the whole concept eloquently and I got great take-aways from it. Little Black Mosquito is fun and a great tune! Cheers!

[therealjamesmarchant]

What a fantastic lesson. I learned a lot from this.

[pmross]

Thanks so much for a most excellent lesson! I’ve been working with your Part 1-chromatic melody lines by creating my own patterns and lines. Already finding them showing up in my improv. Plan to do the same with this one.

[jrgarciaole]

Great video! I always forget about chromatic connections between chords. It's definitely something I need to consider more often.

[rayafilms]

Nice video - I have an injury to my left hand (only two fingers work properly), but I can work with your shapes, which is not the case with most guitar books out there! Your mosquito song reminded me of Isaac Guillory's style.

[luisescobat]

Excellent lessons.
May I know what type of guitar are you playing for this video.

[planeofinertia]

Sometimes colorization comes from syncopation too... A sequencer can amaze ones prejudiced biases by seemingly move without every leaving the tonic, or using a droning tonal center?, perhaps you might speak to this in the future? Enjoyed your Black Mosquito example, and other selection's as wel... Bravo! ~ Inertia

[barrycoulter]

Nice… thx! Btw-is that an early 80’s fender princeton behind u on the left?

[musicproductionvideos]

Interesting that in the beginning, you always use a "full diminished" for the 7th chord... and it works nicely. Even better than the half dim (m7b5) that is actually the chord in a major scale. Later on when in a minor vibe... you do then use the half dim.... as the 2 chord. Also, are there some other options for filling the gaps with those great chromatic bass lines... but w/o the diminished feel under them? Thanks! Great playing!

[garycpriestley]

You speak another language (technical) but still, these clips are so calming and informative 😌

[Theactivepsychos]

I wish we could watch this without the voice on it. It’s great to just watch and hear the notes and chords without the technical stuff. It well distracts me. That said this is shit hot! Love it.