“It’s not just finding interesting chords, it’s how you sequence them—like stringing together pearls on a string” —Jimmy Webb
Writers who are just starting out often end up building all their songs around the same notes, chords and keys—especially when they discover chord patterns that seem to work for them, or which they really like. As mentioned in #53, this can result in a collection of songs that all sound the same.
So don’t just use ordinary chords, be extra-ordinary. Keep each new song sounding fresh and different by creating plenty of variety in your chord progressions. There are several ways you can use unexpected chords to bring different textures and colors to your songs without losing harmonic cohesion. For example, you can surprise listeners by changing key during parts of your song—weaving together closely related keys that have common chords.
You can also use ‘pivot’ chords which enable you to move from the original key to the destination key by way of a chord that both keys share (e.g. inserting an E minor chord to help you move from C to A).
Then there’s ‘parallel’ key modulation which allows you to change the mode but maintain the same tonal center (for example, one section of your song may be in the key of E major and you then modulate to E minor). Distant keys can also be reached sequentially through closely related keys by using ‘chain modulation’ (for example C to G and then to D).
You can also use variant chords to make a chord progression harmonically interesting by simply replacing the default chords at any of the seven harmonic scale positions in your song.
Adding sixths, sevenths, ninths or suspended chords can also bring different flavors to the basic chord. For example, the verse of The Who’s ‘Pinball Wizard’ features a sequence of suspended fourth chords that resolve to their major counter-parts.
Major seventh chords can be very evocative and are common in most styles of pop music. Examples of tonic major seventh chords in hit songs include Labelle’s ‘Lady Marmalade’, Chic’s ‘Le Freak’, ‘One of These Nights’ by The Eagles, Bread’s ‘Make It With You’, ‘You’ve Made Me So Very Happy’ by Blood Sweat & Tears, and Chicago’s ‘Color My World’.
You can also enhance the feel of your song by using so-called ‘jazz chords’, such as thirds, fifths, sevenths, ninths, elevenths or thirteenths. In the 1920’s, the great George Gershwin reshaped popular music by taking jazz elements and certain harmonies and combining them with Tin Pan Alley pop in a way that hadn’t been done before.
In the modern era, ‘jazz chords’ such as ninths, elevenths and thirteenths are featured prominently in songs like Billy Joel’s ‘Just the Way You Are’, ‘Ebony and Ivory’ by Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder, and Mariah Carey’s ‘Love Takes Time’. Carole King’s classic song ‘I Feel the Earth Move’ even uses elevenths in a minor key!
Paul McCartney’s ‘Yesterday’—one of the most covered songs of all time—is a great example of how to make a simple tune harmonically interesting. The song doesn’t just feature ordinary majors, minors and sevenths; it also includes a mixture of fifths, thirds and seconds, and a couple of well-chosen variant chords. The progression in the verse is: F-Em7-A7-Dm-Bflat-C7-F-Dm-G-Bflat-F; while the chorus is: A11-A7-Dm-C-Bflat-Gm-C-F-A11-A7-Dm-C-Bflat-Gm-C-F.
“Even if chords are simple, they should rub,” says Jimmy Webb. “They should have dissonances in them.
“I’ve always used a lot of alternate bass lines, suspensions, widely spaced voicings, and different textures to get very warm chords,” explained Webb. “Sometimes you set up strange chords by placing a chord in front of it that’s going to set it off like a diamond in a gold band.”
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