The Foundations of Song Writing
So You Want to Write a Song
It's pretty easy to write a song if you follow some basic principles. You can see a visual representation of those principles using your Fretmeister and here is some theory if you would also like to understand it a bit better.
There are four aspects to writing a song. The lyrics, the rhythm, the chord progression and the melody.
Fretmeister helps you with the chords and the melody.
There are four aspects to writing a song. The lyrics, the rhythm, the chord progression and the melody.
Fretmeister helps you with the chords and the melody.
Choose a Key and see the Chords
You can use the key slide to explore which chords you want to use for your song. You might choose a key because you already know the chords (shown in the small chord windows), or because it's a pitch that suits your singing voice, or just to try something new.
There are seven chords available in each key* (4 major and 3 minor) and each chord in the key is built on one of the 7 notes of the scale (a scale is a sequence of the seven notes of the key, played in order).
There are seven chords available in each key* (4 major and 3 minor) and each chord in the key is built on one of the 7 notes of the scale (a scale is a sequence of the seven notes of the key, played in order).
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For example, if you select the key of A you can see that you will be choosing from the chords A, D, E, and G#dim* (Major chords) and Bm, C#m and F#m (minor chords). Each has a Roman numeral (I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi and VIIº) depending on where in the scale it is. Why bother with Roman numerals? Surely the name of the chord says it all. Actually, it's very useful because the Roman numerals show common patterns that songs in all keys follow.
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Chord Progressions
So now you can see the chords you need to decide which ones to use and in which order. You can do it by ear, playing around with them to work out what you like the sound of but there are some common chord progressions that seem to work well and are used in vast numbers of songs.
This is where the Roman numerals come in because, no matter what key you want to use, the same progressions seem to work.
I-IV-V is by far the most common chord combination. In the key of A this gives the chords A, D and E. Play them together and you will hear how well they work. Now choose a different key on your Fretmeister and play the I, IV and V chords for that key. Although there are literally millions of songs that have the same progression, every song sounds different because they have different rhythms and melodies.
Don't limit yourself, there are loads of possible chord progressions. Here are some more of the common ones. Have a play around and see if any suit your song. Try them in different keys as well.
I-vi-IV-V, I-V-vi-IV, I-ii-V-I, I-IV-vi-V, I-IV-V-I, I-vi-ii-V, vi-IV-I-V, I-vi-iii-VII, I-IV-I-I, IV-IV-I-I, V-IV-I-V
You will probably start recognising well known songs as you play around with these.
Using other versions of a chord
Although the chord windows on your Fretmeister show the basic triad chords (made up of 3 notes), You can interchange other variations, for example the 7 (made up of 4 notes), so G7 for G or D7 for D. You can also try using the sus2, sus4, 6, 9, minor7, minor9, minor11 etc. If you haven't come across these terms before, you can check them out on Google or, don't worry about them for now.
*The VII conundrum
You will see that there are actually 8 possible chords shown on the Fretmeister that can be played for a given key. This is because of a strange conundrum. Although, technically, the seventh chord in a key should be the diminished VII (which is a m7b5, shown as VIIº), leaving the semitone required to achieve the octave, in practice it is more usual to use a flat VII chord (bVII) which is a full tone below the octave. It just seems to sound easier on the ear. As music is a creative art, you can, of course, use whichever sounds best to you in your arrangement.
This is where the Roman numerals come in because, no matter what key you want to use, the same progressions seem to work.
I-IV-V is by far the most common chord combination. In the key of A this gives the chords A, D and E. Play them together and you will hear how well they work. Now choose a different key on your Fretmeister and play the I, IV and V chords for that key. Although there are literally millions of songs that have the same progression, every song sounds different because they have different rhythms and melodies.
Don't limit yourself, there are loads of possible chord progressions. Here are some more of the common ones. Have a play around and see if any suit your song. Try them in different keys as well.
I-vi-IV-V, I-V-vi-IV, I-ii-V-I, I-IV-vi-V, I-IV-V-I, I-vi-ii-V, vi-IV-I-V, I-vi-iii-VII, I-IV-I-I, IV-IV-I-I, V-IV-I-V
You will probably start recognising well known songs as you play around with these.
Using other versions of a chord
Although the chord windows on your Fretmeister show the basic triad chords (made up of 3 notes), You can interchange other variations, for example the 7 (made up of 4 notes), so G7 for G or D7 for D. You can also try using the sus2, sus4, 6, 9, minor7, minor9, minor11 etc. If you haven't come across these terms before, you can check them out on Google or, don't worry about them for now.
*The VII conundrum
You will see that there are actually 8 possible chords shown on the Fretmeister that can be played for a given key. This is because of a strange conundrum. Although, technically, the seventh chord in a key should be the diminished VII (which is a m7b5, shown as VIIº), leaving the semitone required to achieve the octave, in practice it is more usual to use a flat VII chord (bVII) which is a full tone below the octave. It just seems to sound easier on the ear. As music is a creative art, you can, of course, use whichever sounds best to you in your arrangement.
The Melody
Keeping the key the same, the main window shows all the notes you can play anywhere on the fretboard that will harmonise well with the chords showing in the chord windows. They are shown as yellow and blue squares. Some of the yellow squares also have symbols which show the key's root note, the relative minor root note and the pentatonic scale notes.
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The Root Note is the first note of the scale. To start with it's easiest to begin and end the phrases of your melody with the root note.
Relative minor root note would be useful if you want to write a song in a minor key. To do this, align one of the blue circles in the main window behind the minor scale note that you want to use. For example, to see all the notes and chords for the A minor scale, move the slide so that a blue circle is behind an 'A' on the fretboard. Pentatonic scale is like a scale within a scale. The 5 notes of the pentatonic scale are easy to use to create a melody as they are all perfectly balanced with each other. You can noodle around using just the pentatonic scale and you will never play a note that sounds 'off'. The other two yellow notes (that aren't in the pentatonic scale) take a bit more consideration about when to use them. |
Main window of the Ukulele Fretmeister set to show the key of Eb
When you are using your Fretmeister to write songs, you can ignore the coloured shapes. |
Blue notes
Blue notes are not, strictly speaking, part of the key but they can really add colour and texture to a song when used in the right places as you will find when you are exploring.
©Adam Rubinstein2017
