Songwriting For Beginners: ‘Just Enough’ Music Theory

By Jeff Oxenford • Category: How To Write Songs, Songwriting Articles

series_songwriting_for_beginners_new.gif(This is an article in the series “Songwriting For Beginners”. We are filing the series under the Songwriting Basics category.)

Question: How do you stop a guitarist from playing?
Answer: Put music in front of him.

That’s me. I can’t read music and I doubt I ever will. However, over the last three years, I’ve learned just enough about music theory to be dangerous. What I’ve found is that by understanding some basic concepts, I’ve been able to find that next chord I was always searching for.

The first step in understanding is that most songs are played in a single key and that the chords in the come from that key. The formula (i.e. what order) you use for the chords is what make up the song. For example, blues often uses the 1, 4, and 5 chords. If you’re playing blues in E, the chords are E, A, B (or B7). The blues progression in the key of C, uses C, F, and G.

If you can understand the table below, you’ve got the majority of theory you need.

W W H W W W H W
1 (root) 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 (root)
Major minor Minor Major Major or Dominant Minor Diminished Major

Here’s how to understand this table:

Intervals

Guitar frets are in half (H) step intervals. In other words, moving up one fret is moving up a half (H) step. Moving up 2 frets is a whole (W) step.

Notes and intervals

On a guitar, the open string and the 12th fret on the same string are the same note (just different octave). If you look at the A string, the notes are:

FRET Open 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
 NOTE A A# or Bb B C C# or Db D D#orEb E F F#orGb G G#OrAb A

To go from A to B is a whole (W) step. To go from A to A# (or Bb) is a half (H) step.

Also, note that for B to C and E to F, there is only a half step. There is no B# (Cb) or E# (Fb).

Major scale

The major scale has the following intervals, W W H W W W H. (do, rae, me fae, so la, te, do)

Applying this formula, the notes in the A major scale are: A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G#, A. As seen on the guitar the A scale looks like:

 

Open 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
A B C# D E F# G# A

Practice tip – On any string of the guitar, apply the formula W, W, H, W, W, W, H. In other words pick the string: Open, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 12. You’ve just played a major scale.

Numbers for the Notes

We describe the notes in a scale by their numbers (1 – 8).

A B C# D E F# G# A
Note # 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

When your playing in the Key of A, A is the 1 note, B is 2 – You get the idea.

Chords in the major scale

To find chords that will work in the key of A, take the root notes from the scale and use the A chord type A from the table below:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
A Bm C#m D E F#m G#dim A
Major minor Minor Major Major or Dom Minor Diminished Major

The 1, 4 and 5 chord are major chords (A, D, E).

The 2, 3 and 6 chords are minor (Bm, etc.)

The 7th chord is diminished

Below is a listing of the chords in the major scale for all keys. Use the table by following a row:

Key I ii iii IV V vi vii
C C Dm Em F G Am Bdim
Db Db Ebm Fm Gb Ab Bbm Cdim
D D Em F#m G A Bm C#dim
Eb Eb Fm Gm G# A# Cm Ddim
E E F#m F#m A B C#m D#dim
F F Gm Am Bb C Dm Edim
Gb Gb Abm Bbm B C# D#m Fdim
G G Am Bm C D Em F#dim
Ab Ab Bbm Cm Db Eb F Gdim
A A Bm C#m D E F#m G#dim
Bb Bb Cm Dm Eb F Gm Adim
B B C#m D#m E F# G#m A#dim

Practice tip: Take one row and play the chords in order. It should like the major scale. Then try the 1, 4 and 5 chords. Move to another row and try the 1, 4 , 5. It should sound pretty familiar.

How do you use this in Songwriting?

Most songs in folk, rock and blues primarily use combinations of the 1, 4, 5 chords. The 6 and 3 are used often and sometimes the 2. The 7 chord (diminished) isn’t used as often, but it does have a very distinctive sound.

*(Other books use roman numerals, so be ready to see I, IV, V).

For example: The formula for 12 bar blues is Blues in A – the formula is 1,1,1,1,4,4,1,1,5,4,1,5 (each played for a four count).

Check out more Songwriting Basics

Republished with permission by Jeff’s Songwriting

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Comments! Comments!

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  • joboe

    Great article, but one thing; the dominant chord is chord V, not IV.
    Trust me, I’m a music major =)

  • taylor lapeyre

    Wouldn’t the 5 Chord be dominant more so than major? Whatever the case, I doubt many people would play a dominant 4 chord very often, while a dominant 5th is very common, especially in Blues.

  • Gabriel

    Your first table is incorrect. 4 should be ‘major, and 5 should be ‘major or dominant’.

  • Emilie

    I can’t claim to know anything at all about guitars, but I DO know music theory, and you’re doing it wrong. (Well, only a little bit wrong, but still.)
    First of all, it’s: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do. Assuming you’re using movable do, which it seems you are, these syllables can CHANGE if you’re in a minor key, which it doesn’t seem you discuss much, but still. The pitches that are changed in a minor scale are the third (mi turns into me), and sometimes the sixth and seventh (la into le, ti into te).
    And… I don’t have any idea why you were calling a IV chord a dominant chord, because IV is SUBdominant, and V is always dominant. A four is never, never dominant. That doesn’t apply to the name of the chord, the quality, anything.
    Still, interesting and educational for me guitar-wise, and it mostly is a pretty comprehensive basic explanation of music theory. Cool! :)

  • arcane

    blah blah music theory people already pointed most of it
    the perfect 5th is what makes the famous power chord and it is neither major nor minor and you’re missing the argumented chords.

  • http://www.bloggingmuses.com Don

    Fixed! Thanks everyone for pointing out the typos on the chart(s). Appreciate it. You guys are great!