Song Technique Guitar Lesson

Chapter 1: (5:00) Lesson Introduction Good morning class! I’m hoping you are well and have begun to digest the material from our last meeting. We’ve been talking about I-IV-V progressions, relative minors, and bridges as applied to the art of songwriting, right? But what is it that takes just a few chords thrown together to the realm of song? Well, one facet that needs to emerge is passion. How do you derive passion from chords? The answer…technique!

So much in the way of emotion can be derived from the strings of a guitar. It just takes the proper techniques to give birth to that emotion.

Soft/Louder Strums
How one strums the strings during particular parts of the song will impart a certain degree of passion, anger, sadness, emotion, etc. to the listener.

Exercise 1
Using the key of A major, make a I-IV-V progression (hint: your chords should be A, D and E) and then a chorus of your choice to accompany those chords. Strum softly during the initial set of chords, and then much more loudly during the chorus. What do you notice, if anything, about the change of emotion during the parts of the song? What do you think would happen if you switched from strumming loudly at first to being quieter during the chorus? Remember these chords as we’ll use them frequently throughout today’s exercises. Chapter 2: (03:10) Selling Your Product/Song Selling Your Product
Your familiarity with your song and the passion with which you play the chords can be major components when attempting to sell your song to the crowd. Not being able to hit your chords in “time” or with relative precision, and merely going through the motions of strumming without any energy or passion behind them can be song killers. Many songwriters stick to simple chords that they know they can play (at least at first) so that they can play accurately and with precision.

Exercise 2
Go through all of the open chords and barre chords that you know (see my Intro to Guitar series for more on this) and pick out those that you have a good handle on. Play all of those chords over and over, adding a new one into the mix that you’ve been struggling with. This will keep your interest piqued while still adding additional material into your repertoire. Pay attention to how much more emotion is imparted by the chords you know and are comfortable with compared with the “new” chords. Adding new chords into your arsenal should be an integral part of your daily practice. Chapter 3: (02:40) Building Intensity Building Intensity
This facet of songwriting goes hand in hand with softer/louder strumming, but should be looked at as part of the overall structure. Many songs start with very quiet finger picking or other instrumentation and then end up rocking hard at the end. Even light acoustic songs tend to begin very softly and then build as the song develops. Why do you think this is? From my experience, there seems to be a very innate and psychological element to a gradual development of song, rather than a quick and abrupt jump into chaos (just my opinion). Songs often have introductions that can be constructed of flat picking, finger picking, and/or other instrumentation and voice.

Exercise 3
Playing our song of the day (A, D, E and the chorus you’ve created), add something to the beginning of the song that will become your introduction. Listen carefully to how your intro blends into the first chords of the song. Do you want to use one of the chords that you’re already using in the song or add something completely new and different? Will you pause between the intro and the first verse? How softly/loudly will you play the intro and what emotion are you attempting to impress upon your listeners? Are you building the emotion of the song or is it switching back and forth in intensity? Remember: there are no rules to this!!! Chapter 4: (02:22) Turnarounds Turnarounds
Turnarounds can be loosely defined as taking one or more chords already being used in the song to create a transition back to the beginning of a section or to another part of the song (i.e. a chorus). The ultimate goal of using the turnaround is to revisit a predominant chord in the song in other parts of the song. This technique can give your song more cohesiveness and unity rather than constantly jumping around to different chords and keys (which is okay too).

Exercise 4
Using our song of the day, take one of the chords in our I-IV-V progression and use it to make a new chorus for the song (you can still keep the first chorus you created in the back of your head for later use). You can use one of the chords with another chord of your choice. So, for example, if you chose the A chord you might want to couple it with a G chord, or a Bm chord or just about any chord you are able to play. You see, the goal is to take one of the chords that you’ve been using and refit it into the next part of the song with the goal of revisiting that particular chord. Try some different combination and see if any of them move you, or if you opt to stick with the initial chorus that you’ve written for your song. Chapter 5: (02:50) Bridges Bridges
The bridge can be defined as a musical passage joining together two parts of a song or composition. It is often used in this type of song structure:

a. Intro
b. First Verse
c. Chorus
d. Second Verse
e. Chorus
f. Bridge
g. Instrumental
h. Verse or Chorus
i. Outro

This structure is flexible but you get the idea. The bridge is often used as a break from the monotony of the “normal” song structure and adds an interesting element to the overall effect of the song. Bridges can be as simple as a single note, a recombination of existing chords in the song, or a vastly orchestrated section. The sky is truly the limit and only restricted by the limits of the songwriter’s imagination.

Exercise 5
Using our song of the day, write a bridge. You can use any of the techniques that we’ve discussed, or you can make up something on your own. Pay close attention though to how the bridge sounds and works with the rest of your chords. Are you trying to impart a particular emotion with your bridge or just fill up space? What emotion are you trying to get across to your listeners? Will a change in the volume make your bridge more or less effective?

Please don’t forget to go to www.myspace.com/markslincoln to gain some insight as to how I use all of these tools to compose song (copy written!!!)

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