Anyone can write a song if they know a few basic theory concepts such as the notes of a key and how chords are constructed within the key. This lesson explains the entire process in simple - easy to follow - terms...



I often talk about how valuable it is to know and understand your; basic music theory, key signatures, guitar neck layout, your scales and your chords...

In this post I’m going to show you how easy it is to apply just a small part of that information and very quickly (and very easily) use it to knock out a basic musical structure of a songs verse and chorus section.

All it takes to do this is to begin by selecting a key that your song will be composed in and then, assign, what we’re going to call “song section” bookends.

Those Book-Ends will lock down the section of music we’re working on from our key. After that, it’s simply a matter of choosing chords to fit “in-between” those bookends in order to crate verse or chorus sections.

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ESTABLISH A KEY CENTER:
The first order of business is to establish a key signature. For this exercise, we’ll be using the key signature of “A Major.”

Let’s take a closer look at how this key functions (with both its notes and with its diatonic chords)…





COMPOSING A VERSE:
Next, we’re going to organize the construction of our Verse section from the chords and notes of our established key of “A Major.”

Since we’re using the key signature for “A Major” let’s keep things simple, and make our first chord (for our songs verse), be the chord of, “A Major.”

The process that we’re going to use to establish this verse section, will simply involve beginning with that “A Major” chord, and then we’ll be looking toward resolving on that chord as well.

In between, we can select any other chord from our key that we’d like. They’re all going to work-out, because we’ve already established our key signature and the chords that belong to it. Try to compose your own Verse right now…




Here's an example of what my own verse example section turned out as with the chords from the key of "A Major."





COMPOSING A CHORUS:
The next thing that we’re going to do is establish our songs "Chorus" section. To do that, we’re going to simply look at the chords we have available in our key of “A Major” and pick a primary chord from the key signature to function as the bookends of our Chorus.

For the bookends of our Chorus example, I’ve decided to choose the 6th chord of the key. The 6th chord is an “F# Minor” chord.

In between those "F#" minor chords, we can select any other chord from our key that we’d like. They’re all going to work-out because we’ve already established our key signature and the chords that belong to it. Try to compose your own Chorus right now…



Here's an example of what my own verse example section turned out to be with the chords from the key of "A Major."




Now, that we’ve organized a Verse and a Chorus section, play through each section and listen to what each example sounds like with the chords that have been decided upon for each part.



CONCLUSION:
As you can tell, this process of choosing a key, establishing a starting chord to function for the Verse, then another chord to function for the chorus - is a fast and easy way to write a song.

In fact it’s so easy, that you could probably write a new song using this approach - every single day. As time goes on, you can expand sections and even begin testing chords that are non-diatonic as well.

Plus, this method is a fantastic way to compose music no matter what level of musician you’re at as a player. Also, this system (I’ve shown here) is really quick to learn, and understand and anyone can start applying it musically right away.





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Thanks for joining me, If you'd like to Find Out What You Should Learn Next on Guitar - take a look at the courses over on my website at CreativeGuitarStudio.com.

My step-by-step; Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced courses will cover what you need to know, along with how to be able to move forward and become the best player that you can be.

I've worked on these courses since 1992 and I feel that all together they're the best guitar program you'll ever find.

The courses will help you learn to identify what's required to get you up to the next level of guitar playing, in a very organized way, that makes sense.

I look forward to helping you further at CreativeGuitarStudio.com ...As always, if you enjoyed this lesson, please give it a thumbs up and subscribe for more on YouTube.

Until next time, take care and we'll catch up again on the next lesson. Bye for now!