Beginners Songwriting - Acoustic Guitar

By:


I've found that writing the basic idea for a song on my acoustic guitar is a much more successful way to song write no matter what type of music you are into. It makes sense to me that if a song can sound good when just played at a basic, no frills level like this then it's certainly going to work in a full band situation complete with drums, as and maybe keyboard. When played on acoustic guitar then it's also much easier to set a rhythm, tempo, chord structure and melody. So try it and see how you get on. You'll be surprised at the cool things you can come up with.

And when you think about it, how many classic songs have you heard played in this stripped down manner? Just about every great song will have one version broken down to just a guy or gal and their acoustic and I love to hear a song played in this way. It really sorts the wheat from the chaff in my opinion and is a great way to begin building your songs.

Now, the next thing may sound like a contradiction, but don't necessarily think that less chords will make writing a song easier. Believe it or not I recently wrote a song with just 2 chords, (B & Cm) and it was possibly the most difficult song I've ever written. The main reason being that you have to add interest to the song in an alternative way to chord sound. This can be done by a change of rhythm, tempo or accentuation but it really is quite a challenge. A great thing to have a go at though.

I would suggest 3 or 4 chords is a much easier prospect for a beginner to work with. Of course you have to make sure the chords work well with each other. Yes you could try and be experimental and come up with some wacky chord sequences but I wouldn't advise this as a beginner. Write something simple, maybe around a 3 chord structure such as G, Bm, D or G, C, D.

A method you can also use with 3 chord structures is what is called a 'turnaround'. This is where you effectively change a 3 chord sequence into a 4 chord structure e.g. E, A, D, A. This again is frequently used by major artists...remember 'Wild Thing' by The Troggs?

One trick I love to use in my songwriting is adding a false bass note which completely changes the natural chord sound. An F# bass note with a D Chord is a nice example of this and is used in many songs. Neil Young is a great exponent of this technique and it can be heard in his classic song 'Only Love Can Break Your Heart'.

Try some of these ideas to enhance your songwriting


About the Author:
To find out more about songwriting on guitar then visit songwriting4guitar.com, Beginners Songwriting, and LearnSongwriting On Guitar Get a totally unique version of this article from our article submission service



Article Originally Published On: http://www.articlesnatch.com


|

Loading...
Related....
Videos...

Recent Music Articles

Comments

Still can't find what you are looking for? Search for it!

Loading

Copyright 2005-2011 ArticleSnatch, LLC - All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy | Terms of Service.