Songwriting Workshop - Creating Chord Structure & Melody

What chords go together best? Why? What does it mean to be in a "key"?

Each meeting of this class starts with a new chord progression and/or chord transition technique. We learn the theory of how the chords work together, how to add variation to the progression and why this all works. Then we move onto using our ears and imaginations to find different melodies that fit the arrangement. Finally, time-permitting, we'll talk about how to transpose that same structure into a new key.

The lessons work as an interactive workshop. Students are encouraged to bring their instrument so they can work through the chords themselves. Though no audible sharing is required, learners are welcome to work out their own melodic ideas and variations on our chord structures, and present them for feedback if they wish.

Week of 3/14 - Chord Progression 1: i-iv-v (basic 1,4,5)
Week of 3/21 - Chord Progression 2: i-v-vim-iv (using relative minors)
Week of 3/28 - Using 7th chords
Week of 4/4 - Minor keys

Note that at any given time I may have more than one section of this class running. Students are welcome to sign up for more than one. They may have more than one session with the same topic, but they can approach it in a fresh way and still get as much of the benefit of the workshop by doing so.