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Chord Progressions For Songwriters
£18.00
Each chapter of Chord Progressions For Songwriters provides a comprehensive self-contained lesson on one of twenty-one popular chord progressions that every songwriter should know inside and out.Lessons cover ascending, basic (I-IV), blues, circle (VI-II-V-I), classic rock (I-bVII-IV), combination, descending, doo-wop (I-VIm-IV-V), ending, flamenco (Im-bVII-bVI-V), folk (I-V), introduction, jazz (IIm-V-I), minor blues, one-chord, pedal point, rock and roll (I-IV-V), standard (I-VIm-IIm-V), and turnaround progressions as well as rhythm and Coltrane changes.You will learn how key, duration, substitution, variation (adding or subtracting chords), and displacement (rearranged chord orders) are used to vary the sound of each progression. You will also take a look at the authors songwriters notebook and work through exercises to reinforce key chapter concepts and get you started building your own progressions.
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Additional information
| Publisher | iUniverse (30 Jan. 2003) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 510 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 0595263844 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0595263844 |
| Dimensions | 15.24 x 3.25 x 22.86 cm |
by Rob
One of the best books in my collection , if your serious about understanding chord progs this book is a must !!
by morgan
although this book was most informative,it was however impractical to use when practicing piano.
by Robert
Plenty of examples of songs given in each category and a pretty comprehensive list. I’m particularly interested in the blues and chord substitutions and variations given.
by Alan
excellent book all serious musicians should buy it!
by Joe
The author has clearly put a lot of work into this book but sadly the content doesn’t justify the price. The main problem lies with the publishers; it looks as though this book was made in somebody’s shed. If you’re a guitar player you can forget about playing through the content contained in the book, because the pages will not lay open no matter how much you bend the spine back, meaning one hand is required to keep it open on your chosen page. I can’t understand what they thought people were going to use the book for if it won’t lay open.
Plus, I don’t know if I maybe got a bad one but mine has an overpowering chemical/manufacturing smell to it. It doesn’t sound like much to complain about, but trust me, it’s really quite distracting and at no point do you get used to it.
Publishing gripes aside the content is pretty good. It details 21 progressions and gives long lists of variations on them. It’s quite handy I suppose but personally I’d have rather had more progressions and fewer examples of their variations. There are huge lists of song examples beside each variation. As a discerning music fan though, even I find that a lot of the examples are a little dated/obscure. Perhaps the songs were more popular over in America than here in the U.K.
I can’t help but think that the author has a great idea with this book, but it’s badly executed and spreads itself too thin by trying to cover too many genres. I’d love to see him write a similar book more aimed at guitarists that solely dealt with popular progressions that fit into the pop/rock genres (I couldn’t care less about having page after page of flamenco and jazz progressions).
To summarise, it’s alright, but for £19 it’s a bit of a swindle.
I personally prefer Rikky Rooksbys books. They’re cheaper, are made by better publishers, are aimed at guitarists and the song examples are more accessible.
by Usama
I think this is an essential book for every aspiring guitarist. I’m someone who spends more time on looking at the resources and not playing guitar at all. From my years of experience of checking out resources, I can tell, you should build a solid foundation before jumping into all the fancy stuff like developing techniques or playing fast or trying to play crazy solos etc. At the end of the day chords are the basic building blocks of any song/music. Solos, riffs etc are actually built on top of it. So having a solid foundation of chord progressions, which chords work best with which other chords, how to switch between keys, what chord sequences work and what don’t will make you a better musician. In this book each chord progression is supported by plenty of example songs. Although, I will probably end up just reading the book and not practice guitar at all, I still can’t recommend this book enough.
by Steven Kenyon
Its a little bit more detailed than I was expecting … its quite a heavy read. and almost 500 pages long … Zzzzzzzzz
by Jerry
I’ve learnt more from this book than many others on chords and songwriting. I actually understand how to put together a good chord progression now and how to vary them. This is worth its weight in gold. Highly recommended.