Songwriting Lesson

Awesome - just awesome! I really like how the the song is built up dynamically - and I can for sure hear some killer melodies on this chord progression! Also the solo was awesome!

How you invite Andrew into your lesson and connected it with theory lessons is very clever and gives great value to the lesson! Future versions of our lessons will for sure have better possibilities to connect lessons between each other.

I would invite everybody to check out all the parts carefully - as this is a very thoroughly prepared lesson.

Also - I want to say it's a great honour to have had you do more then 20 lessons for us - I think I am speaking for everyone. Thanks Ivan!

awsome job andrew and ivan

This was just awesome, I loved the solo... I wish I had some recording equipment right about now, anyways great job guys, Thanks

Great songwriting lesson Ivan!!

cool

great topic, great lesson!

Amazing!!

Really interesting lesson congrats andrew and ivan !!

sweet
just what i've waited for!

Guys, can't think of a way to thank you for this one! Really helpful for the thing that's my main songwriting problem - building harmonies.

I've got one question though. What is the logic of the interchangeable chords? Are they always I with VI and etc. or should I always look at the notes of the chords to know which ones are interchangeable?

Thanks,
Hristian

Wow, it is a special lesson Ivan, amazing work

very welldone Ivan .nice lesson

wow thats really usefull!
now i will be able to add some variety to compositions!

Thanks a lot guys. Andrew and I have tried to do something special and I hope we done it...for now. Bare in mind that this is the first lesson of this kind and although it has some minor faults here and there it will only get better - I will try to improve the overall quality and push the boundaries even further!

@Nobody

Regarding interchangeable chords: These chords in the lesson are not a specific rule to hold on to when composing. It is merely a guideline how to develop your own harmonies. What I'm trying to say is that I gave one idea - a piece of the puzzle, you have to find all the other pieces. It is not so hard, as Andrew said these interchangeable chords contain two same notes. So musically they are very much alike. Of course this does not mean that they are the same, but it is a simple and effective way to increase the overall harmony vocabulary in an instant. Other factor when building a song must include knowledge about intervals and how do they sound and relate to one another in chords. The simplest example would be just this in the lesson. We change major third and two notes with minor third and two notes in order to develop different harmonic flavor but keep the harmony flow. Next to this - there are a lot of ways to combine different chords, choosing suspended, dominant and diminished chords in particular parts of the song, intervals in an arrangement that you'll know it will be good with the text, 7th chords maybe and power chords, not to mention all the inversions available and how you can make a melody out of top notes of any chords. All this stuff is very much alike, and I've chose the very basic chords changing rule that yo can use in order to develop your own harmonies in an intuitive way.

Soon I'll try to do one lesson about buildin two or three key jazz comping in order to develop our harmony building skills even further by developing harmony structure and character "beneath" and melody "on top". Stay with me!

good lesson Ivan!
Thanks

Awesome lesson- my songwriting sucks so- here goes!

Thanks to Ivan and Andrew for such a great lesson

Nice lesson Ivan and Andrew. Really like the solo.

great lesson, but one problem. Anybody know where I can find the chord inversions like they were saying in the 2nd part?

this is really sweet, guys. I would LOVE to see more songwriting lessons; perhaps in the style of?

like, if we could get a lesson on how to write songs in the style of (RHCP, Rage, Incubus), that would really be amazing.

Thanks a lot guys!

@Dashooter
These are inversions that can be found up the neck. You must first go through the first part where we've explained the order of chords on the fretboard. Once you know all those chords you can find the inversions more easily.

@bham

I'll do a RHCP songwriting lesson, no problem Hold on for a few weeks. Thanks for the idea

Great Idea

Hey man! This is really an excelent lesson Ivan! It's a must for every guitar player that is interested in composing to know all the theory showed in this lesson.

Great work!

I agree with Gabriel... Cool lesson!!

"@Dashooter
These are inversions that can be found up the neck. You must first go through the first part where we've explained the order of chords on the fretboard. Once you know all those chords you can find the inversions more easily."

I still dont really understand. Aren't inversions completely new different fingerings up the neck? The root of the chord is put in a different place, right? Because I got the 2nd part and 3 part down, with the A shape and E shape.

oh wait, so the "inversions" of the minor chords you used at the end of the part 3 are the same minor chords as the minor chords you showed in the 2nd part with the A shape chords, or different cause they are inversions?

o, so they aren't really inversions, just different voicings, correct? The minor chords at the end are an octive up, but the same chords as the other minor ones.

Incredible helpful lesson !!!I also think they are no inversions as the root note stays the base note...so it should be a different voicing....

Incredible helpful lesson !!!I also think they are no inversions as the root note stays the base note...so it should be a different voicing....

ups...should be more patient when clicking "add comment button" sorry

This is a truly great lesson!

just brilliant job here...

i was not expecting that!

Thank you very mutch.

Awesome lesson! Luckily I have a rhythm guitarist who takes away most of the songwriting pain, but this will help us all improve

great lesson guys...

Hey great lesson. That solos is very powerful over the rhythm. i was wondering if by chance you could tab out the solo? it would be a lot faster than learning it while you play it so but i will do that for now. thanks a lot i learned a lot from this lesson

Thanks a lot guys!

@Dashooter

In part 2 the chords are stacked up in relative to the fretboard. So when you see the left hand fretting the chords above are displayed in parallel. This is how you can find the minor chord inversions more easily.

I am totally blown away. This lesson has it all, awesome theory, chord inversions, excellent explanations, and a kick ace solo. I would LOVE to see more lessons like this!!! This lesson pulls the theory lessons from just text to spoken words and videos...so much clearer!

Great idea and lesson!

happy 20th anniversary Ivan, that was really helpfull
Bravo !

Thanks!

This is a definitive bookmark
I always tried it very randomly (not that this not allows for very different stuff), but it is good to understand more of the basic way of doing it.

great lesson

Ivan - do you have a tab for the solo at the end?

Beautiful Chord work Ivan! Love it

Thanks a lot guys, it means a lot!

@Kizaze44

I'm afraid I don't have the tab, but you can find a slower version in the slow video 10.

very nice lesson Ivan!!!

great lesson, but i am confused about something. do the roman numerals work for every chord or does it depend on the chord.
for example, are the roman numerals I and VI or IV and II always interchangable or does it depend on the chord.

and to add to outrageous vin are II III &VI always minors when building tunes ,thanks in advance

oh yes and great lesson also

Yes Ivan - this is (one again) a very impressive lesson - you are setting new standards at GMC!

Thanks Kris!

@Outrageous Vin
I strongly suggest that you check out Andrews Theory lessons about scales if something is not clear. It is all very thoroughly explained there. To answer your question briefly - Roman numerals represent the note in the scale. On top of every note you can build chords. In every KEY (tonality) the chords are the same.

@lliber
Yes, II III and VI (degrees of a major scale) are always minor type chords because they contain a minor third interval.

Amazing! I'm loving it!
I hope I'm going to learn a lot from it...
Eddie

Do these interchangable chords only work for the major scale? For other modulations, would we refer to the corresponding major and minor chords, however they would be in differnt positions or roman numerals.

I don't really understand what your question is, my english is not so good. Can you please explain better? Thanks

Very nice lesson..........thanks

Your welcome man! Anytime!

really interesting Ivan

yeah, I'm lovin' it