Songwriting Simplified: For Guitarists

Choose a guitar tuner to keep your instrument in tune, compare snark vibration sensor, pedal tuner, and phone apps with auto tuner, covering standard tuning, octaves, and room noise.

Discover why guitars go out of tune, from string stretch and temperature changes to cheap tuners, high action, and string binding at saddle, nut, and tuners, including locking tuners.

Capos let guitarists play in new keys with familiar fingerings, quickly find their vocal key, explore alternate tuning, and create distinct registers across guitars.

Learn that a note is a single tone on the guitar, produced by plucking a string at a fret. Then explore how a chord uses two notes played together.

Explore keys as families of chords and notes that fit rhythm and lead guitar. Stay within the parent key, like G, as song chords and notes come from that key.

Singers choose keys to fit their vocal range, as voices differ in high and low notes. The 12 keys let guitars, pianos, and woodwinds adapt from D to E.

Learn how to change the key of a song by mapping chords by scale degrees, preserving relationships as you move from one key to another, such as E to G.

Learn chords by keys rather than songs, starting with G, D and C, ignoring the seventh chord, so you can play along with songs using six to seven chords.

Practice 15 to 30 minutes daily to toughen fingertips within a week, tune down a half step to reduce string tension, and consider starting on electric guitar for lighter strings.

Dispel the myth that small hands limit guitar progress, commit to short daily practice to grow dexterity and master challenging chords, including songs like John Mayer's Neon.

Apply John Mayer's tip: use self-affirmation to shape a great song before writing. Repeat 'this song is great and I am an incredible songwriter' to boost confidence and creativity.

Brainstorm five song ideas across happy, sad, or complex themes, including relationship stories, and note them in your notebook to decide which ideas to center and shape into your song.

Understand what a parent key is—a collection of chords that sound good together, based on major scale theory. See the G major key, the one-four-five pattern, and why order matters.

Discover modal keys as chord groups with a resolve, and learn how songs end on different degrees within the parent key, illustrated by The Boxer and Mary Jane's Last Dance.

Identify the parent key and the resolving degree to name modal keys, using Ionian, Dorien, Phrygian, Lydian, Aeolian and related terms, with practical rhythm and lead implications.

Engage in a video quiz on naming modal keys, identifying parent keys, likely chords, and the resolve chord, including E dorian and aeolian examples to strengthen rhythm and lead guitar.

Identify the emotion behind each top song idea and assign a clear emotion to every song for guitarists. For two-part songs, designate a distinctive emotion for each section.

Explore how different modes evoke specific emotions to craft a song that makes an emotional impact in three minutes. Use modal tools and mood examples, with listening suggestions on Spotify.

explains how the ionian modal key works by using wonderful tonight in G major, showing how chords G D C D reveal the key and Ionian, Lydian, and Mixolydian aspects.

Explore the Dorian mode using Another Brick in the Wall to identify the key, resolve chords, and minor degrees 2, 3, and 6, with practical lead guitar applications.

Explore how the Phrygian mode influences heavy metal guitar in Symphony of Destruction, analyzing E minor resolution and chords F, E minor, and C.

Analyze hate jealousy as a D Lydian modal tune, identifying D as the resolve and A as the parent key, and learn to determine a song's key from its chords.

Discover how to identify a song's modal key, focusing on Mixolydian, using Southern Cross as a case study. Examine chords G, D, A and the A resolve in D.

Learn how the Aeolian mode defines the thrill is gone, identify the B minor resolve, and deduce the modal key as B Aeolian for practical lead guitar setup.

Choose one of those ideas you came up with and turn it into a real song, starting now and not going back to other ideas.

Explore how changing modal keys within a song like Comfortably Numb shifts mood by switching between minor and major modes, such as Aeolian to Ionian, and a borrowed chord.

Discover two chords-numbering approaches: treat the resolve chord as scale degree one or number from the parent key, and learn why forums and classical theory may differ, causing confusion.

Learn the six string notes, the most important on the guitar, in order and half steps, to locate positions, chords in the cage system, and keys via circle of fifths.

Learn why guitar notes and chords are named with sharps or flats based on the song’s key, and how to name notes on the fretboard when the key is unknown.

Use roman numerals to label chords, with uppercase for major and lowercase for minor. Understand how to reference the parent key and borrowed chords for concise progressions.

Clarifies the two applications of playing in modes for rhythm and lead guitar, detailing how a parent key governs resolution and how patterns move around the fretboard for solo work.

Discover how to craft a song by choosing two chord progressions for verse and chorus in the key of G, using up to four chords and major or minor moods.

Explore pop major-mode progressions in the key of G, rooted in Ionian mode and resolving to the first degree, including 1-4-5-4, 1-5-6-4, 1-4-6-5, and 1-3-4-5; record yourself experimenting.

Explore popular minor chord progressions in pop and crossover country in the key of G, including six four one five, six five four five, and the e minor resolution.

Explore country chord progressions in the major (Ionian) mode: one four five, one four one five, four one five one, and one six four five, with flexible variations.

Explore rock chord progressions in the major mode, resolving to g via the ionian degree, and use one four five and one five six three four one five.

Explore rock chord progressions in a minor key, rooted in g and resolving to e minor with patterns like 4-5-6, 6-4-5, 6-5-4, and 6-1-4-5; prepare for major-mode rock progressions.

Explore the 12-bar blues progression on guitar, a time-based chord structure used to create bluesy songs, and learn why it’s simple, familiar, and widely used.

Discover how to identify your best vocal range for guitarists, aiming to sound special. Learn from legends who found unique voices that connect with audiences.

Discover your best vocal range and the parent key of songs you sing in the car or on the radio, using chords and practical tips for guitarists.

Find your voice by using a capo to fit the I–V–vi–IV progression in G, experimenting with frets 4 and 7, and noting how the capo shifts the key to D.

Learn the caged system: play any major chord in five shapes (C, A, G, E, D) across the fretboard, and discover which shapes are useful and how to find them.

Explore why knowing the five caged chord shapes matters when using capos, so you can name keys accurately and play in harmony with musicians who don’t use capos.

Discover why guitarists use different chord shapes to access higher or lower registers, like G and D shapes, to avoid muddiness and let chords cut through.

Explore multiple chord shapes for a single chord to sound better with distortion and simplify power chords, especially using the a and e shapes.

Know different chord shapes to locate the A chords on the fretboard and nearby major scale patterns. This helps lead guitarists navigate the neck and play faster with patterns.

Discover where chord shapes sit on the fretboard with a guide and learn the C, D, G, and E shapes by root notes on the second, third, and sixth strings.

Learn how a capo helps you find your best voice by moving the G C D one-four-five progression to different keys and deciding when to remove the capo.

Explore why songs switch keys to change mood and how to map chord degrees to a new key, with examples from Me and Bobby McGee and Living on a Prayer.

Learn how to substitute chords within a key using minor/major versions, suspended and power chords, guided by simple rules about bass notes and chord quality.

Choose one chord in your progression and add an alternate version, such as a major seventh or minor seventh, to color your song, applied to a single spot or throughout.

Learn how passing chords travel through non-diatonic tones to reach chords that belong, illustrated with Jailhouse Rock in E, Heartache Tonight, and Friends in Low Places, including diminished examples.

Explore borrowing chords from related keys to expand major-key progressions, learn common borrowed chords, and apply them to any key to enhance your guitar-based songwriting.

Learn to use a borrowed chord cheat sheet for songs in G, focusing on modal keys and common borrowed chords to energize your progressions and grab listeners' attention.

Discover how to borrow chords in guitar songwriting, using D Ionian with a C borrowed chord and C add voicings; explore Mixolydian and Lydian modal ideas.

Add one borrowed chord to your song progression from the provided list, using F major seventh for a prettier sound. This boosts creativity by steering your melody in new directions.

Learn to narrow your song's subject to specific ideas you can place in the melody. Use the assignment to craft humorous breakup and makeup details that drive your lyrics.

Write vocal melodies by first crafting a lead guitar line in G major, using notes from the G major scale to shape the melody.

Use piano to craft vocal melodies, as the notes on the piano match those on the guitar for writing melodies. The piano's 12-note layout eases melody finding.

Explore how melodies are inspired by familiar songs, then apply your lyrics, tempo, and key to craft a unique melody.