Breaking Out of the Three Chord Song

Ah the old standard three chord song.

There are maybe millions of songs written with the tried and true first, fourth and fifth chords. For example, in the key of G, those three chords are the G which is the root chord of the key of G, the C, which is the fourth chord in the key, and the D, with is the fifth chord of the key of G. These are represented with the Roman numerals I, IV, and V.

Some examples of songs using the three chords are:

Bad Moon Rising - CCR

Sweet Home Alabama - Lynyrd Skynyrd

Wild Thing - The Troggs

Ring of Fire - Johnny Cash

Leaving on a Jet Plane - John Denver

Hear I am to Worship - Tim Hughes

Three Little Birds - Bob Marley

All right, so you've been strumming these three chords for about six years now and you've played through all the songs that are built on them. Then you went and wrote about fifty songs of your own and they all sound pretty good, but you're wondering just how do you get out of this rut. I'll give you a couple of easy techniques to add more chords to your songs. Now, this will not necessarily mean that your songs will be better. Looking at the above list of songs, I bet anyone would give the eyeteeth to have written any one of them. But at least you will have more options.

Add the forth chord

If you look at any chart of chords in a key that lists the chords by the Roman Numeric value, you will see something like the following for the key of G (by the way, minor chords are listed in lower case Roman Numerals):

I - G ii - Am iii - Bm IV - C V - D vi - Em VII - F#dm

The three chords in this key we previously used were C, D, and G or the I, IV, and V chord. The next chord I would add would be the six chord or VI. In this key it would be the Em chord.

Adding the Sixth Minor Chord

One of the great chord progressions is the Doo Wop progression, supposedly first used in the 1935 song, Blue Moon, but popularized in the many 1950's Doo Wop songs. This progression is I, vi, IV, V, or G, Em, C, D in this key. This progression adds the sixth minor chord, or the Em in this key. Play around with this progression and you will probably start singing a whole bunch of songs like Blue Moon, Beyond the Sea, and Stay. Try varying the length of time spent of various chords int he progression for variety. Change up the tempos, and you'll soon start coming up with your own Doo Wop originals.

Add the Seventh Chord

Try adding the seventh chord in various spots in place of the major chord. It can often be used as a passing chord when moving form one chord to the other. For example, if you are moving from the C chord to the F chord, try adding the C7 before going to the F.

Wherever it feels comfortable, try substituting the seventh chord in other places where you would normally use the major chord for variety and interest.

Use the other Minor Chords

In our list of the chords you see we have the minor chords designated by a lower case Roman Numeral. Play around with those minor chords in your progressions. Just try going from the G to the Am then to the C  and then to the D before going back to the G. Try  the G to the Bm to the Am to the D and back to the G. Don't be afraid to chip away at the edges of what you're used to doing and see where the explorations will take you.

Study Other Songs

I was looking at the song Dream, by Johnny Mercer, done by the Pied Pipers, Roy Orbison and others. I really liked the chord progressions used in the song and started playing around with them, changing up the order of some of them. This led me to writing my latest song. I loved the subtlety of progressions and ended up using ten chords in this one. I find looking through what others have used used, especially the older songs from the thirties and forties to be a great source of inspiration for chord structures.

For more techniques on writing songs, check out my book: Write a Song Now! With Your Ukulele

Good luck and keep writing.