SONGWRITING
STRIKING THE RIGHT CHORD | Kevin MacDougall
I’m sometimes asked where I came up with be overstated how much this shaped my a certain chord. Especially in church. The songwriting. I discovered far more suggestive I wouldn’t mention this or even assume it’s
question is slightly labored—as though I must chords existed to communicate the mystery worth noting but for the fact that I live in
have learned it somewhere. and wistfulness I felt. I discovered far more Nashville now, and I’m often surprised by what
articulate chords were there to help me when I see in the various “scenes” here—how seldom
But the answer isn’t usually all that exciting: “I a song called for something more direct. No a lot of people break free of the most basic
moved my fingers around.” And there it was. matter what I was writing about, there was a chords in their writing. The chords are almost
vivid way to help me get there. inconsequential beyond providing a key or
It’s amazing what you can find by simply
tonic. Everything else unfolds as if on autopilot,
taking a typical chord and moving one or two Striking the right chord, and not settling for and only the melody has room to shine. (It’s
fingers to a new fret or a new string. Ever since less, became like a quest. And it’s a quest I remarkable how many melodies still do shine
I first started playing guitar in junior high, I’ve have loved. under these circumstances. Music is amazing.)
poster on my wall of all the standard chords, In my previous column (December), I talked But chords are like colors: when you discover
which I could reference as I was learning the about the necessity for creativity to be valued a new and colorful voicing, it carries more
basics. Even in those early days, I couldn’t and honored, and how we should not be so quick importance, as though it somehow weighs
resist starting with something standard, and to sacrifice artistry on the altar of “accessibility,” more within a song. Entire songs can be
then moving a finger here or there to see what as we tend to sell our congregations short in shaped around the spark of inspiration that a
happened to the sound. As a result, long before the process. I am a strong advocate for the new voicing provides. It can re-contextualize
I understood chord chemistry well enough to idea that people are far more capable than we other chords or feel as though it hovers over
know when I was “adding a 6th” or “playing a think. And yet, with worship music especially, it the rest of the song. A single stroke of more
minor 9th,” I was still finding new and dramatic can seem like—despite the reality that we live in expressive, more peculiar, or more unique
chord voicings which inspired me. Better still, a world with limitless hues of color—we find our chord work can make a song truly special. It
knowing exactly what something is called is writers returning to the same few crayons again casts a long shadow.
less important than using what sounds good and again. Primary shades which express little. to you anyway. And there’s nothing wrong with those colors, Still, it’s easy to forget that chords are not merely
but perhaps there is something wrong with so the backdrop to our melodies as songwriters.
enjoyed doing this. I remember having a big
Those chords broadened what my ears could many of us writing in a way which suggests
pick up on, expect, or reach for. And it cannot they’re the only colors in existence.
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February 2020
Chord progressions can be capable of chord
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