Displaying items by tag: Play music
For the Guitarist Volume 7: Songwriting
I started playing guitar at age eleven, but I started my first band at fifteen playing drums. The reason why I stuck with guitar is songwriting. I wanted to write songs. The guitar is a good, self-contained unit, a perfect vehicle for writing.
Singer/songwriters tend to either be piano players or guitar players. Think about this a minute. How many instruments are there that you can play and sing at the same time? How many instruments are polyphonic? You can create anything from a simple song to relatively complex arrangements on the guitar.
The form of the song is a good place to start. There are forms like the Blues that are essentially loops. It is a twelve-bar form. The same harmonic structure is repeated throughout the song. The song also usually does no form of key modulation.
The standard song form for years was thirty-two bars. This is usually an AABA form. That means an eight-bar section (A), followed by a very similar section (A again), a contrasting section (B) and returns to where it started (A once more). A lot of standards are in the AABA form. The whole form is often repeated.
There are also strophic songs which are like poems which can have several repeated verses. You can also have verse, chorus, repeat. These can also have a bridge which may be referred to as B.
None of this means that you have to stick with a basic form to write a song, there are no rules. This just gives you a jumping off point. Once bands started writing their own material more often, things started to change. A lot of those players were not educated in the same manner as songwriters of old. They wrote by feel in many ways.
Another thing to consider is a song can be sectional or in movements. That can almost be like a series of different forms. For example, you could have three different AABA sections in a row and that can be your song. In Classical music there are forms that essentially assemble smaller forms like that. ABACA is called rondo form. Each section is a small composition itself. A lot of musicians don’t pay enough attention to form.
So, break out your guitar and some paper and try writing a song. You can make it anything from a Pop song to a work involving many movements. The choice is yours. You can keep the song in your head, but writing it down makes it easier to communicate your ideas to other musicians. This can be in standard notation or simple maps to show the form. Have fun and get creative!
Disney's THE LION KING Returns to Chicago
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Review: The Listeners at Lyric Opera of Chicago
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IDENTITY PERFORMING ARTS: Spring Concert 2025 - 'Instinct' at Ann Barzel Theater (April 26-27)
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Dynamic South Chicago Dance Theatre at The Auditorium in one perf only, May 3
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Open Space Arts announces staged reading series and a powerful premiere for April through June
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Hell in a Handbag Productions' World Premiere of SCARY TOWN By Artistic Director David Cerda Directed by Cheryl Snodgrass April 9 – May 11, 2025 at The Clutch
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Kokandy Productions Announces Line-Up for CHICAGO MUSICAL THEATRE FESTIVAL Returning April 3 – 6, 2025 at The Chopin Theatre
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Disability-inclusive company brings Frankenstein to Chicago Shakespeare Theater
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Writers Theatre announces 2025/26 season
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About Face Theatre presents the return of Re/Generation Studio at The Alice at Goodman Theatre March 28-30, 2025
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Steppenwolf Theatre Presents Broadway's Kelli O'Hara - April 18 & 19, 2025
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THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA Returns to Chicago
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Steppenwolf Theatre Presents THE BOOK OF GRACE - March 27 – May 18, 2025 - Chicago Premiere!
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Lyric Opera announces 2025/26 season, including major collaborations with Billy Corgan, avery r. young
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BEETLEJUICE is Now Playing Through March 16
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The Auditorium proudly presents Parsons Dance One Night Only: Saturday, April 12 at 7:30 PM
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The critically acclaimed hit production of Obliteration returns
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Red Clay Dance Company’s 16 centers perseverance and legacy in Vershawn Sanders-Ward Revival and Bebe Miller Premiere
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Stand Up Together Comedy stars unite during Chicago fundraiser to support California wildfire victims Thursday, March 27 at Laugh Factory Chicago
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Luck Be a Lady Tonight: A Rollicking Review of Music Theater Works’ 'Guys and Dolls'
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