A Song

This video shows where the magic happens, or at least some of the magic. The musical magic (you can't see them, but there are 3 amps by my feet and some guitars strewn about). This was, in part, an attempt to see if I could write a straight up folk song after going to a folk festival. I have written an ironic take on the folk song with my cohorts in the Zen Arcades Project, but I was trying to play this straight. It's a simple I-IV-V progression in the key of G, but I play the V chord (in this case a D) as a 7th for two measures at the end of the verse to bridge to the chorus. This kind of progression is at the root of so much music especially in the country/folk/blues spectrum. Since I've learned it, and how to transpose it to different keys, it has made writing songs so easy. Hmm, maybe I'll provide a handy chart of the I-IV-V at the end of the post. Anyways, the hard part of writing a song like this would be coming up with the lyrics and I went to school for a very long time in order to learn how to write so I can't really offer a capsule look at the process. SO JUST DO IT. If you want to write a song just put some words that fit the rhythm of your strumming and changes and show that bad boy off. As Sniffing Glue magazine once said, here's a chord, here's another, here's another... now start a band (I'm paraphrasing).

I-IV-V Chords (the I chord indicates the key)
A D E
B E F#
C F G
D A G
E A B
F Bb C
G C D