Circles of Creativity, with Tim Topham
Tim Topham discusses how to bring music to life through creative music teaching, and how to marry this approach with traditional drill-based ear training.
4 Chord Songs
Free articles about 4 Chord Songs
Four Chords and the Truth
Did you know: a huge number of popular songs use just four chords. Find out which four and why in this article, and learn how to write your own 4-chord songs.
Exploring Common Chord Progressions
Explore common chord progressions, what makes them so powerful, and how they’re used in popular music to make a song stick.
Introduction to Chord Progressions
Learn all about chord progressions, how they’re created, why they matter, and how you can use them to write unforgettable music.
About the I, IV, V and vi Chords
Learn about the four chords that countless musical masterpieces have been built on, how they’re named, and how you can craft tunes out of them yourself.
Meet vi, the sad twin of the chord family
Are you looking to play pop songs by ear or improve your music transcription skills? Want to spice up your song-writing? Have you heard of a ‘four chord song’ and wondered what that means? My recent articles have explained the 3 chords every musician...
Chord Ear Training How-To: Chord Progressions
Learning to play chords by ear and improvise freely over chords are essential ear training goals for many musicians. Chord ear training is a big topic but can be broken into two main skills: recognising chord types and identifying chord progressions. In this article...
Songwriter’s Secrets: Writing Harmonies
Part of the songwriter’s secrets series, this tutorial guides you through how to write harmonies. Learn this 6 step process and add harmonies to your songs.
Songwriter’s Secrets: How to Write a Song Without an Instrument
It is possible to write a song even without an instrument – this article explains how you can do it just using listening skills and modern technology.
Playing by Ear, with Brad Mavin: Adding the 6 Chord
Learn to play by ear with this series. Now we introduce the six chord which adds a minor feel to chord progressions and some ear training exercises which help.
Listen Close: "Pagan Poetry" by Björk
Find out what makes “Pagan Poetry” by Björk such a special track, and how you can use it to improve your musical listening skills through ear training.
Learn to play by ear using chord tones (Part two)
Here’s part two of Brad’s article on playing melodies and improvising by ear using the notes of a song’s chords. It’s part of our series on learning to play by ear. You should start with part one if you haven’t already read it! Welcome...
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