Geni Swing Guitars

Octave Guitar

Once you have understood that there is always a pattern in a guitar song, as shown in our first guitar songwriting article, you then need to start deciding what type of song you have in mind. The Guitars sound, the style of music, the melody and the types of chords that you use, must harmonise with the type of song that you want to write, and more especially, must fit into a key that you can sing to.

When we speak about the "key" of a song, we mean at what pitch or note will you be singing in, and therefore writing the key of the guitar chord progression to suit your voice, or the style of the song.

Some voices are naturally higher pitched and are comfortable singing in a higher key sequence, such as HOTEL CALIFORNIA in B-minor and F-sharp-minor, where a lower ranged voice will be more comfortaable singing the same song transposed to a lower key chord sequence of D to A-minor etc. Listen to the collaboration of voices in WE ARE THE WORLD, and notice that although the song is written in a specific key, how many of the vocal artists sing only specific parts in a high range or low range of the same key, depending on how comfortable they are in that range. Freddie Mercury of Queen might be able to sing down to a low range like Leonard Cohen or Bob Dylan, but I doubt if Cohen or Dylan ever managed to get up to the high notes that Freddie Mercury did. Think of the vocal exercise in the film SOUND OF MUSIC where you go up the scale singing DOE, RAY, ME etc, and you will find that not everyone is comfortable singing the top notes.

To give a better example, try your bottom E 6th bass string on your guitar, play it open and hum the note, then press the first fret to get your F note, then the next fret to get the F-sharp note, the next to get G, next to G-sharp, next to A, then A-sharp, next to B, then C, then C-sharp, then D, D-sharp, and back to E on the twelfth fret. You have then gone up the musical scale of eight notes from E to E called an octave apart. The same is true for all the notes in the scale. i.e. whether you are pitching your guitar song in the key of D or C or G or any of the key signatures of E-F-G-A-B-C-D, there is always a corresponding note of each of them an octave higher or lower. Think of a piano, and you will find that all eight notes repeat themselves from left to right on the keyboard, as well as right to left. High to low, low to high. Similarly on your Guitars fretboard, try your top E 1st, open string (the thinnest one) and try the same exercise as on the E bass 6th string. You will again find the E open string is in harmony to the E note on the twelfth fret, but an octave higher, and yet if you were to have two guitars playing all the E notes, high or low, they would be in harmony to each other, this is true as well for chords in a specific sequence.

If you had different guitarists playing different Key signatures for the same song at the same time, it would sound very discordant, something like a cat choir!

Note also that the type of chord sequence used will dictate if your song is a happy or sad one, melancholy or upbeat. See our article on Three Chord Tricks for chord progressions, and our next Guitar Songwriting article on how to use chords to get the best effect for the mood, style and tone of your song.

Have fun writing!

My thirty odd years of playing guitar and giving free guitar lessons has finally culminated into-Guitar Lessons Guided by http://www.guitar-howtoplay.com/
They include Free Online Guitar Video Lessons from Pentelbury's Educational Guitar Tuition. Printable chords and music songs. Learn How to Play your favorite music songs. It is a One Stop Source for Acoustic, Bass and Electric Guitar Lessons that will guide you every step of the way. Learn to play guitar from beginner to advanced. There is also a complete Guitar Chord Directory e-book, explaining the basis of Three Chord tricks, Power Chords, Open Chords, Bar Chords for Guitar.

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