Fifty years ago, in 1972, “American Pie” hit the top of the Billboard charts. The song became an instant classic with novice and veteran guitar players flocking to learn the chords. That still holds ...

The term ‘embellished’ isn’t really a theoretical one, but it seems an appropriate way to describe these examples. Sometimes an idea for a chord progression can come to us virtually complete; at other ...

When we combine harmonious intervals to create chords, there are various conventions we follow (consciously or otherwise) to avoid unpleasant dissonances. Here, we’re going to do no such thing! We ...

When you think of Oasis’s songwriting approach, you would be forgiven for initially thinking that most of what you hear can be achieved with a few simple chords, and for some Oasis tracks, you will be ...

An altered chord is one that contains notes from outside its scale of origin – chords such as b9 or #5 are frequently seen examples of this. What the example chords are designed to demonstrate is how ...

Artists “It's a sad song because it's all about the unattainable”: The ballad that sparked the breakup of The Beatles Artists “It was a challenge to myself: ‘I’m not gonna have a chorus in this song’” ...