Enrichment · Arts and Creativity · Music

Write the chords.
Hear them.
Then the tune.

Pick a key and build a verse, a chorus and a bridge from the chords that belong in it. Every chord is spelled for its key, played back the way a pianist would voice it, and ready for a melody and lyrics.

Open the workbenchWhat you get
24keys, every chord spelled correctly
10chords to choose from in a major key
3parts of a song, each with its own progression

The songwriting workbench

Chords first, then a melody over them, then the song sheet. Press Play any time; headphones help.

Loading the songwriting workbench. If nothing appears, turn on JavaScript.

Four chords, a thousand songs

Why so many hits share the same few chords, and how to make yours sound like yours.

I, IV, V

Home, away, and the pull back

In C major those are C, F and G. Between them they hold every note of the scale, which is why folk songs, blues and early rock can run on three chords.

vi

The sad twin of I

Am shares two notes with C. Start a verse on vi instead of I and the same chords feel darker, then let the chorus land on I to lift.

Order

Same chords, different song

I–V–vi–IV and vi–IV–I–V use the same four chords. Where a line starts and where it lands changes the mood more than which chords you use.

Melody

Land on a chord tone

A note that belongs to the chord under it sounds settled; a note between chord tones creates motion. Most memorable melodies step between the two.

What you get

Enrichment · Arts & CreativityFree

What you finish with
A song in progress: chord progressions for a verse, chorus and bridge in the key you choose, a melody written over them, lyrics in order, and a printed lead sheet or .txt chord chart to play from. Along the way, what each chord does in the key and why it sounds the way it does.
Who it is for
Middle and high school students writing their first songs or taking a songwriting, music theory or general music course; music teachers who want a quick way to demonstrate progressions; anyone who plays a little guitar, piano or ukulele and wants to write.
Format
Browser workbench in three parts: Chords, Melody and Song sheet, with playback made in the browser. Starter shows four chords; All chords shows every chord in the key. Works on a phone, tablet or computer, by touch or keyboard. Prints a lead sheet; downloads a .txt chord chart.
Access
Free. No account, no sign-in and nothing to install. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The Arts & Creativity space in Caveat Enrichment.
Support
Questions, a correction or a request: team@caveatacademic.com.
The circle of fifths. Neighbors on the circle share all but one note, which is why a song in C borrows so easily from F, G and A minor.

How to use it

  1. Load the example and press Play, or pick a key and press chords to build the verse.
  2. Switch to the chorus and try a well-known progression, then change the order of two chords and listen again.
  3. Open Melody, press Start me off with chord tones, and move notes until the tune is yours.
  4. Open Song sheet, type a title and lyrics, set the order of the parts and print the lead sheet.

Open the workbench

How chords are built and named

Stacked thirds in the key’s own scale, so every name and note is right.

CDEFGABCDEICEGIVFACVGBDCDEFGABCDEICEGIVFACVGBD
Chords are built by stacking every other note of the scale. On C, E and G that makes I; start on F or G and the same rule makes IV and V.

How the page spells and plays chords

Each key is a scale. A chord takes a scale note and the notes two and four steps above it, so every chord comes out spelled the way the key signature spells it: E sharp in F sharp major, B flat in F major, and F double sharp as the raised seventh in G sharp minor. V and V7 in a minor key use the raised seventh of the harmonic minor scale, which gives them their pull. The flat VII chord and iv in a major key are borrowed from the parallel minor. Smooth voicing picks, for each chord, the arrangement of its notes that moves least from the chord before, the way a pianist would play it.

Checked a second way

Every chord in every palette was spelled again in Python before the page was built (sng_ref.py): 228 chords in 24 keys, compared on every test run with what the page shows, including the textbook cases above. The sound is made in the browser with Web Audio; nothing is downloaded or sent anywhere.

Sources

  1. S. Kostka, D. Payne and B. Almén, Tonal Harmony, 8th edition (McGraw-Hill, 2018): triads and seventh chords, Roman numeral analysis, the harmonic minor scale in minor-key dominants, and borrowed chords (mode mixture).
  2. National Core Arts Standards, Music (2014): Creating, anchor standards 1 to 3, including MU:Cr2.1 (organize and develop musical ideas) and MU:Cr3.2 (present a finished piece), and the Composition and Theory strand for high school.
  3. T. de Clercq and D. Temperley, “A corpus analysis of rock harmony,” Popular Music 30, no. 1 (2011): I, IV, V and vi as the most common chords in rock songs, and how often the flat VII chord appears.
  4. Every chord spelling was checked against an independent Python version written for this page (guide/suite/sng_ref.py).

The example song, its title and its lyrics are made up for this page. Sound needs a browser with Web Audio; the volume is set low, so turn it up slowly. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.