Writing The Bridge - 3 Chord Strategies | How to Write Songs

Hmm, that's very interesting Keppie. Especially that modal strategy. Thank you.

The extraordinary thing about the E-minor chord in the verse for me is that it comes so early in the song, when the key of F-major is not established yet. Be aware that it contains a B natural which is not part of the scale. The effect of harmonic ambiguity is even heightened by the fact that at this point, this note appears in the melody as well.

Amazing video, love it! Thank you for the lesson.

I'm having trouble using this for country songwriting! Good stuff though.

You're a great teacher!

The fret board on that guitar is super fun

Who skipped college and learned anyways thanks to people willing to share their information for free on free platforms? What a world we’re living in. I think we’ve come along way

CAN YOU SHRED?

Beautiful

Why do you Shays call it F# major and d# minor ...instead of the more commonly named Gb major and c# minor?

I always suspected that there was a well music educated professional helping the beatles create these complex and musically sound songs. I mean..these guys were in their late teens and not musically educated when they conquered the world..today we call such bands plants by the music industry.

that song you did was beautiful

Terrific… and love the refined movements in Last Call.

Any thoughts on what seems like a two bridge structure of say… ‘I want to hold your hand’?

Or, how Bridges seem outlawed these days?

Fabulous. You're such an amazing teacher. You make difficult stuff transparent.

Needed this🙏🏽thank you

Thank you. This is good stuff.

Just what I needed!

Thanx for the video! Very well explained the nature of bridge and the ways to approach it for a new author! Loved your song "The last call".

Erm...I'm still bridgeless. That had so much music theory in it that it may as well have been in Arabic. I can appreciate the brilliance though.

Excellend video, thanks!

Excellent what a great teacher great song brilliant!!!!

Last call is a beautiful song.

If this doesn’t reference James Brown I’ll be let down.

Hola!! Anybody knows why it starts in G at the third strategy: modal chord strategy?

So its a great video, but the modal chord thing is really not understandable without some background knowledge. I understood it in other videos. But it is still a great effort to alone get this list of strategies. Thanks!

😍😍😍😍😍🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰 thanks a lot

timestamp your vids please!!

I love your lessons and I loved your song

We could say it like this for the bridge... 'Go somewhere else and come back again'. There are no rules for where that 'somewhere else' is, but you will want to come back again.

You can get a lot of mileage with these 3. Also remember the bridge is a chance to flesh out information in the story (just like a movie or novel) that can build the character background and personality that got to them to the story of song/chorus. So that backstory can take you to a totally different genre of music or time signature. You can have a punk rock song with jazz trio bridge!! The bridge really can take the listener to another planet, where the fun challenge is to then musically bring them back to the original story. This was a great video!!

Thank you so much for your clear explanation of what are really fundamental aspects of song writing. I’m self taught and have very little formal knowledge of music theory but have just watched 2 of your videos which explain and demystify a number of what I’ve come to describe as happy accidents in my own stuff!

Billy Joel is a master of bridges!

Young lady, you are brilliant. Thank you for your gifts via these videos.

Not to sound sarcastic, but why do people need to rely on a "formula"? Some songs don't need bridges. It depends on the song as to what fits.

I find in some music a crappy bridge just for the sake of having one ruins the song. It's like braking hard and losing control.

Best and Clearest Explanations I’ve ever heard. Thank you so much. 😊you are a Brilliant Teacher.

Best channel ever. Where have you been?

Last Call is magic! Another great video. Very clear.

you point at videos, but there's nothing there lol

your accent confuses me because you pronounce the r in a lot of words in an aussie/british type accent EXCEPT for the word hear which u enunciate the ar more

not a diss or nothing thought it was interesting. This video did help me with a new song so thank you

Examples of minor line cliches: Cry, Baby, Cry. The Beatles. Into the Great Wide Open. Tom Petty. Tom lived up to his name when he whined about Sam Smith, yet ripped off The Replacements for the line, rebel without a clue. There was also a novel with that title by a young Japanese American. Of course they were all based on the James Dean movie Rebel Without a Cause. As for the Major line cliche look no further than George Harrison and Something, line cliche on C. George got dinged on My Sweet Lord. I do not agree with that decision but the problem is juries don't understand music, let alone music copyright laws. I rest my case.

This is really wonderful stuff! Thanks.

Brilliant vid!

Thank you. I found this very helpful and memorable.

Bridges not always played once. Mcartneys bridges were so clear and delightful he played them twice in the song arrangement.

Keppie you do a marvelous job of explaining the strategies and theory.

I have been using line cliches for 50 years - never heard the term! (The Beatles use this in the bridge of “And Your Bird Can Sing.”)

Modal interchange - The Beatles use this effectively all the time. Two examples are “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (the Dm7 that starts the bridge) and “From Me to You” (does it twice - the Gm7 that starts the bridge, and the D7 that starts the second line of the bridge. When I think of it, I beleive the bridge ends with an ascending line cliché!)

Your song is gorgeous. I’ll be studying that progression as an exercise.

Thrilled to find you and your channel! I'm learning so much from you, already. Thanks for the absolute gold you pour into these videos, so very appreciated! And the song you're playing, "Last Call", is gorgeous.

Incredible video, thanks keppie. I didn't know the name for this kind of chromatic descent I've heard in so many tracks (including my own). I think the Line Cliche in Hey Jude is my favourite example of it

You are wonderful! I love the spirit and clarity you bring to your teaching. I would love to hear you analyze "Year of the Cat". My wife think it's one of best written songs.