By dividing a melody into sections, we can rearrange and repeat certain parts to create something new and exciting. Of course, not all songs include every type of section. But the following outlines the most popular ones you’ll often hear: Like the rooms in a building or the acts in a play, each section is a small,

Without a doubt, repetition is important. It’s a natural way to take a short musical idea and turn it into something bigger and bolder. Which is why musicians use repeat symbols a lot. In fact, beyond the simple repeat sign, you’ll also sometimes see other markers that have their own special meanings. The three most popular

!!!WARNING!!! Okay, okay, I know. As an artist, you’re probably anxious to cut to the chase. You might be thinking, “let’s put our skills to use, and start making some music already.” And to be honest, I’m right there with you. But have patience, my child. These next couple of lessons focus a bit more

Some people say Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was the greatest composer of all time. And I’m tempted to agree, when I think of catchy melodies like “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” But it turns out that he might not deserve all the credit. Because history shows he sometimes got a little help … from his pet bird.

Circle progressions are useful because they show us the general flow of chords in a song. From one chord to the next, we can see where things are going. And while each pattern may be unique, one rule always holds true—every song has a definite sense of movement and direction. In other words, good music

After playing through each major scale progression, you might have noticed something cool. For some crazy reason, Mother Nature totally loves us. Instead of throwing us some curveball, she decided to make things easy. When it comes to chord progressions, we don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Because they’re really just based on the same,

Chord progressions are really easy to play. And that’s because they’re based on the old, familiar scale patterns we already know. Using the C major scale, for example, we can come up with a chord progression that sounds awesome. We simply build one chord on the tonic (1) note … and another on the major-second

Musicians are always creating cool, new sounds by using different chord patterns in a song. Together with scales and melodies, chords and progressions are like the nuts and bolts of music. All we have to do is combine these patterns, and we really start to see the payoff of everything we’ve learned so far. You see, it

A little while ago, I was driving past the local Masonic Temple. And I saw a really cool banner in front of the building. The Masons (which are a group of men who belong to a sort of mysterious society) announced that they were holding public tours of their “temple.” And of course, I jumped

Sometimes, I wish I was an archeologist. Because, you know … if you’ve ever seen any of the “Indiana Jones” movies, then you know what I mean. There’s just something mysterious and exciting about uncovering lost treasure. Especially when it’s been sitting there all along—right under your nose. At first glance, some layer of dirt