---
title: 'How Songwriters Really Think About Chords (Spoiler: It''s Not About Theory)'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=hOoYQryhPqs'
video_id: 'hOoYQryhPqs'
date: 2026-07-31
duration_sec: 1209
---

# How Songwriters Really Think About Chords (Spoiler: It's Not About Theory)

> Source: [How Songwriters Really Think About Chords (Spoiler: It's Not About Theory)](https://youtube.com/watch?v=hOoYQryhPqs)

## Summary

This video presents a mood-based approach to songwriting and chord selection, arguing that how chords feel matters more than music theory. It introduces a four-question framework for shaping chord mood and demonstrates how to build expressive chord progressions one chord at a time.

### Key Points

- **Mood over music theory** [00:14] — Songwriters should think about chords in terms of mood and feeling rather than theory. This approach helps generate ideas, clarify song direction, create intentional progressions, support melody and lyrics, and control tension and release.
- **First chords establish the song's mood** [01:07] — The first chord heard in a song sets a mood that is expected to continue. Choosing major versus minor immediately shapes the emotional direction of the entire piece.
- **Major chords feel warm and stable** [01:33] — A major triad is warm, stable, comforting and inviting, making it ideal for opening songs that aim to create those emotions.
- **Minor chords feel darker and melancholy** [02:31] — A minor chord sounds darker and more melancholy. This is important for setting an emotional space before the theme or narrative is even written.
- **Dominant chords create anticipation** [04:00] — A dominant chord feels suspenseful, agitated and unstable. Songwriters can use this tension deliberately to create anticipation and release.
- **The need for deliberate choices** [04:44] — Many songwriters feel out of control of their process. The common theme from a six-week accelerator program was the importance of making deliberate choices for each chord.
- **Four questions to shape chord mood** [05:23] — For any chord, ask: 1) Which shape or inversion? 2) Triads or extensions? 3) Fingers or pick? 4) What rhythm? The first two apply to any instrument; the last two are guitar-specific.
- **Activation affects mood** [06:19] — The fretting hand creates the chord shape, but the strumming/picking hand activates the strings and has a huge impact on the mood.
- **Shape and inversion change the sound** [06:34] — The same C major triad sounds warm in open position, brighter as a barre chord, and delicate when played higher on the neck with only four strings.
- **Inversions are less grounded** [08:15] — Root position is the most stable. Playing a chord off its third or fifth makes it lighter, less grounded and less stable.
- **Triads vs extensions** [08:45] — Triads are simple, direct and uncluttered. Adding extensions like major 7, 9, 11 or 13 adds nuance, complexity, mystery or sad/reflective qualities.
- **Fingers vs pick** [10:14] — A pick gives more volume, clarity and a harder edge. The pad of the thumb produces a softer, mellower sound.
- **Rhythm drastically changes mood** [10:55] — The same chord can feel reflective like a campfire strum or intense and assertive depending on the strumming or fingerpicking pattern used.
- **Build progressions one chord at a time** [13:19] — Starting from a home chord, each next chord changes the mood and moves away from home. Choosing each chord deliberately lets you control the emotional journey.
- **Major vs minor progressions** [15:36] — C-F-G with all major chords sounds lighter and brighter, common in folk, rock and blues. Using minor chords in the progression darkens the overall mood.
- **Surprise with outside chords** [17:18] — A Bb major 7 in a C-based progression is outside the key and takes the ear by surprise, creating a powerful emotional effect without needing theory.
- **Backtracking and reshaping** [17:59] — As you build a progression, you can backtrack if the mood isn't right, or reshape chords (e.g., add attitude or lighten the mood) until the feeling fits.
- **Feeling is the most efficient method** [19:19] — Writing based on feeling rather than theory is the most efficient and effective way to write songs. Think about the story or theme and make appropriate musical choices.

### Conclusion

The video's core message is that songwriters can unlock more creative control by focusing on the mood of chords rather than music theory. By asking four simple questions and building progressions one deliberate chord at a time, anyone can write songs that take listeners on an emotional journey.

## Transcript

there is a way of thinking about chords and chord choices that is so simple has nothing to do with music theory and in my opinion will help you write songs better than any other approach and this way of thinking gives songwriters a
number of very powerful tools firstly it's a great way to start songs and generate new and interesting ideas number two it's a way to get clarity on the type of songs you're writing or want to write three it's a method for writing
chord progressions with intense allowing you to deliberately and meaningfully create chord sequences that take the listener on a journey four it's a system for supporting your Melody and lyrics to create a song with cohesive elements
that are all working together and five it gives you control of arguably the most powerful Concept in music tension and release and the word I want to focus on that brings this whole concept to life is the word mood because when we
look past the notes that are in these chords or the names that we give them we're left with what everyone really cares about how they sound and how they make us feel so let's start with three basic chords that would often be used as
the first chords you hear in a new song and these chords would often be used to they're really establishing a mood that we can expect to continue through throughout the whole song so if we start with a major
with a major chord that chord is warm it's stable it's comforting and yes it's constructed of the one the three and the five that's a C major Triad but we don't need to care
about the construction to understand how it makes us feel or to use the mood that that chord creates in our songwriting we do need to know how it's constructed if we want to play these chords and I will include a free pdf showing how all of
throughout this video are constructed and how you can play them on guitar but right now what I want to focus on is the sound and the mood that these chords sound and the mood that these chords create so that chord as I was saying is
stable and it's warm and it's inviting so it's the perfect chord to kick off a song where you're trying to create those emotions or trying to create that kind emotions or trying to create that kind of
background in contrast if we play a C minor it's a whole different mood now we again that's the construction and we care about that in order to play them interested in here that sound is darker it's more
[Music] Melancholy and so this for songwriters is hugely important when playing a first chord in a song or establishing a mood at the beginning of a song because even before we know what we're writing about
or what the theme or the narrative is we're trying to create a mood that gets us into a certain space that helps us tell the kind of story we feel we want tell so that chord is going to start the song in a
particular way and take it in a particular direction which is a very different direction than this
at the beginning of a song to establish the tone or the mood is a dominant [Music] chord I created a video all about the different ways to play it and use it that you can check out up here but right
now we're just interested in the mood of this chord compared to the major and the minor what we're going to get used to as we go through this video is finding different ways of describing these chords and these descriptions will have
have everything to do with the feeling and the sound so C major had that warmth that stability C minor had that darkness and that Melancholy C dominant has that
anticipation or that suspenseful kind of feeling it's slightly agitated it's slightly unstable and again as songwriters we need to know this we need to be able to use this deliberately
sequences because this is what allows us to create contrast take our listeners on a journey play with tension and release do all those things that makes a song compelling and engaging throughout the whole form and this concept was one of
many that we talked about during our recent six- week accelerator program where we really dive deep into the art and craft of songwriting with a small world and a common theme that emerged as we worked with those songwriters over
that six week period was this idea of making deliberate choices it's a common songwriting Community this feeling of not being in control of the process not knowing what choices or options are available not feeling like their method
of writing a song is in any way repeatable so for me the idea of focusing on mood really gets at the heart of this problem but the way I'm playing these chords is just one way and there are many different ways to play
chords and so to get the most out of this concept and really dive deeper into ourselves four question questions for each of the chords that we're playing the first question we're going to ask is which shape or inversion are we playing
or adding extensions third question are we using fingers or Plum and fourth question what kind of Rhythm are we activating the chords with now the first two questions relate to many different kinds of
piano or something else those questions will still be very important the last two questions are really guitar specific spe or at least specific to stringed instruments and they're focusing on how we activate the
chords this concept of activation is a really important one because the Fring hand is the one creating the shape and finding an appropriate position on the neck but how we activate the strings and actually generate the sound of the chord
that's all up to this hand and that can have a huge impact on the mood that we're creating so we'll focus on shape and inversion first if I go back to that c major chord I played earlier that's a C major Triad in open position
that's a C major Triad in open position if I play it now as a bar
just adds a little brightness to the chord so instead of having that we get chord so instead of having that we get this now as we go higher up the
all six strings and has the C note on top if we go to this shape it's a more Delicate Sound there's only four strings in play and we're only four strings in play and we're quite high on the neck so this c chord
here has a very different mood or creates a very different feeling than this chord which in turn sounds different to chord which also sounds different to this chord
Choice it gives you the ability to choose the core that's appropriate to the mood you're trying to create or you may find that playing around with these different options Sparks an idea for a different kind of song If you're using
songwriting process and this is where I think the method is really effective using it at the very beginning of the process to spark an idea or to create a inversions this just means we're either playing the chord off its root off its
third or off its fifth so that is a c chord in root position there's the C note on the bottom playing it off its
bottom playing it off its third sounds different it's a different sound it's less grounded than that the C chord played off its root or any chord played off its root really is the most stable
different [Music] inversion it gets less stable it's a little lighter an area now the second question we can ask is are we using Triads or are we using extensions all of
these C chords you've been hearing so far have just been major Triads but we can now turn these into major sevs
and again the mood shifts the beauty of a Triad is that it's simple direct and uncluttered what you get when you start adding extra notes is a little more Nuance a little more complexity and so that major
7 might be perfect if you're trying to create a certain mood where the narrative is about complexity or it's trying to address an idea that's not so trying to address an idea that's not so straightforward not so clearcut
questions there's a little more mystery to that major 7 than there is with the Triad which feels very stable and at home and at rest we can now add extensions to the chord the nines the 11s the 13s and this again changes the
mood without changing the quality of the chord the chord is still a major chord but we're changing how the chord is perceived with these extensions so if we [Music] nine that's the
nine that's the n and the nine has a particularly sad n and the nine has a particularly sad and beautiful quality to it for me so and beautiful quality to it for me so there's that c major warm and
little sadder a little more reflective now we come back to this idea of activation and question three was around this idea of do we use fingers or Plum if you're using a pleum it changes the tone of the chord it also changes the
[Music] that's me using that's me using AUM that's me using the pad of my thumb softer sound it's more
sound it's more mellow the pleum because it's a piece of plastic gives us more volume gives it more clarity but also gives it a harder Edge and we can think of question four is really working in tandem with
question three what kind of Rhythm are we playing so this activation of a C major tried might sound more like a road [Music]
reflective and gives us the feeling of sitting around a campfire telling stories so we can ask these four questions of any chords but where I find
this technique really helpful is when we're beginning a s where we're laying the foundations for a new idea and we're using this first chord to establish the minor chord this time and move through those four questions quickly there's a C
minor there's another C minor C Minor 7 so in terms of shape or inversion let's go with that one and the second question is are we using Triads or adding extensions well let's put a nine on top that sounds nice fingers or pleum
let's stick with fingers and what kind of Rhythm are we activating the chords with well let's go with a gent strum and see how that
where we can have a lot of fun activating the chord in different ways if I go back to this chord and finger pick it [Music]
pattern but it's a little less intense it's a little less assertive but we can drastically with a very different kind of strum
the same chord with different strum patterns or finger picking patterns drastically changes the mood and this is where we can spend a lot of time having fun and experimenting as songwriters because these are all just different
depending on how you're feeling in the moment will often determine which one of these you choose to carry the song idea forward but generally when we're writing songs we're not just using one chord we're usually creating chord sequences
process of writing a new song and building these core progressions one cord at a time this concept Works beautifully to help us create some really interesting and appropriate chord sequences so if we go back to the c
sequences so if we go back to the c major chord and start tone that we were talking about before the next chord we move to will change
this mood whatever we move to it's going to and change the mood of the song the question is which mood are we leaning towards and this this is where we come back to this idea of making deliberate
choices because if we go to this chord for for [Applause]
things first of all it's taking us away from home the C chord was the home chord it was establishing the tonal center now we've gone to the two chord and so we've left home and whichever chord we went to we were going to have to leave home the
with that c major chord but we've left home we've gone to the two chord the two minor chord but the fact that it's minor has made it slightly darker it's changed the tone and the mood of the song now
let's go to another minor chord let's go to the a [Music] [Applause]
the fact that two of the three chords are minor gives us a particular feeling and and darkens up the mood of the whole piece but instead of those three chords c f g and back to C
you can hear that the absence of the minor chords keeps it lighter and brighter and using all major chords in a 145 pattern is a very common sound that you hear in folk and rock and blues and lots of other kinds of music and now we
can add a few extra chords to the equation to give us more options if I start with a c and the next chord I go to is a c Shar to
is that chord is full of tension and wants to resolve and we can use that tension to build up some anticipation and then release it with the next chord in the [Music]
[Music] sequence if we keep rising to the great [Music]
sound now we're at the D minor and this chord progression could go in a number of different directions one way that the ear might be expecting is to go to a G ear might be expecting is to go to a G chord which pulls us back home to the
C but we're building this progression one chord at a time and wear in control of each chord As We Lay the sequence out so [Music] instead of going there we might go
like [Music]
there and that B flat major 7 does something beautiful and that is it takes us by surprise the ear is not expecting to hear that cord and it creates this outside cord it's outside of the key that we were in but regardless of the
theory what we really care about is our ability to create that element of surprise with certain chord choices so if we play those two if we play those two [Music]
[Music] again [Applause] expected
of giving the ear something it's expecting or breaking the pattern and giving it something surprising and for me this feels like a really creative way to write songs because as I'm putting the chords together in a sequence I want
one chord at a time I want to see the different paths this song could take and and then I need to backtrack because the mood that was being generated wasn't the
appropriate mood that I was looking for let's go back to the mord and play it in let's go back to the mord and play it in a way that has a bit of
attitude I might use these [Music]
[Music] chords if I want to lighten the mood
much chord Theory and worrying about the circle of fourths or fifths this method allows us to write songs and create chord sequences based purely on feeling actually the most efficient and effective way to get a song written by
think about the themes that we're trying to bring to life or the story we're trying to tell and make the appropriate musical choices to support those ideas I'd love to know if this method works for you and if it yields any results so
helped you generate any new ideas or perhaps change the way you went about interested in these kind of discussions these are the kinds of things we love session so if you're interested in joining that Community you'll find the
joining that Community you'll find the link below happy songwriting bye