6 ELTON JOHN Chord Moves Every Songwriter Should Know!
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- čas přidán 4. 01. 2024
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In this video, we take a deep dive into the hit song, 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road' and discover 6 amazing chord moves that every songwriter should have in their playbook.
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ABOUT BENNY
Hi I'm Benny. My passion for music and creativity stretches across multiple disciplines and art-forms. I am a founding member and songwriter / lap-slide guitarist for one of Australia's best and most bearded country-bluegrass-folk bands, THE GREEN MOHAIR SUITS. To date the Mohairs have released 4 full-length albums and tour both nationally and overseas.
I am also the Founder and Head Producer of SILAMOR STUDIOS, a boutique studio specialising in Composition for Film, TV and Interactive Media. I write extensively across various instrumental and lyric-based genres and has been commissioned for major projects by Adobe, Cathay Pacific and Audible. I currently release original songs under the name SILAMOR.
I am also passionate about education and have taught song and lyric writing as well as film composition for JMC Academy, Collarts and the Australian Institute of Music. I design and regularly facilitate workshops on creative process and innovation.
Links to Bennny's music are here:
The Green Mohair Suits
open.spotify.com/artist/7M3Zf...
SILAMOR
open.spotify.com/artist/5HOpa...
www.silamor.com/music
#songwriting
#howtowritesongs
#howtowriteasong
#songwriting
#eltonjohn
#bestchords
#bestchordprogressions
#goodbyeyellowbrickroad
#chords
#musictheory
![Writing Progressions with Borrowed Chords: Songwriting Lesson [MUSIC THEORY - MODAL INTERCHANGE]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/7IdttvJSedg/mqdefault.jpg)
I'm a guitar player and I say it all the time I never learned as much as I did as when I started learning piano songs on the guitar, piano players are on another level
Nice to hear someone talk about the structure of an elton john song. Every song he has is well written and a great song and i wish people talked about him and his music more.
Like Yellow Brick Road, lots of songs don't start their chord progressions on the tonic in the vocal melody and that's a great way to build tension!
Or at least a sense of freshness to the ears of the listener.
Especially starting on the 2 or 4 always gives me a sense of movement/direction.
The fact that the verse starts away from the root ‘home’ and gradually flirts with returning home, finally returning us there, also supports the lyric of the song, which is about making the decision to leave the rat race in a shiny city and return to a simple and more satisfying life. The music does precisely what the lyric is suggesting. It deliberates on ‘awayness’ then returns.
Make more vids like this please
This is a fantastic analysis of that chord progression. I've always been drawn to it, and could never put my finger on why it does what it does, until you took the time to walk us through it! Thanks for that!
Elton said that he woke up from sleeping with the song that became yellow brick road in his head and that he had it basically written in fifteen minutes. Have heard this phenom about other writers too Hendrix in particular and Lennon said he kept a piano near his bed to be able to do the same. Seems that great pieces just sort of coalesce in the mind all at once and don’t need a great deal of agonizing to create. The skill would come in to knowing how to match a chord progression to the piece without actually trying to invent the whole thing. In other words, if you have to sit and try to put together a song using theory without already having it in your head, it will probably never capture the magic.
I once played guitar with an Elton John Tribute band. It was brutal learning everything pre internet charts!
I agree with most of what you discuss. I'm both a pianist and guitarist who's played every hit Elton John has written.
The basic premise of what you are discussing is strong bass movements.
Walter Piston (prominent music theorist) discusses this in his theory texts. I think you could have more cohesion to your video if you added the scale-like motion of the bass, why it works and why it's used.
Elton John incorporates this technique in many of his songs which has contributed to his success as a songwriter. It's.much more evident analyzing it on a piano than on the guitar. Pattern playing melodies on the guitar is as easy as it is to pattern playing harmonic changes on the piano.
Thousands of people on Reddit and Quora ask how to write a song...
You've nailed one of those elements.
Thanks for analyzing one of greatest songwriter's ever.
There's one key omission in the chord sequences: in the chorus Elton plays Gm --> Bb --> C --> F. The Gm to Bb movement is actually very interesting and gives color and lift to the passage.
A very similar sequence is in the prechorus, which is also missing a piece in this video: Elton plays Bbm --> Db --> Eb --> Ab --> ... which is exactly the same chorus sequence but in a different key. Again, the Bbm --> Db provides a lift to the harmony.
Elton is a master of using hints and repeating themes multiple times in a song, without being obvious. For instance, the "I've finally decided my future lies beyond the Yellow Brick Road" section uses the same descending chord sequence at the beginning of the song
Agreed 👍👍
His chords in his songs are really a revelation.
The C major functions both as a 3rd dominant in the scale of Ab and as a 5th degree in the original key of F. That's what makes the return to F as tonic so satisfying
Well done, mate! I love Rick Beato's "What Makes This Song Great" where he analyzes a song as a producer. I have been looking for a similar series analyzing songs as a songwriter. This is it! You should make this a regular series.
12tone is a great channel for this
@@mattbarrentine7056 I watch that channel regularly. But I want MOAR!
Obrigado
@@mattbarrentine7056thanks!
The chorus starts with Bb flat minor 😊👍
I'm complete addicted to Harmony and love this kind of content. Thanks!! Actually your Dm/C is F/C. Personally I prefer to use F C/E Dm F/C Bb etc... rather than Dm/C
Played this on the piano, sounds great.. thanks
Man i love that G&L. Sounds fantastic with those pickups!
I have seen a lot of videos on CZcams on music theory and songwriting as an ex Music teacher- some good, dome bad, some decidedly ugly. This is in a new category of awesome videos. There are few presenters who are so beautifully analytical. Precise, accurate, well explained. This is right up there with the very, very best material you will find for free anywhere. Watch, listen, digest and apply. I have just made that sentence up, and need to put it on a T-Shirt🤓thank you!
Awesome. I learned this song years ago with a capo and never really understood the chord progression. Now I've been schooled 🤘🎓
So glad I stumbled across this. It's a treasure trove for a musician like me with no formal education. Subbed.
This is amazing. I am a self taught guitarist with lots of holes in my understanding of how music works. The explanation and breakdown of this song is just what I needed, and I need MORE OF THIS!
Fascinating. I’ve started a song on the 6 minor and started a verse on the 4 major, and use the 2 and 6 minor in all kinds of creative ways, and believe that unusual progressions are such a great way to expand your writing… thanks for this!
He is absolutely amazing. I learned a lot of his songs on the guitar trying to emulate the keyboard. His structuring still baffles me. Thanks for explaining at least some of his magic.
Nicely done man. I play professionally in Nashville and I’ve always been fascinated with this song. You just connected all the dots for me. Thank you for making me smarter
I bet you have a bunch of stupid hand tattoos, huh?
These have been my favorite chord changes since I was little. This guitar explanation is a priceless gift 🙏
Thank you. I'd watch as many of these as you want to do. Really well done. Also great insight into Elton's genius.
One of the key ideas hovering over all of this is that the song is built with sections. Each section has a distinct key center. That's what the modulation is doing, and what the repeat of the pre-chorus accomplishes. The effect of this is you go on a journey (get it?, Yellow Brick Road) through the structure of the song.
This is a great song to analyze, and you’ve done an A-1 job with it. It’s especially cool that you’ve done it for guitar. Probably 100-200-1000 lessons for this on CZcams for piano, but how many done on guitar? And this is so much more than just a “How to Play” video.
Elton was a genius songwriter, on a level few if any, will ever reach. The stories from his band and others close to him about how Elton would just sit down at the piano and bang out the chords and vocal melodies for the lyrics Bernie Taupin had already written are legendary. To say Elton is an Icon is a bit of an understatement.
Nice guitar too, bro.
Always was one of my favourite elton john songs. Now i know more it is sheer brilliant composing.
Thank you for a wonderful lesson, having the theory along side is perfect. Just mentioning the circle of 4th’s / 5ths has been a tremendous help and I urge anyone who hasn’t seen that song writers tool to go and check it out, it floored me at how powerful it was once I understood how it’s used and my ability to understand what all this stuff means just went up a level.
Incredible analysis of this incredible song. I remember how much it blew me away the first time I heard it on the radio, and it still does today. It is exquisitely written, and stands the test of time. Thank you for sharing this. :-)
Love your 3 pickup G & L Tele. Sounds fantastic!
Fantastic analysis! I feel it's worth noting that much of what you talked about is a direct product of the lyric, since, like almost all John/Taupin songs, the lyrics came first on this one. The song is about someone who has found success, and is starting to think life may have been better without it. The lyrics evoke emotional instability when the protagonist bemoans their feelings of entrapment by fame, and resolve when the protagonist starts on their journey back home. The pre-chorus vocals sound like a wailing cry to me (layered with pristine vocals that make it one of the most beautiful cries ever heard).
And all that in ONE song! Still he has done three chord songs, too. All for the song. A lesson for all of us.
Marvellous explanation. Amazing job!
Great video, really enjoyed this, and that G&L guitar is so cool.
Wow! I really enjoyed that.
This was a great learning lesson…thank you very much
Yeah man! Great one, really love to see this kind of breakdown and done so well
Bring more of these, por favor amigos!
Awesome. Lots of moving bass notes. Seems this sounds more effective on piano than guitar for some reason. Great video!
This is a really well done video. Good job. Thanks for making it!
Definitely the best song by Elton John.
Definitely the best breakdown of this great song.
Amen to that
Huh? Try Rocket Man. Amoreena. Writing. Burn Down the Mission. Where to Now St. Peter.
Excellent analysis. A common feature of the borrowed chords here is the stark 2 step jump: F --> Db, or the other way, F --> A7.
awesome breakdown and explanation on the theory :):) what a great song - I wonder though ……. do you think the chords were built first or the melody came first ?
1) Intro: not only does the bass drop in melodic steps, but the melody above does similar a third above. Simple but very effective. 2) Verse: far more commonly called “Circle/Cycle of Vths”. 3) Pre-Chorus/Bridge: Cycle of Vths in Ab once again starting on the ii chord. 5) Chorus: A7 (3rd in key of F) is very common in gospel and blues progressions, a device Elton uses in dozens of his classic era tunes. 6) Db - Eb - F is another common EJ climb back to the Tonic. E.g., Don’t Let the Sun, Alice… Elton listened to a ton of great jazz growing up, then accompanied many blues and gospel singers with his band Bluesology. Those chord progressions hugely influenced his writing.
xlnt
Thanks for sharing !
Thanks for sharing !
I friggen love the changes in this song. I’ve broken it down before when I’ve played it in shows, and something i thought was really cool that wasn’t mentioned, was that the chorus actually isn’t really the first time we hear the dominant III chord. In the chorus, it’s an A7 because we’re in F. But in addition to the C chord serving as a dominant V of F to get us back into that key… its also the first time in the song we hear that Dominant III chord, because that C is the dominant III of Ab. It serves 2 very cool functions at once… priming us for going back to F, but also priming us to hear that dominant III of F (A7) in the chorus. As you say around 17:33, hearing the borrowed chords earlier in the song sets us up so beautifully to love them in the chorus. This song is a masterclass in parallel modulation all around.
Excellent analysis, thank you.
As someone that can’t justify course fees these lessons are brilliant. They are often so dense that someone with my rudimentary knowledge of theory will take a lesson like this apart multiple times and learn so much. Thanks. 👍🙏☯️
Benny, great resource here, thankyou. I have got loads out of these insights/observations. The tension, movement, stability, quality and resolution of chords. It's provided the science/rationale behind some moves I have already been doing - but now I understand more about why & when I might wish to engage them. There is plenty I didn't know and what a masterclass of a video and song to leverage! Big takeaways for me were to be bolder with my borrowed chords - write a progression I wouldn't then try to come up with a melody - super helpful breaking out of habitual patterns. I want to leverage parallel modulation now to create a sone with a sad key (minor ) verse modulating to happy (parallel major) or visa versa to provide stronger prosody supporting the lyrical message. I encourage anyone watching to sit down watch, pause, noodle, doodle, reflect and play - I've done this the last 3 mornings and it's been inspirational and really bedded in the knowledge. Thankyou Benny & Keppie for your continued high quality content that balances that instant gratification youtube "fix" with content meaty enough and worth enough of regular reflection and study. Happy New Year. More please 😁
Elton was unimaginable genious
I’m ashamed to say, I have never noticed how pretty that song is! Props to Mr Elton and to you sir!
I've been playing guitar for 47 years . this is one of the best explanations on youtube
Thank you so much. I love GB Yellow Brick Road.
As an intermediate guitar player just starting to dissect songs and music theory, this video and channel couldn’t have hit at a more perfect time. Subscribed for more, thanks for the video!
Elton John is a genius! I love his music, particularly his early 70s period. Thanks Bennie!
Yeah, I was lucky enough to hear Elton as he released his songs back in the 70’s. That “Mario” cadence at 15:40 is very useful, the bVI - bVII - I is a great way to end a minor song on the Picardy Third, the parallel major. People think a song is in say G Major or G minor, but it’s in the key of G regardless. Borrowing from the parallel major/minor, along with relative and parallel major/minors of your tonic, subdominant / dominant, opens a world of opportunities. You can never underestimate the ii-V7-I, as you can pretty much use it to modulate to any key you want. You can make any chord which exists sound good in any key, if you precede it with an ear worm.
Great job mate, thanks.
Was looking for someone to mention the mario cadence!
This is fantastic.. very smartly done.. the shapes in the guitar with the bass notes are a little hard for a intermediate player but if played on the piano, it is easier and sounds great with the bass notes.. great job mate 🤗
That’s a real cool guitar you have there man! I love it. Sounds great and looks great. Thats a nice blue and the pickups are an awsome choice.
What a masterful song.....we just don't get songs like this today.....
Thank you for this excellent analysis !! I always thought this song was extra special !!
Very VERY interesting. This is a great study. Thanks for the insight. I will definitely make use of it. Cheers to you 🍻
A tremendously educating and entertaining analysis of one of my all-favorite songs. My head is swimming with all of the dots that were just connected for me. Standing ovation!
First time I heard YBR played loud, in stereo, at a dance - it actually made me feel uneasy and just a little nauseous, like the way one feels after getting off a roller-coaster - but it has become one of my favorite EJ songs since. :^)
This is a great video to learn from! Awesome job, Benny. Thank you!
0:20 "Looking for an island in a boat upon the sea." Bernie Taupin and Elton John. (Probably to buy it. Airport included of course.)
What an excellent and inspiring video. Well done.
Dude! This is a FANTASTIC video. Great edit and excellent content. Thanks for the breakdown!! Looking forward to more videos like this. Thank you❤
Fantastic lesson, technical but easily accessible because of your presentation!
I subbed to see more of your content! Thanks for sharing!
Perfectly presented and so well paced!
As a guitar player who is now up to my knees in learning piano, EJ’s songs have inspired me for years. This was my first Elton album. Even though Zep and Sabbath were mainstays on my turntable, this music changed me. Thanks so much for your insight and analysis. Great perspective and video.
Fantastic analysis, this was really a treat. I love that song and this discussion was so clear. Thanks again, you guys are the best!
Good analysis mate Elton seems to use a lot of Gospel type sequences on his songs and like most piano players has had some classical i fluence to maybe you could discuss this if you havent already ? Cheers
As a piano player I'm hearing F C/E Dm F/C Bb Bb/C C F
- Bb/C is similar to F/C but it includes a Bb note instead of an A which is what the ear wants to hear if we're resolving it into an F (4th note resolves into 3rd like a suspended chord).
- Coming from Dm, F/C sounds better than Dm/C (lose the D note)
Also Bb (Lydian) to Db sounds great because it works like a modulation from Bb to Bb- (Bbm/Db), like Lydian to minor Lydian.
Great analysis. Thanks. This is degree level stuff made simple!
One of my favorites especially for the structure/chord progression. I use it as a major example for all these elements when teaching theory.
This is a absolutely fantastic breakdown of chords in terms of theory. Extremely easy to understand. Would love to see a Stevie Wonder breakdown. He uses some resl interesting chord movements.
Me too, ‘Overjoyed’ would be a good one. I don’t understand a lot of theory, but I imagine there’s all kinds of magic going on in that one.
yess!
I bet the Beatles have a few interesting ones as well
I love this suggestion!!!!! Stevie Wonder, please!!
You want to see a Stevie Wonder breakdown? What did he ever do to you?
Wow this was excellent, I loved that. One of my favourite songs ever and seeing this kind of analysis gave me a real insight into the musical creativity behind it. Thank you!
Superb analysis...loved it thoroughly! 👌 ❤
That thumbnail !
BTW, the real secret to EJ’s flow is his use of inversions
this was a great rundown, thank you!
Hearing a breakdown of these songs using guitar is massively helpful. Allows for seeing how the lyrics follow the chords sequences. Sort of putting one in the head of the song writer. Cool video.
great video! thank you. . Now I love this song even more
very solid inspiration and material. thanks
The A7 and the D7 chords are secondary dominants (V/vi and V/II) respectively, the first one resolving as a deceptive cadence
Was looking for this comment! I was curious how he was going to interpret them as borrowed chords (because, borrowed from what key?), but he never ended up explaining that.
True. And the Db-Eb-F on the chorus is a clasical backdoor cadence.
I love it when songwriters aren't afraid of a little theory. You don't have to be Beethoven but a little elegance goes a long way. Cheers!
Really well done. Would love to see more videos like this. 👍
As many have said already, great job with this. I'm such a fan of Elton and his songs. If you were to do more of these songwriting breakdowns of tunes by Elton and similar artists, I'd click every time! Especially in the chord-diagramming sense. You did such a great job explaining the effectiveness of his chord moves. Cheers, and thanks for the great content!
Thank u for breaking down some Elton chord theory. More Elton, and maybe some Elliott Smith and Beatles!
Excellent presentation. analysis and explanation of the options available.
Great pacing on your video . And a great song to analyze
So interesting. So well done. Thanks.
9:19 The band Suede loves to use the bVI chord; it shows up in a majority of their songs.
Great Job -------- on all aspects. Informative -- entertaining & a great music lesson. Really cool to see it on guitar.
Great job !
Much gratitude
As others have said, fabulous job analyzing the chord progressions. As I write it just made me think, is there anything as interesting to say about the melody line?🧐
A great job and well explained.
Thumbs up for the beautiful G&L ASAT Special+ with an extra/middle pickup!
Well Done
Great Explanation
Great job brother! Well presented 👍
Thanks for this fantastic analysis.
this is great explanation. It's so clear and enables creativity, thank u!
What a great lesson. What a great song too . Thanks