Make a Song

Three steps. You pick the chords, you pick the groove, you write the tune, and at the end you press play on something that did not exist an hour ago. Nothing here has a correct answer.

Start here

Pick your chords.

Choose a key, take three of its seven chords and put a bass underneath. That is already a loop, and the next two steps build on whatever you chose.

The three steps

Pick Your ChordsChoose a key, take three of its seven chords and put a bass under them. Hear what you picked and change it until it sounds right.
Give It a GroovePut a rhythm under your own chords. Choose a tempo, a count and how each bar is played, and hear four bars turn into something that moves.
Add a Tune and a ShapeWrite four bars of melody over the chords you picked, find the note that makes it land, then build a second section and put them in an order.

Keep going

Practice
Diatonic Chords
How Chord Progressions Work
Pulse, Tempo and Meter
Writing a Melody
Song Forms
Music Theory From Nothing

The other sections

Everything on this site sits in one of these, in the order they are meant to be learned.

Every kind of exercise

Ear Training
Reading Practice
Rhythm Practice