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The Songwriter's Workshop: Harmony | 
 enlarge | Author: Jimmy Kachulis
Publisher: Berklee Press
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $18.73
You Save: $11.22 (37%)
New (30) Used (6) from $18.73
Avg. Customer Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 31497
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 205
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 11.9 x 8.9 x 0.6
ISBN: 0634026615
Dewey Decimal Number: 782
UPC: 073999213751
EAN: 9780634026614
ASIN: 0634026615
Publication Date: October 1, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.
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Product Description
Learn the fundamental techniques behind today's hit songs, with easy-to-follow exercises so you can immediately apply these tools to your own songs. Quit wrestling with writer's block, and learn to make the songwriting process easy, fun, and intuitive. Kachulis covers a variety of topics, including: colors of chords and keys * chord embellishments and progressions to enrich your palette of colors * dozens of ways to modify your harmonies and progressions * the most common chord progressions used in hit songs * and more. Practice your songs with an accompaniment on the play-along CD!
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| Customer Reviews:
Accessible Intro To Harmony And Song Structure April 12, 2006
20 out of 20 found this review helpful
This book, along with its companion by the same author, Songwriter's Workshop: Melody, comprise a solid, straightforward course in writing songs along the lines of what I'd (reluctantly) call "classic rock and pop" of the 60's through the 80's. The harmonic vocabulary covered in this volume is comparable to what most guitar-oriented songwriters
used then and continue to: open position chords with descending bass lines, major triads with thirds and fifths in the bass, etc. It may be a sign of the times at Berklee or, more
likely, just the author's orientation but you won't find jazz/show tune techniques here nor Steely Dan changes so if that's more your cup of joe, I'd recommend Jack Perricone's "Melody in Songwriting" which makes a great followup to this series.
But otherwise, there's little prior knowledge assumed (other than an interest in and listening experience to a wide range of songs) and much to be learned.
Kachulis's approach is to build up song structures by having you focus on individual elements: groove, chord color, modal chord progressions over small sections building to contrasts
over larger forms. Always refering to an example song or to the accompanying recording the approach is logical, and it should work for those requiring different levels of handholding and validation. You can imitate the examples closely or just
glean from the principles, going your own way.
And let's face it: Many of the points about song structure are just as applicable whether your composing German Lieder, folk ballads, cabaret torch songs or a neo-prog synth-drenched epic.
Cure Your Writer's Block February 1, 2005
3 out of 9 found this review helpful
I was suffering from a severe case of writer's block before picking up "The Songwriter's Workshop: Harmony". I have picked up new techniques from modifing harmonies to learning popular chord progressions. The play-along CD has been instrumental in my development as a writer. I highly recommend this book if you are suffering from writer's block and want to learn great techniques to creating hit songs.
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