Music theory
Music Theory Basics for Songwriters Who Write by Ear
You can write good songs without reading a note. But a handful of ideas will save you hours of guessing — these are the ones worth knowing.
A key is just a home and a family of chords
When people say a song is in G, they mean G feels like home and the chords that sound natural come from the G family. You do not need to read notation to use this. You only need to know which family you are in, because that tells you what will sound right next.
Numbers travel better than letter names
Writers describe progressions with numbers — one, four, five, six — because the numbers stay the same in every key. Learn that the 1–5–6–4 shape is the sound of thousands of songs, and you can play it in any key without memorising new letters.
Major and minor are a single note apart
The third note of a chord decides its mood. Lower it a semitone and a bright chord turns wistful. This is the cheapest emotional edit in songwriting: keep the melody, flatten one third, and the whole line reads differently.
Sevenths add colour, not complexity
Adding one extra note on top of a chord gives you a seventh. A major seventh sounds dreamy, a minor seventh sounds smooth and modern, a dominant seventh sounds like it wants to move somewhere. Swap one plain chord for a seventh and a plain progression grows up.
Borrowed chords are how you surprise people
One chord from outside the family, used once, is a hook. A flat-sixth in a major key, or a major fourth in a minor key, catches the ear precisely because everything around it belongs. Use it sparingly, usually just before the chorus.
Transposing is for your voice, not for the theory
If a song is a struggle to sing, the key is wrong for you, not the melody. Move everything up or down the same number of semitones and nothing about the song changes except how comfortable it feels. On guitar, a capo does the same job in one move.
Theory explains what your ear already chose
The useful order is ear first, theory second. Hum the idea, get the chords, then look at what happened and give it a name. That is exactly the workflow Hummingchord is built around — it names the key and the chords so you can learn the theory from your own songs.
See the theory in your own song
Hum a melody and Hummingchord names the key, the chords and how well they fit.
Start humming — free