SONGWRITING: Oasis Style Chord Sequences For Beginners
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- Опубліковано 11 жов 2024
- Join James Hargreaves to learn how to find the diatonic chords in any key, and how to genre-swap them to create the Oasis sound in your chord sequences.
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Many thanks, JH.
Hey all - lots of people have asked about the non-bar chord version of Cm, so I thought I'd just pop it in a comment here for anyone who's interested.
e---3---
B---4---
G---0---
D----X---
A---3---
E----X---
You mute the D string using the soft pad of your index finger. Or, if you want, you can leave the D string open to add a crunchy mu-chord feel to the voicing.
Hope that's helpful,
Cheers
JH
Brilliant. Simply brilliant. I shouted 'Stand By Me'!!!
It's a tune!
Not the biggest Oasis fan but they’re a big part of my teenage years. At the same time I was also learning to play guitar so a lot of Noel’s chord choices (Cadd9!!!) have crept into my own songwriting! Can’t deny that Oasis are an influence on myself as well as millions of other guitarists of that generation.
Yeah they had a big influence right across the board
The best way I learnt chord changes quickly was to get a capo, put it on a random fret 1-5 and just played C, D, A, E, Em, Dm, G, Am and I started hearing famous songs when playing them. Good way of learning I think. Good video again 👍🏻
Cheers Tom
two videos in 2 days!, brillaint video once again, thanks james
Cheers Ted 🎸🎸🎸🎸🤘🤘🤘🤘
Really good video - you have a great way of explaining without getting too technical for us couch players 👍
Excellent! Thanks for that Brian.
I think it's an Einstein quote - "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough."
Such a simple concept but so powerful!
Thanks!
Oh wow, talk about a video that adds levels to guitar players trying their best worldwide. Literally had an epiphany during your explanations here, I need to go back and learn my scales and experiment with this. Thank you!
Those Oasis guitar chord songbooks back in the mid 90s were like the Holy Grail for me at the time when I first picked up an acoustic guitar. I remember I bought The Beatles, The Stone Roses and Oasis first 2 guitar chord songbooks to learn my craft. I just felt Oasis songs were far easier to learn and spent my hours learning, listening, strumming away and understanding their music much more during that time than anyone else.
Thats great. Learning other people's stuff inside and out is a bit like getting a masterclass from that songwriter. Valuable stuff.
At least it wasn't as bad grewing up in the 80s. When my Mother would listen to ABBA non stop on the tape cassette in her old banger of a Escort whenever she took me & my siblings out in her car. One thing I did learn from Oasis & ABBA was the instant second of their identity marked on any song with the intro.
Fantastic work as usual James! Its great that you've included examples as it's just important to figure out how these different changes make the song feel and sound. I personally love the bittersweet landing of a 4 minor to 1 change. It's used in my song "the worlds not set in stone". That's my shameless plug over and done with 😂, keep up the good work man!
Cheers Jack! All the best
That was really, REALLY cool. I just totally dig Oasis chord progressions. And you have a lovely singing voice my man!
This may be a couple years old, but it’s a great video and you clearly explain the techniques so well! Keep it up, James!
The perfect video to get me through online school! Thanks James
Great to hear!
You are an amazing teacher iv spent lots of money on lessons and iv got more out of one video of yours than any of there lessons thanks very much
Cheers Kenny thats kind of you to say
I've been writing for years but still great to look at basics again, so simple and great. Nice video!
Cheers - yeah it's always good to have a refresher no matter what level you're at!
@@JamesHargreavesGuitar can you do a video on how to make a good bridge and chorus transition from verse?
@@PositiveRate_ I know I'm a year late but my own advice for transitioning between different sections of a song is to:
1. make the transition chord non-diatonic to surprise the listener and also make them realise that you're going somewhere new
2. make the transition resolve quite nicely to make the listener feel nice and comfortable in the new section
I was looking for a video like this for a long time! Thank you, mate.
More than welcome
It's really interesting and probably worthwhile to lots of people having you explain the theory behind lots of Oasis chord progressions.
song writing
I think if you were to ask Noel Gallagher about diatonic chords he wouldn't have a clue what you were talking about. I've seen him in interviews where he says he doesn't even really know the names of the chords. Let alone keys.
Lol yeah... although I think he knows a hell of a lot more than he lets on - about music, about business, about human nature in general. I think he plays up the brainless yob image and its not entirely real haha
Or alternatively... that attitude came from cocaine use in the 90s...
@@JamesHargreavesGuitar I’m sure I saw an interview with him where he was talking about Jonny marr doing a guest solo on noels first album, and Jonny Marr said bloody hell you’ve done it in G minor (implying g minor is hard to improv on). Noel definitely knows more than he lets on, the chord progression on the master plan is sublime
@@youngwt1 Yeah but I don't think Gallagher is interested in why very much. He just has learnt what progressions he likes, that's why the chords mentioned by James recure together with good old Cadd9.
In interview he said that his guitar playing facilitates what he does in Oasis [and subsequently?]
I read that McCartney remarked to Noel and Weller 'Oh you and yer bloody books' when they recorded together. I would suggest that Songwriting Secrets Of The Beatles by Dominic Pedler is on his shelf.
@@JamesHargreavesGuitar yes he started off as a roadie for the inspiral carpets, so he had experience in some aspects
@@youngwt1 yeah but it's literally just a run down of a bass note, you literally just go one fret down everytime, no way did he intentionally make that chord progression to be the way it is, he probably just played the first chord, thought it sounded good and kept going down a note lol. Then just added layer after layer from then on. Pretty sure the guitar solo in that tune is in reverse too.
It's a great video. I think the "Oasis" sound really is the sound of rock as opposed to pop (modern pop I mean). Rock has a strong influence from the Blues, which uses 3 non-diatonic chords. Brit-pop also came at the time when rock music had been turned upside down by grunge. And grunge typically ignores traditional harmony by using power chords which are neither major or minor, or frequently use major chords for all chords, as well as ignoring the diatonic scale even in the choice of the chord tonic (root note).
Yeah I see what you're saying. It's hard to define because rock is such a broad church. You've got bands like U2 who seem to virtually never leave the diatonic chords, and bands like Porcupine Tree who are all over the shop and venturing into prog.
I suppose if I was going to be technical I would define the non-diatonic stuff as rock-blues like you said, or rock-jazz... but its not really jazz its just slightly jazz influenced. I dunno. We need a new word hahaha
@@JamesHargreavesGuitar Yeah that 's true. You have bands that are defined as rock mainly because of the use of distortion but that are not (or not much) influenced by the Blues: U2, the Cranberries... You also have rock band that don't have the Blues influence but are still more complex with an influence from classical music (western harmony), such as Muse, Radiohead, even the Beatles in some of their experimentations (they obviously had a strong blues influence more often than not), and so many more. To me that is not how I define rock at its core, I mean it could be played by an orchestra and wouldn't be rock, although I know it does belong to the rock genre.
This video was quite helpful. I've been playing guitar for quite while, but you gave me something to think about. Noel Gallagher's songs are beautiful in their simplicity. Add the Cadd9 chord and A diminished 2nd/4th chords to these chords sequences and you have it all. Happy songwriting guys!
This was absolutely fascinating. I'm a huge Oasis fan and average guitarist but I learnt so much, thanks James!
James your videos are help me so much you explain everything so well its easy to understand my playing is now getting better thanks to you
Glad to help!
Been waiting for this one for a while and it's very good advice about chord progressions and how to make them interesting. Usually people on UA-cam just say come up with something. I better get myself a capo. Cheers
Cheers Noxvi - was it you who requested it? I tried to find the original comment requesting this and theres so many thousands upon thousands of comments now that I couldn't lol
@@JamesHargreavesGuitar probably not the only one haha but I did ask you to do this. Cheers for the tutorial
King James your fast becoming my favourite channel. Really good video for myself as not tried writing anything before after playing guitar for 15 months now.
Hey Ricky, thanks so much my friend 🎸🎸👍👍
If you get some stuff written and recorded, send me a link
Nice to see not only minor chords turned major, but major chords turned minor.
When I'm writing progressions and I use a borrowed chord, I often add the flat 7th to it to really give it that weirdly pleasing dissonance.
E.g: G, A7, C, D
Nice! Yeah I love that Beatley sound
Phenomenal lesson. Thank you!!! Exactly what I needed
What guitar you use in this video ?
It looks great it sounds great
I already knew most of this but still learnt some valuable info, thanks mate!
Bit of something similar here too 👍 ua-cam.com/video/iVPk9R3RA68/v-deo.html
No worries bud - yeah I find that even though I have plenty of grounding in songwriting it's always nice to just get a refresher here and there - fills in the gaps so to speak.
@@JamesHargreavesGuitar Yeah
Oh thank you so much , I did not understand it before but now I totally get it , thank you
Great video, really well explained. Simple but powerful
Really enjoyed the video thanks! Will definitely try and come up with some nice chord progressions using this tip. Another thing I struggle with is once I have the verse progression how to come up with suitable bridge and chorus progressions. Sometimes I think the verse would now be better as the chorus!
Well there aren't any hard an fast rules, but here are a few general guidelines that are kind of in the right ballpark!!
The Bridge wants a bit of tension, so stay away from the '1' chord - use D, Em, Am, C etc. Throw in plenty of genre-swapped chords on the bridge, especially a major 2 chord (A if youre in G) or a minor 4 chord (Cm if youre in G). The Bridge wants to be sort of 'asking a question'.
The Chorus wants to be answering that question, so plenty of '1' chord! Let the G (or whatever the '1' chord is in your current key) be prominent in the chorus to give that 'landing back home' feel.
I know that's a bit vague... but I'm trying to put words to something that is bloody difficult to articulate hahaha
Hope that helps!
JH
Thank you, James!
I boutgh my first acoustic guitar and start to learn about music just one year ago. This videos you've been producing are very interesting and usefull to me! Cheers!!
Excellent, glad to hear it!
I love this video mate !!
Cheers David!
After just getting into guitar myself and learning songs with those chord sequences this is a very helpful video to have, Thanks James. Maybe I have a better ear for music than I thought as I recognised the chord sequence for D’yer wanna be a spaceman immediately :) #takebackthecharts
finished the vid, struggling to decide whether I just know too many oasis songs or I have an ear for music haha, great vid James
HA could be a bit of both!
Thanks for watching dude
You F**ing nailed it!
Thanks! Happy jamming
Another great video on Oasis!
Cheers Pedro! More to come mate
Very clear and helpful explanation!
This is pretty cool actually:) will help a lot of folks out for sure
glad to hear it
Just came across your channel! Brilliant mate 👍🏼
Thanks and welcome :)
Thank you for this James! This is definitely going to add direction to my noodling!!
Excellent! Have fun
Great point about Seahorses lol! Playing along to the album was a challenge but a lot of fun! Maybe you could do a tab video for Love is the Law intro? I wish I knew it used a capo at the time!!! edit: just found your Love is law solo tab video, wowza that's some epic playing, you rock!!!
Thanks! That solo was absolute murder to learn
Mate you are fantastic keep it up !
Cheers bud, all the best!
Really helpful. Thanks James
Very welcome
Thanks for all your guitar tips very helpful
This is bloody brilliant, thanks
You legend
simple
informative
Top Teacher. Thanks
Great video had me singing along ❤️
Glad you enjoyed
I always played Em/C for the fourth chord in Stand By Me.
Play C/b instead sounds better and take pinkie of 1st string on B7 for Stand by me
@@jakebairstow2827 that’s what I play aswell and Noel uses that C major to C major/B chord transition a lot
@@jakebairstow2827 that's what I meant, I'm not very good at theory. I play an Em with the high C note on second string.
I dig what you're doing with your channel. I'm in the US but I'm totally on board with #takebackthecharts
I was in high school when Oasis became a thing. I've been waiting for something else to come along like that ever since. The Strokes came close but it was the classic "band gets strung out on drugs after 3rd album" thing.
Hey Mike, thanks man - there does seem to be a similar overload of crap music in the US too haha
I have seen a few decent guitar-driven acts on SNL / Colbert / Seth Meyers in the past few months, so that has been encouraging from the US perspective
Great lesson!
Thanks! 😃
Hi James this is invaluable info thank you very much love the vids keep them coming 🤘🎸
Great lesson! 👍
Thanks guys!
Enjoyed that buddy 💪🏻👍🏻
Cheers Martin 👍👍
Great video 💯
Jimbo!! I was just about to get my head down after a tough night shift...
I'd love to see some content on the best covers Oasis did. My favourite being Helter Skelter.
Gotta say I'm a fan of their cover of Cum On Feel The Noize
Hey Wayne 👍👍
Interesting idea re a feature on Oasis cover.
For me the best one Heroes - I think that's one of their most underrated covers.
I think NG's Help (done live a few times) was especially good.
@@JamesHargreavesGuitar I really prefer the Oasis version over the original! (Sorry, Bowie)
What is your guitar model? Thanks for such a deep-dived video, helps a lot.
this is brilliant ! more like this
big fan of your content, anyway here's my unsolicited idea for a video on Nick McCabe and how he saved Urban Hymns.
Hey - interesting idea... I don't know all that much about the Verve's story etc, but I would find it interesting to do some digging. Maybe one day!
Enjoyed this video.. Thank you..👍
more than welcome 👍👍🎸🎸
Ive always tried to overcomplicate it when writing songs even as an oasis fan when they only really used basic chords, cheers👍🏼
No worries, hope this vid helps
A really interesting video!! Will you do another video on songwriting? Showing us other tips like key changes or how to write oasis like guitar solos? I'm really interested in this!!
Hi Petia - I may do more stuff on songwriting in future, yes... Not sure exactly when, but there will be more to come 👍👍🎸🎸
quality👊will save this for later and give it a go
Cool 🎸🎸🎸
5 stars.. Really great vid x
Cheers Paul, much appreciated
Amazing video
Thank you!
My pleasure, cheers Edward
James mate, can I make a video request? How to do backing vocals NoelG style. This would be really interesting - Noel does very basic BV (mostly hitting the 5th of the chord I think) but it's so effective in the context of the music...and so Oasis/Slade/T.Rex...
An interesting idea... I will definitely bear it in mind 👍👍
This is very good information. I already know all this but for beginners it's very good information.
However, I will say this, melody is the most important thing. This is why Noel himself says he doesn't give a shit about chords but I know what he means. What is lacking on youtube is analysis on melody. You could look into this for Oasis for example. What intervals does Noel use? Does he have any preferences. I haven't examined it much and not at all for Oasis but I'm sure they provide a huge flavour in the styles of certain song writers.
I would actually say that the melodies of the type of music you are discussing here are probably what drives the chords that are used and I think this is true of most songs. That's not to say knowing this chord theory is unimportant but I think that is what Noel is saying when he says he says he doesn't care about chords. Because he is influenced by The Beatles, Kinks etc he ends up with these types of chord progressions but it's because of the melodies.
There is a glut of learning material about chords and so many people know this diatonic chords stuff but there is hardly any analysis of melodies. Lots of shredder guitarists get into scales it but very little about writing song melodies.
Great video
Thanks for the visit
Very helpful thanks! Cheers!
No problem!
could you do some early oasis vids with some of there first tunes like Alice and take me, would love to hear the theory behind them simple but powerful songs
Maybe one day!
In D'You Wanna Be a Spaceman? I think it's an A7 and possibly a Cadd9 instead of a straight A and C after the G, and where did Noel get that idea from? play G, A7, C and it's Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, coincidence? I'm not sure lol!
Haha yeah I didn't use exact accuracy on the chords for those songs - the point was really more showing how the simple plain chords themselves can be put together to make different textures and sounds
Amazing as usual. Can you show the finger positions for the C minor without shaping a bar chord?
Hey Joaquin, loads of people are asking about this so I'm going to put it in a pinned comment - 2 minutes
It's easy to write oasis tunes. Keep the pinky and ring fingers on the third frets of the high E and B strings, and otherwise play open chords with those two fingers locked in place. Done.
with the diatonic chords in the key of G & C, you pretty much just used all the chords in 99.9% of oasis songs :p
maybe 90% (he did use alot of bar chords in the first 2 years)
@@JamesHargreavesGuitar noel said he didn't want to play lead, but bonehead wasn't that great on lead. Guess that's why he mostly played bare chords. :p That's why in high flying birds he only plays rhythm mostly he's said.
Fantastic
I always feel like you are going to deliver some bad news every time the screen goes grey.
Hahahahahaha
I think James is giving Rick Beato a good run for his money! ;)
Nga mihi James
Great video James! I'm always trying to put together a song and I'm finding I can put words 3/4 chords together with words that will sound pretty good as either a chorus or a verse but then I struggle to find the chords that will make a good complimentary chorus or verse (depending what's required) to go with it. I'm sure there are rules of theory that will guide me. But i can't find it anywhere. Can you help at all please??
Hi Paul - it depends what key you are in, but assuming you start in G... you can use any of the ones outlined in this video (G, Am, Bm, C, D or Em) and if you want to throw a twist in there you can add a non-diatonic chord (A, B/B7, Cm, Dm, E or F).
Experiment with different chord combinations until you find one that sounds 'right', then try to come up with a tune to sing that is a little higher than what you were singing for the verses
@@JamesHargreavesGuitar o.k that simple eh! Thank you.
great thanks!
Thanks for your support EB :)
Glad it was helpful 🎸🎸🎸
Nice, thanks.
welcome 👍👍
Thank you 🥺
You’re welcome 😊
This is so interesting.Great channel. Other People criticise Noel Gallagher yet George Martin thought he was Good.
People who criticise Noel tend to have been put off by his non-musical antics, or his lead guitar playing. When it comes to his songwriting however, he had the magic, and the longevity of his work with Oasis is clear proof of that
PLEASE do a video on how to write oasis-like guitar solos. #takebackthecharts
Hi Charles, I've done a little bit about soloing over Oasis songs here - its just an introduction, but might help?
ua-cam.com/video/1OXCG3S-s7E/v-deo.html
Thank you!!!
i have finally figured out what i have been doing wrong all my life playing oasis and not understanding why it doesn't sound right.
Thanks James I am self taught and thought you had to stick to the same chords in every key 🤣
Hi Paul - ha, nah once you know the rules you then know how to break them artistically. There are, in fact, no rules (see Nirvana)
@@JamesHargreavesGuitar I will have to look at the three songs I've wrote and mix it up. Great videos keep it up
I have a question! Does Noel stay in the same key for verses, chorus and bridges?
Noel does different things on different songs to be honest. He sometimes changes key in a song (Live Forever outro, It's Better People bridge) and in other songs stays in the same key
Thanks mate, it's been very helpful. I'm new to songwriting and I'd really love to write an oasis style song, have you got any tips on how to write an oasis like melody?
Hi Dario... when it comes to melody its alot harder to explain...
The main thing I would say is try to have your vocal line different to your guitar line. If the guitar is frantic and fast, try creating a contrast by having long notes sung over the top (like the chorus to Wonderwall - frantic strumming going the whole time, but really nice contrast of long notes sailing over the top).
Also, try giving the song a lift in the chorus by having the vocals go up (see Don't Look Back In Anger) it really makes the chorus the high point - which is what you want
When I write my own material it doesn’t seem to transfer into electric guitar to get the britpop sound how do I remedy this?
6:38 sounds very „beatles“😀
The main point to me is that today's producers they mess with the piano roll on a DAW and write chords. Thinking they sound good. In reality they are pretty static and boring, and follow some rules that some youtube tutorial says. Even if you do chords inversions, mess with octaves in the chords and so on, nothing really change. Unless you're on the same level as Mozart nothing will ever come out good from a piano roll. Even pro composers, who use that, struggle to write a real hit. The problem is feeling. What worked for the rock and roll doesn't work in a daw: in rock they used to mess with guitar chords and finger position regardless of music theory, and that's what defined rock sub genre, following their taste. The difference is HUGE. A real instrument, personal taste, good ear, genious mind can put you on another level when write music, even without music theory. A piano roll on a DAW following the music theory is the death of music, and if you don't follow the music theory in in the piano roll everything sounds shit, in contrast to a real instrument. And we are seeing that.
I agree
Can someone simply explain to me, or point me to, some info about how to work out chords when you put a capo on? Like with the capo on the 2nd fret, the G shape becomes an A... put it on 4th fret it becomes a B. I can't wrap my head around it.
Say I'm playing a C shape... if I put a capo on the 2nd fret does that become a D?... on the 4th fret does it become an E?
Hi Don. Notes go in this order:
A, Bb, B, C, C#, D, Eb, E, F, F#, G, G# (and then it starts again).
Every time you add a capo on fret one, you move the chord up by one letter.
If you put the capo on fret two, you move the chord up by two letters.
Hope that helps
Yes, if you play a C with the capo on 2 it becomes a D, and with the capo on 4 it becomes E
@@JamesHargreavesGuitar Yup makes sense. Good video, really helpful.
What are you fretting for c minor on don’t look back in anger?
N
É c major
Hi Michael.
It's an open chord version of Cm.
e---3-----
B---4-----
G---0-----
D----X-----
A---3-----
E----X-----
if it helps, Noel does it Cadd9 to Cm shape like......... x32033 to x31033 - stretch of the index finger up to fret 1 but bit easier maybe
@@raven798 its the capô version right
#takebackthecharts
preach
First
Hi Jorge. Quick off the mark there... 🚴♂️
@@JamesHargreavesGuitar saludos desde México, u great man
G, A, C, G is just an oasis song
Do you wanna be a spaceman