Is it Possible to 'Steal' a Chord Progression? | How To Write Songs
Вставка
- Опубліковано 9 лют 2025
- We dive into a bit of jazz chord theory to unpack this chord progression, apply it to other chord variations, and answer the question: did John Legend steal it? (Spoiler: No! You can't copyright a chord progression).
Do songwriters 'steal' chord progressions? And if so, is that okay? The chord progression to this John Legend song has an awesome neo-soul vibe, and I explain why is sounds so good, and what the two key music theory concepts are driving the sound of this progression. I show you how to use the concepts to come up with your own variations for your songs and songwriting, and talk about what it means to 'steal' a chord progression-how to 'steal like an artist', a phrase coined by writer and artist Austin Kleon.
Get the ///FREE PDF\\\ of the chord progression, chord shapes, and chord variations demonstrated in the video here: howtowritesong...
///UPCOMING LIVE ONLINE WORKSHOPS\\\ See what's coming up here: tinyurl.com/mu...
Receive once-a-month tips, tools and tidbits on songwriting from me by subscribing to my ///NEWSLETTER\\\ here:
howtowritesong...
We can be buddies on socials here:
/ howtowrite.songs
/ keppiecoutts
Keppie's music is here:
www.keppiecout...
CREDITS:
John Legend (photo) - Joe Pugliese
Austin Kleon (photo) - austinkleon.com/Clayton Cubitt
Slow Cooker, by John Legend (c) 2020 Columbia Records
Just Friends (Sunny), by Musiq Soulchild (c) 2000 The Island Def Jam Music Group
#songwriting
#howtowritesongs
#johnlegend
#slowcooker
#biggerlove
#chords
#chordprogressions
#secondarydominants
#jazzharmony
#jazztheory
#neosoul
#austinkleon
#steallikeanartist
Great video! I think it's worth mentioning another way of quickly finding your 2-5-1 chords: the circle of fifths. Find your target chord on the circle, and then go two spaces clockwise. That's your 2 chord, and (of course) the chord one spot clockwise from your target is the 5. Also remember that the 2 is always the "5 of 5". These are a couple different ways to think about it that might help people out there. Thanks!
Thanks so much! I never thought of it that way.
@@huss2600 You're welcome!
Sometimes I’m not sure if I’m stealing from someone or myself from an earlier song I’ve written I have so many. But right now I’m watching an Elton John doc and one of his producers talks about each song being a snapshot or an image. And it’s just amazing. I am truly amazed by Elton and how he finds the melody with no connection to the lyrics I don’t know I guess I just love writing music /songs. cheers from Utah
It's actually fantastic, that you can't copyright chord progressions, because it would just turn into another legal mess. It's close to impossible to come up with an original chord progression anyway. It's like coming up with an original number, that nobody ever used anywhere. Sure, you can force it by making the number extremely high, but you would have trouble to even remember it yourself. But all numbers (or chord progressions) that are somewhat sensible to use will already have been used by somebody somewhere. Maybe nobody has actually seen it, but it will be there. Music copyright is such a scrambled mess and usually it's the people who make the money and not the artist who get right into it.
This was sooooo good. I don’t know half of what you said but that will resolve as I continue studying theory. Great lesson, so much to chew on on.
A good place to start to understand this is to learn the diatonic chord relationships for example the 1 chord is home and all other chords want to resolve to the 1 (in the key of C that would be the C chord with notes C E G). What the V chord does and why it wants resolve to the one and so on. When this knowledge becomes easy you'll find that learning secondary dominants are not that hard.
Wow! Gratitude 🤝🏾
14:37 I believe C7 to F is a 4th away on the circle of 5ths. If she would wants the 5th it’s a G not the F. Not sure if that makes sense.
Also, interesting that you should mention the "Creep" chord progression, as Radiohead were sued by the writers of the Hollies' "The Air That I Breathe" over similarities to their song. They settled out of court and the writers of the Hollies' song received songwriting credit on "Creep". (Of course this involved more than just the chord progression.) And Radiohead also sued Lana del Rey because her song "Get Free" has many similarities to "Creep". Crazy!
i just discovered your channel and have already watched at least a dozen of them. great content, production and singing/playing. however, that guitar’s fretboard hurts my head:). cheers!
Hi, is the ii always a minor ii in the ii V I like in this example? What if your target is a minor chord?
Love it! So far over my head.
This is golden. Thank you
Great video! Just a friendly note that when you reference a different video about diatonic chords and point to both upper corners of the screen 🙃 there’s no video linked there. I think this has happened in a previous video too, so I just wanted to let you know. Thanks for your high quality content!
Hey Miriam - thanks for the note! I double checked, and it's definitely there on my end (I checked on multiple browsers). Could it be something in your browser preferences blocking it? Here is the video for quick reference! ua-cam.com/video/rJSA0T848ns/v-deo.html
@@htws Well maybe it was just a glitch on my end! Thanks for looking into it, though. Feel free to delete my comment if you don’t want it causing confusion for others. :) I really enjoy your channel!
Awesome lesson, Keppie!
Thank you
Secondary dominants come from classical harmony; Jazz harmony originates from classical harmony. I realise Berklee College of Music has a strong jazz focus. I hear people often saying x or y has its roots in jazz, when in fact the roots are much earlier - by a few hundred years in some cases.
Great lesson, and communicated intelligently.
As an aside, Kirk Lorange (guitarist) just delivered a UA-cam video called “A well-loved chord progression”.
In the video he plays a chord progression that has been used in quite an array of ways.
Worth checking out in the light of what you have presented.
Thank you! I’ll check it out.
Also in If You Want Me To Stay by Sly and The Family Stone
Great
Hi Keppie, I am working my way through the 14 day challenge and it has been a great experience. However, I find this day 8 challenge a bit over the top for me, like the guitar chords and understanding of the progression feel way over my head, floating on a cloud somewhere in the netherland. Any suggestions for this day 8 assignment?
…also used-ish by Jam & Lewis/Janet Jackson, “I get so lonely” 1997.
The chord progressions of both songs remind me a lot of the much older "Just The Two Of Us" by Bill Withers.
Indeed! And a lot of even older jazz standards...
That song came to mind for me also.
I was sure after the John Legend clip the comparison would be that, or "If You Want Me To Stay" by Sly Stone. The actual song caught me off guard haha
Fairly common chord progression in jazz and gospel music.
How could you manage with out secondary dominants? Not me.
Legend has it
Honestly guys this progression is played by alot of people... Go listen to alot of Gospel. Also alot of Daniel Caesar.. You'll know what I'm saying.
Loving your lessons but I reckon this progression is actually in Bb not F.
iii - ii - V - I - V7 (sec Dom) back to Dm
Melody and lyrics are copyrighted by design because there's an infinite amount of combinations. Chord progressions are fair game because they are (arguably) finite.
If you want to write coherent melodies, there actually isn’t an infinite amount of melodies. EVERYTHING has been done before. And that’s okay! That’s how music works. That’s how it evolves.
Made a song called Fire For Gold.. I wish someone like you could take a look and help me make it more original... Getting comments that it's giving Smashing Pumpkins vibes 😅
chord progressions are not copywritable, only melody and verse
Ha. I am 100% sure you didn't actually watch the video before posting this comment, Bart.
You can’t steal a chord progression. You could infringe the copyright of lyrics or a melody, but progressions aren’t protected.
In order to steal chords, this implies that the chords are owned by another artist. Thankfully one can’t copyright a chord progression and therefore they can’t be stolen.
John Legend stole Jeff Buckley’s entire vocal style so why not?! 😂