How to Write Songs Like Elliott Smith Video Lecture - Guitar Become a Pro

how to write songs like Elias Smith
number one be born genius that worked
out really great for me but I'm sure
that not everybody has that luxury so
we're actually gonna go over some other
things that are really helpful tips that
you'll see prevalent in a lot of a
songwriting so number one this guitar is
tuned to step down
maybe that's the first thing you can do
so instead of EAD GV e it is d G C D
okay now I think that the number one
most important thing that you'll hear
when you listen to his songs is he's got
one kind of secret one trick that he
does better than anybody else that I've
ever really kind of like broken down
songwriting with and that is moving
major chords in minor thirds taking
nothing else from this video that is
definitely a moving major chords in
minor thirds so you can't have to
understand what that means
alright now major chords are great you
probably already know that like in the
key of C there are three major chords in
any in any key there are three major
chords alright so in the key C we've got
like a C major an F major and a G major
alright so those are always gonna be the
same width apart that we talked about
like spacing and music with the word
interval okay so an interval can be
measured in frets or steps alright on a
guitar it's easy to measure in frets so
again like and like let's take the key
of G right and the three major chords in
the key of g RG see indeed alright so if
we have a G third fret on the low E
string it that's C on the same fret
we'll be right here
véra so from 3 to 8 that's a fourth in
the major scale okay G a B C the next
one would be a fifth B would be a
five-way G a B C B okay so you'll always
find the same spacing between those
major chords in anything all right
the thing that Elliott Smith does is
really cool that you'll hear that I've
got a bunch of examples that I connect
show you is he'll place those major
chords in spots where they maybe don't
belong all right and one place is always
a minor third away from another major
chord all right a minor third is gonna
be three frets okay so like here's that
G again if we
a minor third from here OB 1 2 3 the
distance between G the 3rd fret on the E
string and the 6th fret on the E string
this would be like a b-flat this happens
in the G minor scale so is a minor 3rd
that 3 front distance okay now something
that's kind of unusual again that is a
staple and aeleus playing and still take
major chords and move them a minor third
away from each other all right so that's
like the thing that you'll really kind
of develop an ear for when listening to
him maybe here in other people's songs
too that is it's very kind of attention
grabbing by it's something that he
really worked in flawlessly - like a
bunch of his songs I like for example
[Music]
Matt in the pod so that right there
heals from a half three frets higher ok
- a flat G sharp our you oughta look at
it that's just one example
something's happenin don't speak too
soon I called the boss off and I made
go so again that right there B minor E
to G Son of Sam right that's a good use
of it
[Music]
all right so disordered reality that's a
D major chord to an F major chord again
you won't find those two chords in a lot
of songs together right that distance
from D to F it doesn't always have to be
three frets higher but the distance
between a D and a half is a minor third
okay right there okay and happier so
this is technically a minor 7 flat 5
chord but the idea is the same going
from a seeing three frets higher until
you know he's a major for that sounds
very Elia Smith like there's no better
example than the song sweet Adeline
which I consider kind of the
quintessential Elliott Smith riff which
I'll link you to a video I'm just
breaking down just that riff by itself
but basically it's a G to a b-flat okay
so alright but he's doing it in a very
you know eloquently picked arrangement
going from that G to a b-flat now the
actual best example of that is the
Taurus and sweet Adeline which is like
all right so we've got E flat B flat to
F where we going for math three frets
higher to a-flat d-flat do that a few
times and then the last time half minor
third higher minor third higher from
that and another minor third higher from
that okay so that's crazy
that's the that's some crazy use of
major chords and minor thirds all right
we've got earth to a flat to B to D that
brings us back to the riff of sweet
Adeline okay
so brilliant start thinking about maybe
incorporating some of these intervals
doesn't have to be this interval but
maybe unusual intervals taking just
different chord voicings in and again
his thing major chord minor third apart
okay I knew the same thing with minor
chords to get a different thing again
it's not supposed to be in their
diatonic Lea as they say but this is
kind of you know the that's the sound of
moving major chords minor thirds apart
alright another thing that he does a lot
is he will use parallel minor to kind of
transition between things so a couple of
examples of that I like between the bars
[Music]
- app miner ok again and no key should f
be major or minor at the same time but
he uses that half major to go to minor a
lot another example doing the exact same
for we like
[Music]
so say yes has the exact same thing you
know I think the Beatles use that a lot
I think that's probably maybe where he
got that from so parallel minor there's
another good one you might want to use
and also to I think something that a lot
of people recognize is just really
hammering home the bass note of
different chords all right so let's
start with say yes again for that
alright so it's a scene with a B than a
so that's all kind of look around the
same thing C major transitioning a minor
[Music]
so again it's all about hitting those
bass notes
[Music]
see
be
you can use them you can walk those bass
notes around
[Music]
again just a lot of different songs and
the more you listen to it the more you
learn some of his songs you'll notice
kind of common themes as far as you know
using those major chords minor thirds
apart taking bass notes for a walk
between chords
maybe experimenting by D tuning your
guitar a half step a whole step
sometimes even a whole step and a half
using parallel minor in your arrangement
the more you kind of just really be
thoughtful about what's happening the
more maybe you can incorporate the stuff
into your own writing so hopefully you
found some of that helpful and
eye-opening and if you have any
questions or comments hit me up in the
comments section Instagram Twitter or
the website I'll talk to you soon thanks
a lot