Dave Clews on the building blocks of songwriting

If chord progressions were prescribed in beard-scratching self-help books, this one would be the ‘closure’ chord. Dave Clews tells us more…

Songwriting can be an arduous process sometimes, and there are occasions where we need all the help we can get. When this situation crops up, nobody will judge you for rummaging around in your songwriter’s toolbox for some tried and tested tricks to help you out.

One such technique that can be incredibly useful when it comes to populating your empty page with a few carefully chosen chords, is to use the 2-5-1, also known in its Roman numeral form as the ii-V-I.

But what exactly is a 2-5-1? Well, it’s a sequence of three chords, traditionally embraced by the jazz fraternity but equally of use whatever your genre. When strung together as a package, they form a kind of building block that has a special power – namely, the power of resolution. The 2-5-1 feels like an ending, because it ends on the I chord, so it’s essentially a totally surefire way of navigating any chord progression back to the I chord, resulting in a feeling of arriving home. A great way to round off a tune or section. Because of this, we’re talking about probably one of the most common and recognisable sounds in all of western music.

So in this month’s tutorial I’m going to explore exactly what a 2-5-1 is and how to build one, and then round off with a couple of examples of how it can be used in your own productions.