How to write a song that messes with the listener


I have been practicing some of Mississippi John Hurt's songs. I saw an interesting thing happening in his song "Joe Turner Blues." At the very end of both the guitar intro and before the verse, a phrase is sculptured strangely. MJH's song hits a (roman numeral) "I" chord on the 4th beat of 10th bar (Typically, people will end it on the 1st beat of the 11th bar which is the norm in many typical blues songs). Abnormal, awesome, and totally memorable!

The effect is that this manages to pull a listener to the end by adding tension to where we would naturally expect it NOT to resolve. I like it when this happens. I like to think of how chord progressions can be interpreted in terms of weight - ie, how a string of progressions can just pull the listener to the very end of the song, and they want to listen again. Try doing this, by writing an 11 bar blues, or a song that has 5 chords in a row. It's not hard, and it's fun to purposely try to throw listener around!

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About Dave Wirth

A Picture of Dave Wirth taken by Lizzie Chen

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