Money Chords: A Songwriter's Sourcebook of Popular Chord Progression: Amazon.ca: Richard J. Scott: Books

Product Description

Book Description

Money Chords is a comprehensive reference book of popular chord progressions. It identifies the 80 most popular chord progressions that have been used time and again to write hit songs and 12 tools to create them. The book is the result of the compilation and analysis of a representative sampling of over 2,000 popular chord progressions that took several years to compile. Chord progressions are categorized both chronologically and by progression type. Chronological listings identify progression types common to a specific time period and the evolution of various progression types. Progression type listings compare how the best songwriters and performers have utilized similar chord progressions. Money Chords is intended to be a songwriter's toolbox to help stimulate the creation of many more great songs in the new millennium.

About the Author

Richard J. Scott has been a guitarist/songwriter for 35 years, an analyst for 25 years, and holds a Bachelor of Science in Education. Prior writing work includes the Residential Construction chapter of Credit Considerations published by Robert Morris Associates.

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Customer Reviews

11 Reviews

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
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Average Customer Review

3.6 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Logic-Defying Presentation of Progressions. Disappointing., Jun 5 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Money Chords: A Songwriter's Sourcebook of Popular Chord Progression (Paperback)

Just got my copy. Wish I had taken a look at the book before I bought it. Sure, it's a hefty 450 pages but once you scan through the book you come away with the same thought you do as a guitarist thumbing through a book promising 20000 guitar chords (realizing that there are, at most, 20 different chord forms that are mechanically and unnecessarily incarnated in every key): What's the point?

Here, the author does a similar thing by presenting all of the progressions with respect to specific keys (E for _half_ of the book and then a retelling of a subset of those progressions in the other keys). What's the point? It would have been MUCH more useful -- and, frankly, obvious -- to present each chord progression in the key-independent numeric form (e.g., "I-ii-V-I"). The publisher would have killed 50% less trees going that route and would have produced a book with immediate and lasting value.

And if not purely that approach, the author could have at least accompanied each progression with the key-independent equivalent. That's a no-brainer. And given that each page is 80% white-space it's not like the publisher was scrambling for content space!

Had I known that I could have charged [for] a book for reading off and reprinting the exact verse and chorus chord progressions from a bunch of different songs (granted, hundreds) I would have gone to the library and done so myself.

I had very high hopes for this book but it falls way short of what a songwriter/composer REALLY needs--of what I need. I wanted a book that facilitates spontenaity and fuels the creative spark. That's what the book promised, but not what I received.

Despite the sheer volume, it's a lazy effort. The book lacks the level of exposition, analysis, and insights that 450 pages would seem to indicate. And, content aside, the book's design, presentation, typography, and organization are EXTREMELY poor (I'll go so far as to say stark, ugly, sophomoric, and unusable as well considering the powerful desktop publishing tools available to anybody with a computer; one would think by this book that Writers Club Press only has a single manual typerwriter at its disposal). Bottomline is these deficits successfully short-circuit the promised usefulness of this book. The book is a disappointing effort and I cannot recommend it to anyone.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Stuff, Jun 1 2002

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Kirk (Dallas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Money Chords: A Songwriter's Sourcebook of Popular Chord Progression (Paperback)

The introduction alone was worth the price of admission. What separartes this book from others I've seen is the discussion of descending, ascending, and static (pedal point) progressions. The appendix included nine pages of common and uncommon descending bass lines alone. These were categorized by bass note runs so any budding songwriter can review what has been and can be done with this type of progression that is used to create romantic moods. Good Stuff.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars A big dissapointment!!, May 29 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Money Chords: A Songwriter's Sourcebook of Popular Chord Progression (Paperback)

This book is more about listing pages and pages of title songs and the years they were published than anything else. I believe you can get more instructive info on chord progressions from other books.

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