This week was marked with the unfortunate passing of iconic singer-songwriter Bill Withers, who was in inspiration to musicians around the world, including myself. Even from a young age – my mum tells me that “Ain’t No Sunshine” was one of my favourite songs to sing at 6 years old. On hearing of his passing, I revisited his discography and found there was a wealth of songwriting knowledge to be gleaned.
For example, “Lovely Day” has a brilliant chord progression – what I love about it is how it plays around with the ambiguity of the key – the song begins with an E major, followed by a C#m, and then an A major 7, which can be heard as a I-vi-IV in E or a V-iii-I in A (and then follows that with a non-diatonic Cmaj7 chord in passing to add to the mishmash). It is only the following Bm7 that confirms the song to be in A major, but with a strong emphasis on that E chord that starts the phrase. I tried to play around with a similar effect for a song I started writing this week. The verse chords are
F#m – E (x4)
F#m – C#m (x2)
F#m – E (x2)
At this point it sounds like it’s probably E major – but the pre-chorus lands on a D chord, giving the appearance of a switch to A major, or maybe just the rogue bVII chord. It’s up to the ear’s interpretation!
Song Of The Week is Ain’t No Sunshine by Bill Withers. My favourite part is the “I know, I know”6 section, which to date is one of the most audacious verses I’ve ever heard, and it just works so well.
6Bill Withers. “Ain’t No Sunshine”. Just As I Am. Sussex Records, 1971.
Jachin's Songwriting and Performance Journal 