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TrueFire Foundry courses are independently produced courses presented by a hand-picked selection of top-notch artists and educators from around the world. Filmed in the educator’s own studio, Foundry courses bring fresh educational concepts and very effective teaching methodologies to TrueFire Students. Rob Garland’s Foundry course, Songwriting For The Guitar will present you with 8 very revealing, and also very easy steps for writing your own original songs.


Hello I'm Rob Garland — welcome to my TrueFire Foundry course, Songwriting For The Guitar, which I produced in my own studio!

Have you ever wondered how to write a song? Is there magic involved or are there certain theoretical guidelines you can follow? Well, in my opinion it's a combination — some theory, a touch of alchemy, and the ability to trust in your own ear.

I have been teaching, composing and arranging songs for many years and have put together this course to demystify the process and help you create your own memorable songs.

Beginning with an explanation of the major scale and definitions of popular chord types, the course contains lessons that discuss the way chord progressions (or songs) are formed, from combining sequences of chords through chord substitutions and changing key (transposing).

You will create your own songs and then apply different approaches to your songs for sonic experimentation. The course also contains an analysis of classic compositions including The Beatles 'Something, ' Ray Charles 'Georgia On My Mind' and the Duke Ellington's jazz standard 'Take The "A" Train.’

To widen your vocabulary as a songwriter, the course also explores typical blues, R&B, and jazz compositions along with a study of the type of chords that these genres utilize. I’ll encourage you to go beyond your usual listening spectrum and absorb the stylings of different musical genres to broaden your songwriting palette. I’ve provided several reference charts as well as a few jam tracks that I’ll use to demonstrate over, and that you’ll use to practice over.

Ready to get started? Grab your guitar and let’s dig in to Songwriting For The Guitar!

NOTE! Rob Garland organized the course into 8 weekly sections for those students that prefer to have a specified regimen of material across a specified time schedule. However, for those students who prefer to work at their own pace, or even skip around you are certainly encouraged to approach the course in that way as well.

nJoy!