"One of my go-to things to spice up a progression is to apply a lot of 7 chords co it--major 7s, minor 7s, and dominant 7s. A lot of my favorite records from the '60s and '70s did that. but we lost that somewhere along the way. Another thing is to switch from major to minor on the same chord to resolve a phrase. That's a Beatles trick, and it really helps me melodically.
"Throwing in key changes for the chorus is another thing I'll do. I might modulate up a full step, but only for the chorus, and then come back down for the verse. It's pretty cliche to just wait for the end of the song to jump up a full step. It's very Celine Dion. Desmond Child was also guilty of that in the '80s. I worked with Desmond on the very first record I ever did. I was trying to explain a lyric about love, and he lashed out at me and said, 'What do you know about love? You're not even a person yet.' I was offended at the time butte was right. In order to speak from your experiences, you need to have those experiences first."
(Via)
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