Listening for ii-V-I Chord Progressions
Open your ears to the versatile ii-V-I chord progression, learn its inner mechanics, and find out how you can use it in your own songwriting.
Sabrina Peña Young
An intermedia composer, percussionist, author, and obsessive sci-fi buff, Sabrina Peña Young creates mind-bending electroacoustic works that have been heard throughout Australia, Asia, North America, and Europe in media festivals, radio, film, dance clubs, random boom boxes in France - and as not-so-pleasant background music.
Critics have described her music as “daunting,” and “marvelously abstract,” and she has received a wide range of awards for her compositions, including New Genre Award from the International Alliance for Women in Music for her work "Creation" and the Cintas Foundation's Brandon Fradd Fellowship in Music Composition, as well as awards and nominations for her film-making work.
Sabrina has a passion for writing too, and recently published "The Feminine Musique: Multimedia and Women Today", available at Amazon.com. She has also written for the Kapralova Society Journal, Percussive Notes, Panpipes, the IAWM Music Journal, the SEAMUS Music Journal, and various fine arts websites.
Learn more about Sabrina:
Posts by Sabrina Peña Young
Hearing Secondary Dominants
What are secondary dominants and what do they contribute to chord progressions? Learn how to hear them in a progression and how to use them in songwriting!
10 Tips for Conquering Stage Fright
Learn how you can minimize your stage fright and anxiety, and prepare yourself to give the performance of a lifetime at your upcoming gig.
Musicality Means: Playing More Than One Instrument
Learning a new instrument greatly benefits to your musicality: collaboration, deeper understandings, and lots more fun. It’s not as hard as you may think!
Musicality Means… Sight Reading
Learn the benefits that sight reading will bring to your musicality, and start learning this skill with a few basic exercises.
Raise the Fifth! Listening for Augmented Triads
What is an augmented chord, and how can you pick it out from a crowd? Musical U teaches you how you can listen for and differentiate these special chords.
Listening for Diminished Triads
Move past major and minor with an introduction to diminished triads! Learn how they are built, and how you can use your ears to pick them out of a crowd.
10 Things Piano Players Do Differently
With their versatility, dedication, and near-frightening perfectionism, pianists are a rare species. Learn what sets them apart from the rest!
Songwriting Challenges to Cure Your Writer’s Block
Oddly enough, constraints often breed creativity! Learn how the imposed limits of songwriting challenges can lead to an unexpected musical masterpiece.
10 Mini Songwriting Challenges to Sharpen your Writing Skills
Stuck in a songwriting rut? Try our mini songwriting challenges to find inspiration for your next masterpiece in food, film, and your favourite superhero!
The Wonderful Phenomenon of Terrible Lyrics
Dive into the world of absurd, unbearably corny, and just-plain-bad lyrics, and learn how songs become smash hits in spite of (or because of) them!
How to Clap in Time
Clapping in time? Easy right? Well, if it’s not easy for you – you’re not alone! The good news is that clapping in time is learnable, valuable, and fun!
