Matching chords to melody?

Niallseroreilly

Been working at this over the last few weeks. My method is to sing and play the melody, then figure out the chords based on the notes. 

Anyone any tips?

bloodandtears

from the melody.. you should be able to identify the key/tonality of tune.. which will be a good head start.. usually identify either the first or last chord of your pattern..  after that you can try diatonic chords based on the note relationship and direction of your melody

viz

That's a great exercise - harmonisation; you can probably find 10 or more harmonic progressions that sit under your tune and make it a totally different piece of music. There are lots of tricks to doing it, from just using your imagination, to looking at the note names and calculating what chords they might fit, and everything in between. 

Freebird

Finding the Key is key  Also know your chord and non-chord tones, tonic and dominant, etc.

If you use a DAW, you could also try analysing your melody using Melodyne 

BigLicks67

Doing what you are doing is probably the right way to go. However, if you want to go into more depth then the Martin Taylor Guitar Method book might help.

Niallseroreilly

Started reading Martin Taylors book, brilliant. Talks about matching a tenth to each melody note as a way of fleshing out the sound. Sounds good.

Anyone use a structured method like this?

TheBlueWolf

I still rely on my ears. Your OP is basically how I do it but a more structured method might come in handy.

Clarky

viz said:

That's a great exercise - harmonisation; you can probably find 10 or more harmonic progressions that sit under your tune and make it a totally different piece of music. There are lots of tricks to doing it, from just using your imagination, to looking at the note names and calculating what chords they might fit, and everything in between. 

+1

and the different progressions you create can have startlingly different end results

one lil' trick that's useful is to look for un-accented consonances..
basically, a melody note that is on a weaker beat
for example [in the key of C in 4/4]
a melody note on the beat is A and then lands on a G on the 'and'
or a melody note on the beat 1 is A and then lands on a G on a later beat
the G would be the target for harmonisation so you'd get dissonance [tension] from the A that is then released when the note becomes consonant with the chord..
so in C the chords containing a G would be C, Em and G
this is not an absolute 'rule', just a handy trick 

siraxeman

Scale tone chords is a good way to start...but its only the beginning! 

for example C major contains the notes C D E F G A B C (octave )

Thus the diatonic chords (diatonic being built off the scale tones) are thus:- C major  D minor E minor F major  G major A minor and finally B minor b5 (or diminished).

this gives you a rule that  for any major key your standard diatonic  chords are:- major minor minor major major minor and finally min b5.

this is just taking a scale and adding 3rds to build a triad ie 3 harmonic notes = a chord. A third is simply sn interval of 3 notescounting yiur first note as 1. So again a C mmajor scale is  C D E F G A B C if we number the notes 1 to 8 the 1st 3rd abd 5th notes are a C chord...the 2nd 4th and 6th notes are a D minor chord the 3rd 5th and 7th notes are an Eminor chord....the 4th 6th and 8th are a zf chord and so on and so fourth...do you follow?  the pattern you will hopefully have spotted is every other note stacked till you have 3 notes is a basic chord or triad. Its daed easy when the penny drops. 

siraxeman

Also each major key has a related minor key. Because they share exactly the same notes. Again if we observe the notes of C major we get  C D E F G A B C. If you go from the 6th note of this scale you come to A and if you go through this C major scale going from A to A (not counting C twice though) you will then get A B C D E F G . So this shows you how simply to work out the chords for a minor key.....basically the exact same ones in C major albeit in A minor your tonal centre is A minor. 

So A minor chords are:- A minor, B min b5, C, D minor,  E minor, F, G,. 

If you know your major chords in a given key just knowing the relative minor key ie the 6th note of the major key will make it easy to get the chords to a minor key. 

Jalapeno

Minb5 is actually called half-dimninished <pedant>

axisus

This thread is a whole great pile of WHAAA?????

Clarky

Jalapeno said:

Minb5 is actually called half-dimninished <pedant>

yes it is <pedant augmented>

viz

Jalapeno said:

Minb5 is actually called half-dimninished <pedant>

Well, min7b5 is the half-diminished, but minb5 on its own is a diminished triad not a half-diminished triad (there's no such thing anyway).  You're right though, you have to have a diminished 7th (sounds like a major 6th) not the minor 7th, for the full 4-note chord to be the fully diminished 7th. 

Clarky

viz said:

Jalapeno said:

Minb5 is actually called half-dimninished <pedant>

Well, min7b5 is the half-diminished, but minb5 on its own is a diminished triad not a half-diminished triad (there's no such thing anyway).  You're right though, you have to have a diminished 7th (sounds like a major 6th) not the minor 7th, for the full 4-note chord to be the fully diminished 7th. 

ah yes of course… <augmented pedant augmented> lol..

viz

Clarky said:

viz said:

Jalapeno said:

Minb5 is actually called half-dimninished <pedant>

Well, min7b5 is the half-diminished, but minb5 on its own is a diminished triad not a half-diminished triad (there's no such thing anyway).  You're right though, you have to have a diminished 7th (sounds like a major 6th) not the minor 7th, for the full 4-note chord to be the fully diminished 7th. 

ah yes of course… <augmented pedant augmented> lol..

Absolutely

Rocker

Thanks @siraxeman for your explanation of how chords are constructed. I knew most of the chords in Major & Minor keys, I never knew how those chords were constructed. I have a basic understanding now. Thanks for that.

siraxeman

No problem you're welcome....there's plenty of good knowledge on here between us all to share.

57Deluxe

from the melody you should be able to detect the root notes and then work possible chords back from there. You need one of these in your gig bag for quick reference!

https://usercontent2.hubstatic.com/4527223_f520.jpg

TheBlueWolf

viz said:

Clarky said:

viz said:

Jalapeno said:

Minb5 is actually called half-dimninished <pedant>

Well, min7b5 is the half-diminished, but minb5 on its own is a diminished triad not a half-diminished triad (there's no such thing anyway).  You're right though, you have to have a diminished 7th (sounds like a major 6th) not the minor 7th, for the full 4-note chord to be the fully diminished 7th. 

ah yes of course… <augmented pedant augmented> lol..

Absolutely

What a pile of jazz!

TheBlueWolf

To figure out the notes of a chord...

I'll stick to C Major for this, so the notes are C D E F G A B

A C Major chord has the notes C, E and G. Using the full list above as a reference you're starting with C, missing the B, adding the 3rd ( E ), etc. There's probably a technical term for it, but I call it "The Leapfrog Method" Obviously you can add the B note for a C Major 7th.

It works for the other diatonic chords in the scale too, E.G. D minor is D F A , E minor is E G B....