Finding the chords

[danieleinad]

Hi
When I compose songs , I have a problem : Let s say I play a C chord and I sing a piece of melody.Then I want to make a new chord according to what I have in my mind which would fit as a nice continuation of the previous chord (quite hard to explain, I am not even sure what s going on in my head)
But when I want to make the next chord , it takes me many tries to get to the chord I want.

Is there a way to get the chord directly, without trying many chords ?

Daniel

[rnrmachine]

Follow Standard chord progressions first. There is a good chance that chord is the one in your head. If not then you are no worse of then you were before.

Another thing would be.. hum the tune and match it with a note. Once you find the note, IT MIGHT be the root note of the next chord. BUT You may be thinking of a vocal melody that would actually be a 5th (or other division) of the root... all depends. Learn standard chord progression though. It will help you immensely.

Rob

EDIT: There are a TON of books that teach you how to find them in any key etc... different ones for different genres and so on...

[davewalton]

EDIT: There are a TON of books that teach you how to find them in any key etc... different ones for different genres and so on...

And I might add too that there's some cool iPhone apps that help with that. I've never used this but it looks pretty interesting...

http://prochords.dk/w/

[mojobone]

You don't need to study theory, per se; just intervals. Once you've learned to recognize intervals within chords, you should be able to easily find the chords you hear in your head on any keyboard.

You can train online here:

http://www.teoria.com/exercises/ie.htm

http://www.musicalintervalstutor.info/

http://www.good-ear.com/

Or you can download this cool, free software, here:

http://www.solfege.org/

[danieleinad]

Thanks for your advices
Daniel

[ernstinen]

Hi! I've found this idea applies to pop as well as orchestral music (I write both)!

"Is there a way to get the chord directly, without trying many chords?" --- Um, I'd say no!

I'd say "forget the chord and let the melody lead you." (I'm not sure if this is what you're asking --- maybe you already have a new melodic note in the next measure, but bear with me ! ). Let's say your last melodic note is an "E." If you continue that note into the next measure, you have tons of options for your next chord.

Simple chords could start from C; E; A (and all the 7ths etc.). Then D9; Fmaj7; G6; etc. Minor chords could be Am; Em; C#m; F#m7 etc. From there are chords I can only play on piano, which shall remain anonymous!

Sooo, again this may not be your question, but just try to sustain your last vocal into the next measure and experiment with the above ideas, if only for a beat or two. Then carry on with your melody, if only as an exercise on key/melodic modulation. It's fun, if you have the time!

Best,

Ern

[mazz]

I would advocate a mix of two of the approaches laid out here:

One would be to learn "standard" chord patterns such as I VI II (or IV) V, etc. It would be great to have these as a grounding in harmony since there's a good reason why these common progressions have been around for so long and have been used thousands of times. They are a well that writers drink from over and over because they just "work".

The approach Ern suggests is using "common tones" where one note appears in several chords and has a different function depending on the chord. In other words, the note E is the root of an E chord, the third of a C major chord, minor 7th of an F# minor chord, and so forth. By using this approach, you will no doubt come across chord changes that you may not get to any other way and you may get some very unique, or at least "non standard" progressions out of this approach. You will also discover common progressions this way too, you'd just be approaching them from a different direction.

Letting the melody guide you is certainly a good way to go because the melody may be stronger if it's written first and harmonized after, but it's certainly OK to write the chords first and improvise over them until a good melody comes forth.

You certainly don't need to know theory, but some knowledge will help you make better (and quicker) choices, as long as it doesn't rule your choices, but serves them.

Have fun, that's the main thing!!

Mazz

[Casey H]

In addition to all the good advice here, a simple approach is to play with the standard chords of a given key in different combinations. In the key of C that would be C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am... Try playing different sequences. One of the most popular sequences is the I-V-vi-IV which in the key of C is C-G-Am-F.

Casey

[ernstinen]

Good, Mazz (and Casey --- you beat me to it)! You explained that very well.

I - ii- IV- V etc. chord patterns have been used forever. As have (in English ) 1 - m6 (or m2) - 4 - 5. Always going back to the tonic (1). That's worked for 1000's of song writers!

One of my favorite "odd" pop chord changes was championed by John Lennon. He would go a half step down from the tonic chord for his next chord. If the song was in "C," for instance, he'd go C - B - Em, and then get back into the IV - V - I pattern ( F - G - C). The "C" to "B" change is very unique, but with a creative way of turning the chords around. You can go anywhere from the C - B change, but Em is logical.

A lot of country writers will write (again in "C") C - A - D - G and back to C. Same basic pattern, but without the minor chords.

HTH,

Ern

[ernstinen]

See above about Lennon's half-step changes. I was astonished that he came up with this so young!

Ern