Assigning chords to a melody

[mtsusean]

What method do use or how do you typically match or assign chords to a melody?

Take a hymnal version of Amazing Grace found here

http://www.hymnary.org/hymn/BH1991/page/295

It's in the key of G so one can surmise it's probably going to have a G, C and D major chord. It's a familiar melody. But if one did not know the song and only had the music provided, where or how would you assign your chords based on the information given?

[john57classic]

Well well well, we frequently have threads about the "virtues" of being able to read music. I've always been firmly in the camp of, it is not necessary but it can be very helpful at times and I'm glad that I learned to read music.
The chords are right there on the music if you can read it. If not have a full choir (folks singing all four parts bass, tenor, alto and soprano) sing it and you will hear the chords

[rick-slo]

Mainly use your ears however view the picture below, then consider adding extended chords, chord substitutions, borrowed chords.

[Roselynne]

Right now, I'm focusing on how to figure out the chords on not-necessarily-guitar music sheets.

But ... is there a technique for assigning chords when there is no printed sheet, such as when writing the music?

(NOTE: The chart above appeared as I was typing. Are there any other "tricks" a songwriter can use for chords + melody?)

[mtsusean]

Originally Posted by john57classic

Well well well, we frequently have threads about the "virtues" of being able to read music. I've always been firmly in the camp of, it is not necessary but it can be very helpful at times and I'm glad that I learned to read music.
The chords are right there on the music if you can read it. If not have a full choir (folks singing all four parts bass, tenor, alto and soprano) sing it and you will hear the chords

I learned how to read music in the 6th grade thanks to Mr. Bowlin.

He didn't mention though anything about chords and melody.

[rick-slo]

Originally Posted by Roselynne

Right now, I'm focusing on how to figure out the chords on not-necessarily-guitar music sheets.

But ... is there a technique for assigning chords when there is no printed sheet, such as when writing the music?

(NOTE: The chart above appeared as I was typing. Are there any other "tricks" a songwriter can use for chords + melody?)

Music already out there already has chords to go with the melody. Can you hear them? Most likely they will be the chords in the chart above, so that is a good starting point, at least for folk music and pop music. Next listen for extended chords, 7ths, etc. Next listen for chord substitutions. Of course you can yourself re-harmonize the melody with your own chords, probably mostly by ear rather than music theory.

[Doug Young]

It's really up to you, melodies can be harmonized in *lots* of ways. With some practice and experience, you should be able to just hear the basic I,IV,V. It should sound obvious that Amazing Grace starts on the I chord, for example. If you want to be brute force about it, consider that the I,IV, and V contain all the notes of the major scale. In C:

C: CEG
F: FAC
G: GBD

Add those together and you have CDEFGAB, all the notes of the C scale. Any note of the melody can be found in one of the chords, and sometimes 2. For example, an E note is in the C chord, so it's likely that a C chord would go with it. A G note is in both G and C, so one of those (perhaps either of them) will likely work. Of course, you don't harmonize every note with a new chord, and some notes end up being "passing tones". So you might play notes C, D, E, and just stay on the C chord for all three.

Things also get more complex if you consider higher chord tones. For example, a C Major 7 is CEGB, and a CMajor 9th is CEGBD, so you could consider any of those notes to be suitable against a C chord. The E, mentioned above would the 6th of G, so you could harmonize it with G and get a G6 sound. Or it's the major 7th of F, so you could harmonize it with F, and get an FMaj7 sound. All depends on what your ear wants to hear. Ultimately almost any note can theoretically be harmonized with almost any chord - it just depends on what sound you want. For example, you might think a C#/Db couldn't possibly fit a C chord, but it's a b9, so you'd get something like a C7b9 sound if you harmonized a C#/Db with a C chord. Probably not right for Amazing Grace, but it'd fit right in in a jazz piece.

I went into a bit of "finding the chords" in the Arranging Amazing Grace videos I did for Dream Guitars a few years back. You can find them on you tube, might be helpful.

[posternutbag]

I tend to look at the bass line. If you google "bass clef notes" you can find a chart, but lets look at the first couple of bars, anyway.

The pickup notes are G and octave G, so that is pretty good indication that the chord should be G. On the treble clef, the notes are B and D, so that pretty much cements it. First chord is a G.

On to the first bar. The first two bass notes are G and D, pretty good indication that the chord is still G. G and D could conceivably be part of a G minor chord since there is no third, but if we jump back up to the treble, there is a B natural in the melody, so the chord is still G major. The bass note stays on G for the rest of the first bar, so we can assume that the chords for the first bar are G. The melody notes on the treble are chord tones, providing further support for G.

In the second bar, the bass note jumps to a D and G and the treble notes are D and G as well. This could still be a G chord (with a D in the Bass), but the next bass notes are D and F#. I think the chord has changed to D, but no printed versions of the chords that I have seen show a move to the 5 chord in the second bar. You can stay on the G and the harmony remains consistent. A piano player might play G with a D in the bass, but a guitarist could play G and it would sound fine.

The chord definitely changes in the third bar. The bass notes are E and G and then C and G. The E and G are the 3rd and 5th of the C chord and then we get C and G, the 1st and 5th of the C, so the chord changes from G to C in bar 3 on the lyric "sweet" for all of bar 3 since all of the bass notes are chord tones from the C chord.

In the fourth bar, we have the same G and G octave from the pickup note, so the chord changes back to G on the lyric "sound."

That should take you through the pickup note and the first four full bars of the tune in painstaking detail. The process continues, bar by bar through the whole song.

[Monk of Funk]

There are 2 approaches I take. One, is knowing what key I'm in, recognizing that the melody note will be part of the chord, and knowing what my options are while remaining in the key. That helps narrow it down very well. Doesn't have to be diatonic to the key of course, but this is a good starting point.

The other way, is I sing out the notes as I want them to be, and then find those on the guitar, or just arpeggiate directly on the guitar.

[johnd]

I suck at this kind of thing but increasingly have found on many songs I can find something that fits by playing alone - however I nearly always get something which only consists of I-IV-V chords. Then I'll look up chords online and find I totally missed all the relative minors, suspended-4th, minor 7th chords

From memory, my chords for Amazing Grace hang on Dm7 (in G) at the mid-point in the verse, which I'd never get by ear!

[stanron]

Perhaps you should choose a different sample of music. Poster number 2 pointed out that chords are already in this music if you can read them.

Taking the notes on the first beat of the bar,

the word '-maz-' has the notes G, B, D and G (top to bottom). An inversion of the chord of G

'grace!' has B, D, G and D. A different inversion of G.

'sweet' , which I hear as a C chord actually has G, B, G and E which could be C maj7/E then followed by

'the' which has E, C, G and C which is C.

After that I would expect G chords up to the word

'me' which I would have as a D chord but which here has D, D, G and B, an inversion of G again.

Of course four part harmony lives in a different world than melody and chords. The four lines of music have a logic ot their own and I wouldn't expect the same result as someone strumming chords.

If I put chords to a melody I have heard before I try to remember the chords that went with the tune. If it's a melody I have not heard before then it's a balance of which notes I want to fit with chords and which notes I want to be passing notes or suspensions. I choose which notes will be chordal and form my chords around them. More trial and error than theory.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by mtsusean

What method do use or how do you typically match or assign chords to a melody?

Take a hymnal version of Amazing Grace found here

http://www.hymnary.org/hymn/BH1991/page/295

It's in the key of G so one can surmise it's probably going to have a G, C and D major chord. It's a familiar melody. But if one did not know the song and only had the music provided, where or how would you assign your chords based on the information given?

If you really only had the melody provided - no chord symbols, no bass part - then the basic rule is as Monk says: the strongest melody notes (longest notes, the notes on beat 1) should usually be chord tones.
And you're right that G, C and D will probably be enough.

(But notice that the music you linked to has a harmony line given - that suggests chords fairly clearly.)

Choose the tonic chord first, if it fits (which is usually does, and does in this case).
The strong notes on the first (title phrase) are all G major chord tones: D, G and B.

Then stay on that chord until you feel it needs to change.

In this case, the phrase "how sweet the sound" could still be the G chord (the notes are A G E D, with G and D the strong notes, and A and E passing notes; G and D are both in a G chord).
However, on the second phrase of a tune like this, it's always worth seeing if another chord would work, for variety. In this case the notes on "sweet the" are G and E, which are both in a C chord. (And C is in fact the standard harmonization for that bar, although your hymnal implies G on "sweet" and C only on "the". The same place on the 3rd line, "now am" suggests C for the whole bar.)
You could switch to a D chord for "sound", but there's no need; flipping back to G is fine (but you have the option of either, and you choose the sound you prefer).

"that saved a wretch" is much the same notes as the opening phrase, so again a G chord seems best.
"like me", ascends to a high D, and here (end of the second line) is where you might want to use a D chord (even though G will still fit).

You don't actually need to know how to play the melody on guitar, although it will help (you will often see how the notes belong to particular chords). As long as you can sing it in the right key, you can just test out each chord to see which sounds like it fits at each point.
Again, though, don't feel you need to change chord too often - certainly not on every word. Let the melody guide you, and keep the chords as simple as possible, to provide a skeleton support; change chord only when the melody seems to really demand it. You can always make the chords fancier later, if the simple ones are too dull.
(Listeners respond mainly to melody, lyric and rhythm; the most important thing about chords (harmony) is that they shouldn't get in the way of the melody, by being TOO interesting... unless perhaps you're playing to a jazz audience....)

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by mtsusean

…if one did not know the song and only had the music provided, where or how would you assign your chords based on the information given?

Hi mtsusean...
Unless one is trained to read key signatures, notes and knows chords, one would be limited to assigning chords by experimentation. If the tune is a familiar one, then it's easy to begin experimenting. Thankfully, today we have YouTube, and plenty of other resources to help us be exposed to songs whether we read or not.

I start with the most basic version, and then as I play and sing through the piece, I begin looking for substitute chord potential at cadence points (ends of phrases, and significant lyric points).

I even listen to other's examples to see what substitute chords they have used, and am not ashamed to adopt good/useful ones.

I tend to avoid substitutes which may fit a theory model fine, but are so abrupt that they are off-putting to an audience (and I do try to know the audience I'm playing for).

I think you are wise to start with tunes like Amazing Grace which are familiar to us and learn common chord substitutions, either by teaching, or observation, or experimentation.

Try all the simple substitutions which are in-key (ii minor, vi minor, iii minor, etc) and then try moving just slightly out of key to II major, III major or VI major chords. Then you might want to try the 6th and 9th chord variations of the IV or V chords in the piece.

Major seventh version of the I, IV and V are viable as well. Diminished can be a viable exploration if one of the notes in the diminished chord is the same as the melody note at a given point.

I think the thing to consider is not how many chords can I substitute to dress up a piece, but what would be a couple three really good substitutions which would catch people's ears. Too many may put it out of the realm of recognizability.

Hope this helps.

[johnd]

Also to consider - does the guitar part NEED substitutions and "clever" stuff? Are you wanting to find chords to play guitar solo, or just looking to find a guitar part alongside (for instance) a piano? Simple is often better if you are there to add rhythm and fill things out rather than driving the melody.

[string1399]

Here's Amazing Grace with a ton of chords