How to write chords for a song?

[Ruark]

I've been fooling with a little songwriting, just for the pleasure of it, mostly simple ballad stuff. I know quite a few chords for strumming and fingerpicking from playing some John Denver, delta blues, and other stuff, but I don't really understand how those chords are selected. Once I have the words and melody, how do I work out the chords for the guitar part? For example, the opening line to John Denver's "This Old Guitar":

D............A7......................Bm.....F#m... ..
This old guitar taught me to sing a love song

Where does he get the D, A7, Bm, F#m, etc. so that it sounds so nice with the vocal melody? Can somebody point me to some simple, basic guidelines on how to do this? I apologize if this is a stupid question.

[trabb]

There are reasons why those particular chords go together; it's based on the key the song is written in. If a song is written in the key of C, you're most likely going to have the following chords: C major, F major, G major, D minor, E minor, and A minor.

If you want to understand WHY those chords go together, you're going to need some basic music/chord theory. (Googling "basic chord theory" will get you some of what you need; I'm sure others here will have suggestions for reading.)

If you want to know which chords tend to go together without investing the time/effort in understanding why, try: http://folkguitar.us/keys.htm. There's a chart at the top of that page that gives most of the major keys and the chords that tend to show up in them.

Finally, if this is all stuff you already know and I've misunderstood the question, my apologies!

[Fichtezc]

You'd be good to read up on tonal harmony and how to spell triads. But at it's most basic form, you'll take notes from your melody and match those up with the chords. For a very simple example, if you're holding a C note in your melody, it could be supported by either C major (C E G), F major or minor (F A/Ab C) or A minor (A C E). It just depends on what key you're playing in and what sound/emphasis/effect you're going for. The possibilities are limitless, that's just the most basic of examples but triads are a good place to start.

For the most part, you can work around I IV V and vi in a key if you have a simple melody.

www.musictheory.net has some really good drills and lessons on it.

[JoeCharter]

I am one who truly values music theory -- but to answer this question, I will skip to the practical part.

The best way to learn a bunch of progressions is to learn a bunch of songs, mix them up, add a chord, remove another, etc.

Also, if you play any chord in the scale of C (C, Dm, Em, etc), and sing any melody in the scale of C, it'll work.

After a while you're realize that there are only a few progressions that people use over and over.

Once you're comfortable with basic chords, you can jazz them up, look for different colours, different inversions, different rhythms, etc.

Even for the best of us, this process takes years and it never really ends.

Whether you learn theory or not, you really need to hear those chords in your head. Thousands of beautiful songs were written with just 3-4 chords.

[Ruark]

I really appreciate all the helpful answers. They were all helpful and gave me directions to go.

Originally Posted by trabb

If you want to know which chords tend to go together without investing the time/effort in understanding why, try: http://folkguitar.us/keys.htm. There's a chart at the top of that page that gives most of the major keys and the chords that tend to show up in them.

That's a GREAT chart. "This Old Guitar" is obviously in the key of A. Wonderful. Now, I just need to learn which of those chords go with which notes in the melody, i.e. when and where to change chords. It appears that much of that decision is subjective, not a black-and-white rule.

[Toby001]

That looks like a good site that Trabb posted but watch out for misinformation.

"If a song is in the key of G, the song will start with a G chord and the other chords will probably be C and D."

This is not necessarily true. A song does not always start on the chord of the same key. I think it is more often the case that the song ENDS on the chord of the same key.

[Jason Paul]

Originally Posted by Toby001

A song does not always start on the chord of the same key. I think it is more often the case that the song ENDS on the chord of the same key.

+1

Thanks,
Jason

[Howard Klepper]

Originally Posted by Ruark

I really appreciate all the helpful answers. They were all helpful and gave me directions to go.



That's a GREAT chart. "This Old Guitar" is obviously in the key of A. Wonderful. Now, I just need to learn which of those chords go with which notes in the melody, i.e. when and where to change chords. It appears that much of that decision is subjective, not a black-and-white rule.

From the chords you gave (I don't know the song) it's in the key of D. The chart is misleading in calling the V chord major (it's dominant) and in calling the VII chord what should be called the V7. The real VII chord is half-diminished (but can substitute for the V7). I know that's more than you understand at this point, but beware of oversimplified charts that purport to tell you all you need to know on one page.

Also, while it's often nice to have the melody note contained in the chord, it is not a necessity. As others have said, there is more than one way to harmonize a melody.

[markwayne]

There are as many ways to harmonize a melody as there are notes (maybe more). As long as the chord contains the note, it is technically correct. In popular music things are a little more formulaic and we usually go with diatonic chord patterns (based on the modes).


Part of the beauty of the chord progression you detailed is that it happens (probably not by accident) to be the opening chord sequence to Pachelbel's Canon.

[Hotspur]

The rule of thumb of harmonizing a melody is this:

Find the stressed syllables in the melody.

Use chords that contain those notes.

Use your knowledge of tonal harmony to help pick appropriate chords, but also pick chords that contribute emotionally. eg, if I'm singing a G note, and I'm in the key of C, the obvious choices are:

G major, C major, E minor, and A7.

[sjoiner]

You might find this useful / interesting

http://www.hooktheory.com/

[JohnnyDes]

This book is really nicely done and very comprehensive:

http://www.amazon.com/How-To-Write-S...dp_ob_title_bk

JD

[andyi5]

Agree Joe Charter's comments above. Learning songs is the way all the great guitar players learnt their art - you can learn everything this way just a small piece at a time. The theory of what you're learning gets picked up on the way... if you run up an unfamiliar chord, or a new rhythm or arpeggio pattern you learn about it in the context of the song, and can start to recognise it as it crops up again and again in other places. And you develop an ear for what chords work together and where a song logically wants to go next.

[markwayne]

Originally Posted by andyi5

Agree Joe Charter's comments above. Learning songs is the way all the great guitar players learnt their art - you can learn everything this way just a small piece at a time. The theory of what you're learning gets picked up on the way...

This is the beauty and the curse of guitar playing. It's easy to pick up the instrument but we sometimes build habits that put us at a disadvantage when we . . . say . . . decide to pursue a degree in classical composition.

We guitarists almost always learn chords first and learn to fit a melody to the chords. This is backwards from the way composers traditionally work and most other instruments have historically been learned. For the rest of the instruments the melody is king. Once a melody is established, its melodic and rhythmic shape can be harmonized which may dictate a definitive chord pattern. On the other hand, there may be multiple harmonizations that could support a given note within the melody. This accounts for the wide variety or chord sequences in classical music (where they may only be contrapuntal melodic accompaniment and no chords at all), and older popular forms such as show tunes and jazz standards (and its wonderful world of chord substitutions).

I'm not disagreeing with those that stress learning songs. (It's pretty hard to argue against learning.) I'm just saying that learning songs becomes much, much easier with a little theory to help. Well, that and the fact that the world is ready for some fresh popular music that doesn't just follow I - IV - ii - V or the circle of fifths.

[Hotspur]

Originally Posted by JohnnyDes

This book is really nicely done and very comprehensive:

http://www.amazon.com/How-To-Write-S...dp_ob_title_bk

JD

I'm actually really not much of a fan of that book.

I feel like his approach is very mechanical. He throws a lot of chords at you and chord progressions, but generally think that's not a great way to write songs.

Ruark, I think you'll find that the melody of that song contains the notes that are in those chords.