Finding the chords to a vocal / melody

Lesgrandepotato

I’ve started working with a singer and we are getting some songs together. She’s written and recorded scratch vocal tracks and I’m helping to record and write with her. 

I’m making progress assembling a track but it’s slow work. 

I’m sure a bit of theory would help me. But I’m not sure what. 

I’ve been listening to those piano man chord progression vids but it doesn’t quite land. 

How do I progress? 

Roland

Are you playing acoustic or jazz style guitar parts, or just strumming along to her singing? I ask this because one approach is to find bass lines which fit her vocal lines, and then develop partial chords which play with or between the bass notes. If you’re strumming then it’s more likely that you’ll want to find chords which compliment her melody line.

viz

Harmonising a melody is a pretty advanced skill; it comes into the music theory syllabus at grade 6, meaning it’s recognised to be difficult enough that a grade 8 instrumentalist doesn’t need to be able to do it (grade 5 is the highest level of theory you need to pass to qualify you to take grades 6-8 in an instrument). At grade 8 theory what you get asked to do is re-harmonise an existing melody/harmony. They give you a common tune and you have to provide a different harmony that works as well as the original harmony. All tunes can work with many harmonies. And that’s the challenge you’re experiencing!

 It’s a never-ending skill with lots of approaches and therefore outcomes, but at its most basic, here are the mechanical steps. Another way is just to feel it and your heart will know the chords, but if you specifically want to follow a theoretical method, this is it:

1) assumptions: the song’s going to stay in a single key, not modulate; it’s not going to have subsitutions; it’s not going to have any borrowed chords (eg secondary dominants). 

Some of the above assumptions may turn out to be not true, but I’m just trying to keep it simple. Then the ‘mechanical’ steps are:

1) from the melody, work out the key. In other words, work out the home note, and whether it’s major or minor or ambiguous. You can’t progress until you are sure of this. Write it down. Let’s assume it’s C major. The first and last chords are likely (but not guaranteed) to be C major. 

2) Like Roly says, the next bit is all about finding bass notes to the melody but you gotta be conscious of the fact that the bass notes might not be the roots of the chords. So the risk free thing to do is this:

- write the diatonic chords within the key. For C major that’s C Dm Em F G Am Bdim C. 

For C minor it would be Cm Ddim Eb Fm Gm Ab Bb Cm. 

- next, identify the really important chords - the tonic (which you know, that’s C), the Dominant (that’s the 5 chord, G), the subdominant (that’s the 4 chord, F), the supertonic (that’s the 2 chord, Dm), the submediant (that’s the 6 chord, Am).

- next, a good idea is to identify common progressions. In approximate order of commonness they’d be:

151: C G C
1451: C F G C
1251: C Dm G C
15641: C G Am F C
16451: C Am F G C
1 b3(7) b6 7(7) bIV: B D G Bb Eb (I'm kidding, that's Giant Steps)

(notice how most end with 51 - that’s called a "perfect cadence" - there’s probably a 50% chance your last two chords will be a 51, and a 25% chance the 3rd to last will be a 4 or 2. But I digress)


- next do the Roly thing of finding a bassline that complements the tune. It doesn’t have to be a bassline per se, it could be a sort of duet. But the bassline is what you’re looking for. It will probably be no faster than the actual melody, and quite possibly slower. What’s important is that this under-tune perfectly goes along with the tune. There are methods for this step, but easier is to just hum and see what works - your heart will find a way. 

- next you form chords that contain these notes. The problem is that the names of the chords won’t necessarily be the same as the names of the notes. They’ll have that note in them, but not necessarily as the root. In other words, they may be inversions. For instance, if the tune is Three blind mice, the tune is E D C, and you hum C B C, which perfectly complements the tune, the chords won’t be C B C; the chords will be C G C; that B was the 3rd note of the middle chord. Not the root of it. So what you do at this stage is look for common progressions and cadences that give you clues. Like, three blind mice’s progression is 151, like I wrote in that list above. 171 isn’t a common progression. So the chords are C G C, and your tune was C B C. So it all ties up.

But there are loads of alternatives to the three blind mice tune you could dream up. Like C C7 F. Or C E7 Am. (Both of these occur in Rachmaninov’s 4th piano concerto  ) - this is where it ceases to be purely mechanical, and where artistic choice comes in.

That’s the simplest process to get you going on the simplest tunes. It will get you a certain way along the journey but unless your songs are REALLY simple, you will encounter lots of times where the song deviates. You will find borrowed chords, major 5 chords where you’re expecting minor, modes, parallel chords, modulations, unfamiliar progressions, interrupted cadences, secondary dominants, ambiguous keys, blues notes, substitutions, the list is endless. If you want to carry on the theory-based method, rather than relying on your ear, which is cleverer than your brain, then maybe post some toons and we can comment?

ToneControl

I'd say look into computer-based tools to help
First thing I found today was this:

Lesgrandepotato

Thanks Viz, I suspect I maybe referring to this for some days if not months. I’ve put down a series of tracks using each sequence. They feel too happy so far. I wonder if we have moved to the relative minor 

viz

We can do a minor version of the thread if needed

viz

Or a bluesy one

Lesgrandepotato

And thank you for the lengthy reply. That’s clearly years of experience and some serious time just to type it out. Let alone the thought in describing it. 

Thank you dearly. 

viz

Np, I wrote it on the loo. 

Lesgrandepotato

viz said:

We can do a minor version of the thread if needed

So that would be the same process. But the underlying chord structures are different. 

But I guess the crux comes are the common progressions still common? 

viz

Lesgrandepotato said:

viz said:

We can do a minor version of the thread if needed

So that would be the same process. But the underlying chord structures are different. 

But I guess the crux comes are the common progressions still common? 

Well there are some that are the same, though minorized (1451 for instance), but others that are suited to minor keys much better (eg 17651, which would be i - bVII - bVI - V7 - i )

Sambostar

Sambostar

Just like metal pedal tones or playing open tuning.  Just augment the chords.  Her singing must be good.  If it's completely pedal tone unfriendly jazz people won't remember it anyway and it'll never amount to anything.  

Sambostar

viz said:

Well there are some that are the same, though minorized (1451 for instance), but others that are suited to minor keys much better (eg 17651, which would be i - bVII - BVI - V7 - i )

I find your Roman language unsavoury

viz

Sambostar said:

viz said:

Well there are some that are the same, though minorized (1451 for instance), but others that are suited to minor keys much better (eg 17651, which would be i - bVII - BVI - V7 - i )

I find your Roman language unsavoury

Lol! sorry, that B was supposed to be a b

axisus

@viz Great answer! I'm keeping a copy of that!

PAL

I feel it's all down to imagination ! I don't think theory will help although it does have it's place ! A good knowledge of chords and inversions really can help though.
I know a lot of people may not like this but it's worth watching the Beatles Get Back on Disney+ I watched it twice and compared to today they recorded and wrote their songs with little equipment they never even had a tuner like we have today.
What the Beatles had was a good knowledge of music popular & rock n roll .

Roland

PAL said:

I feel it's all down to imagination ! I don't think theory will help although it does have it's place ! A good knowledge of chords and inversions really can help though..

Exactly. You’re writing an instrumental part which compliments and supports the vocal line.

darthed1981

viz said:

Np, I wrote it on the loo. 

Buy @Viz a vindaloo and he will explain the modes...

viz

darthed1981 said:

viz said:

Np, I wrote it on the loo. 

Buy @Viz a vindaloo and he will explain the modes...

And explode the mains. 

digitalkettle

viz said:

darthed1981 said:

viz said:

Np, I wrote it on the loo. 

Buy @Viz a vindaloo and he will explain the modes...

And explode the mains. 

It's only Monday but we already have a 'post of the week' contender!