Creating a melody/harmony for an existing vocal.

[ecsmix]

Hi guys,

I was was wondering your technics to create a melody,harmony and chord progressions to a existing vocal/acapella.
Usually is pretty much what a remixer will do, take the acapella find the key in my case is E minor, you can use the E minor notes and chords, but I am having a hard time coming up with something good or better than the existing chords,melody of previously remixes.

the is solu music - fade, the remixer is grant nelson


I think his piano chord progression was C-F-B-D-E,G-A-B-D-F#,D-G-B-D-F#,E-A-B-D-F#,E-G-D-G.
I'd like to understand that better as well, I think it was C-ESUS9-E7SUS4TH,the last one i don't know what it was in theory.

Thanks for your time you guys are amazing teachers.
p.s: Obviously I am not a musician, just studying and trying to do some music.

Thanks.

[leighbeynon]

this is interesting and something id also like to understand,

how can to know what key a vocal is in to remix, say from an acappella ?

so you can play chords for this ?

[buckshead]

You need to either have perfect pitch (in which case you would know anyway) or you need to have an instrument of some sort that you can use to play along with. Remember, practically all tunes end on the tonic chord, this will be the key. You don't need to play the tune, really only the last note, its not foolproof but a good start. The determine whether its major or minor, by ear this time, although try playing the third (major or minor) of the tonic chord along with the last note. That gives you the basic key (assuming there are no modulations during the piece). Then get the basic structure using chords I,Iv and V. (In C major use C,F and G) and develop from there. I'm afraid it takes practice to get much further and to get chords with multiple tensions (C#7b5 etc) a lot of practice.

[jwilkinson]

Couldn't you use something like autotune (or manually using some kind of time stretcher and a chromatic tuner) to get what notes are being sung. From there, weed out anything that sounds like an accidental, then look at the notes to work out what the key signature is; and from there work out whether it's the major key, or it's relative minor.

That's just an idea i thought of when reading leighbeynon post.



Anyway, i don't know of any theory driven way to solve your issue (and it sounds like you have a firmer grasp on theory than i do anyway).

But, the one thing i can suggest is just putting the track on loop (or a section of that track), then trying out different chords (not necessarily standard chords, just mess around and press whatever feels right).

Whilst you're doing that, record what you're playing (as a midi track, synced up with the looped track would be best). Then, go back and listen over, and pick up on the things you like the sound of, and just shit things around and edit it from there.

Also, with this method, you may find that certain patterns evolve and stick with you each time a section goes around, then eventually, it'll just stay the same, and that's usually when you've reached something that's good.





I'm not sure if this will be particularly helpful for the style of music you're creating; i use it for contemporary classical styled compositions, which generally has slow and simple harmonic progressions. But it still should be useful for developing melody and counterpoint.

[leighbeynon]

yes auto tune, definatly, this is what i mean, or maybe melodyne would help also,

something that analyses the vocal so at least you can see what notes are played and try to determine what key its in,

many thanks i knew there must be a tool out there i can work with for this
leigh