It depends on what genre you're working in. Some are much more tolerant of weird chords than others.leighbeynon wrote: i just wanted to get an idea of what chords would work with the vocal i have,
Start with using 3 chords: if you're in Eb those are Eb, Ab, Bb. It will sound really boring, but there are thousands of songs that don't use more than this.
Then start throwing in more chords. For instance, your Ab chord has the C-Eb interval. If your melody moves between those notes (for instance, you're singing c-d-eb) then try using a Cm chord instead of Ab. Likewise, try substituting Gm for Bb if your melody goes bb-c-d or something like that.
Use chords that are just outside the scale: if your melody uses d and f, which you would normally put a Bb under, use a Dm, which is foreign because it has the a note which is not in the scale.
Go further outside the scale: if your Eb piece moves to a Gm chord, see if you can sneak in the D7, which is quite a bit outside your scale, but is a logical way to get to G (major or minor).
Go way outside the scale. Do you know that song "somewhere over the rainbow"? I have a transcription of how Dave Brubeck plays it, which starts Eb - Am5b - D7 5+ - G7 5+. That's wild!
Anyway, learn what chords are appropriate for the key you're in, and then see how far you can get away from them. One of my theory teachers once said "You're allowed one sideways jump [that would be the Am5b in the above example] and then you need to follow the cycle of fifths for a while [D-G-C above]". That's not a bad guideline. It's also pretty jazzy, which may not be what you're going for.
Victor.
