Impossible to make a chord progression to this melody

[neueliteratur]

Hello folks,

today I wrote 4 bars of melody, and it has four flats: B, E, A, D.

It sounds "sad", so I guess it's in the key of F minor.

Now I am trying to put chords to this melody,

so I've tried all of the chords from the diatonic harmony:

F minor
G minor
Ab major
Bb minor
C minor
Db major
Eb major

But none of them sounds good except the F minor chord, which sounds good thoughout all of the 4 bars.

Not only does it sound very boring but I am very frustrated by the fact that I can't seem to fit any chords in there.

Has anybody had the same experience? Why is this?

I thought maybe chords are too complicated,

I also tried putting only the bass notes,

of course, I've put all of the 12 notes, but none of them sounds good except for the F.

This drives me crazy because the melody is not like unconventional or anything like that, it's just a boring usual melody in F natural minor!

[Ogg Vorbis]

Can you post an audio of your melody? Hard to tell without knowing what your melody is.

[mistertoast]

If it's natural minor, wouldn't the G chord be diminished rather than minor?

Also, have you tried treating the tune as Ab major instead and using that as the root?

Finally, have you tried going through the other chords quickly and getting back to F minor often, since that's the chord you say sounds best?

[neueliteratur]

If it's natural minor, wouldn't the G chord be diminished rather than minor?

Oops, yes. Thank you. I always get that wrong.

Also, have you tried treating the tune as Ab major instead and using that as the root?

Yes, and it didn't sound very coherent.

Finally, have you tried going through the other chords quickly and getting back to F minor often, since that's the chord you say sounds best?

Ahh, I guess that's what I should've tried. Because some of the other chords, they did actually sound good in some parts but for a very short while. Thanks.

[neueliteratur]

I figured out what was happening.

The plugin I was using was weird.

I was using Flygel to get the piano sound, and tha plug-in makes things sounds so weird.. like.. outoftune...

So I changed the plugin, and it works very well with the diatonic harmony.

[mistertoast]

I figured out what was happening.

The plugin I was using was weird.

I was using Flygel to get the piano sound, and tha plug-in makes things sounds so weird.. like.. outoftune...

So I changed the plugin, and it works very well with the diatonic harmony.

Good. Since it works with diatonic, time to try some substitutions that aren't.