Adding Chords To A Melody

[BertKoor]

I wonder if the OP worked out the chords for the bassline

they're never coming back, no one will ever know

We don't know until we ask:

Adding Chords To A Melody
[...]
I'm at a crossroad.

Hey @Passante, were you able to work it out? Did any of this discussion help at all?

[jancivil]

I was being flippant

I could be wrong, occasionally they do. -<

[Hink]

" do you add just 1 note to form a triad and thus incorporate the melody into the chord"

Do you started with music a hour ago?

How would you feel if someone said, "Did you start learning English an hour ago?". What if he did?

[Passante]

I wonder if the OP worked out the chords for the bassline

they're never coming back, no one will ever know

We don't know until we ask:

Adding Chords To A Melody
[...]
I'm at a crossroad.

Hey @Passante, were you able to work it out? Did any of this discussion help at all?

Hi, for now I found my own way to move forward with this, it's very rudimentary but is my only option as of now.
I basically hum the melody/notes in my head while playing until I land on the right pitch. I try every note of the scale and decide what feels right in the context.
I do think that learning to play piano would help me massively but that takes much time that I don't have atm.
Some suggestion are more useful than others, some are just too complex for me considering where I am right now.

[BertKoor]

I basically hum the melody/notes in my head while playing until I land on the right pitch. I try every note of the scale and decide what feels right in the context.

That sounds not bad. Do it more often and you'll become better.

[jancivil]

singing is a good idea, you get to know and associate the tones physically

[iikkap]

I wonder if the OP worked out the chords for the bassline

they're never coming back, no one will ever know

We don't know until we ask:

Adding Chords To A Melody
[...]
I'm at a crossroad.

Hey @Passante, were you able to work it out? Did any of this discussion help at all?

Hi, for now I found my own way to move forward with this, it's very rudimentary but is my only option as of now.
I basically hum the melody/notes in my head while playing until I land on the right pitch. I try every note of the scale and decide what feels right in the context.
I do think that learning to play piano would help me massively but that takes much time that I don't have atm.
Some suggestion are more useful than others, some are just too complex for me considering where I am right now.

Humming is a good way to go, that way you're operating based on what actually sounds good!

As for learning to play the piano and it taking a lot of time - I think you could look at it in a different way. Learning to play well of course takes a ton of time, but learning to mess around on the keyboard, trying how different chords sound with eachother is FAR less effort. You can do quite a bit with minimal technical skill.

[Passante]

I agree with fmr, you're most of the way there with melody and bass.

Here are a few things to consider in general -
-You don't have to harmonize each melody note with a different chord. Listen to your melody and try and hear where you feel the chord changes should be.
-Once you have a set of notes that you'd like to harmonize, see if your melody implies or outlines a certain chord. For example if your song is in the key of C and your melody goes G E C you are spelling out a C chord, and probably want to play a C chord. But if your bass note is an A, then you're probably looking at an Am7 chord.
-Decide which notes in your melody are "target notes" and which notes are "passing notes", most likely you'll want your "target notes" to be one of the chord tones in whatever chord you're in. Again in the key of C, if your target melody note is G, you're probably looking at a C or a G chord.
-All of these ideas really depend on how stable or animated you want your melody note to be. If you want one of your target notes to have more potential energy, meaning it isn't at rest and wants to go somewhere else, you can either have it not be one of the chord tones and/or be an extension of the chord like a 7th or 9th. Using the example above, a G note over a G or C chord will be very stable, while a G note over an Am7 chord will have more motion and potential for movement. This same G note in an Am7 will have a desire to come to rest somewhere else either moving to different melody note or having the chord move underneath.

Once again I'm back at this topic and want to underline and thank strummy especially for this comment he made. That reply resonanted for many months in my mind after I read it and made me think. It was an eye opening moment for me, his explanation about passing and target notes specifically. It doesn't mean that I follow a formula now in creating the harmony but is something I always take in consideration.
And jancivil's comment about interchanging bass and melody is very useful too. I was actually already approaching things in such way, but I needed a confirmation. Now I know that it's ok to overstep the boundaries.
Anyway, a curious thing I'm noticing is that it turns out the most creative/interesting and strange melodies I made was in the period I didn't have any theory knowledge at all. When I look at these melodies and analyze them, they don't seem to make much sense, but somehow they sound very ethereal and unique. It's harder for me right now to create such vibes.
However I understand that it is all a matter of knowledge and I have not arrived at such a level where I can exert control, I lack mastery.

[jancivil]

for future reference, hearing no music leaves us guessing and supposing. There’s no right or wrong way guaranteed from talking in the abstract.
It’s all contextual.

[eLawnMust]

Just to pop in here, I suggest not using triads & instead using compound chords to convey the message this gives you alot more notes to play with that can be transitioned or crossed & perhaps a better feel than plain triads that provide a 'straightforward' sound like for country, folk, folk-rock. Hard to explain really but I don't use ANY triads in what I do sooo....

Here's a WIP in Protrekkr I am currently doing it's all compounds with whole-tone riff on change-over & one 303 dedicated bassline the other 303 counter-riffing-

https://soundcloud.com/waxing-and-wanin ... -iteration

Don't worry so far it's short>>>

[Aaron Marshall]

The beauty part is there are many avenues you can travel. There's not an absolute right set of chord that secretly go along with your bass and melody. You might even try something that is a little disharmonic momentarily to add tension. Only you know.

[weeii]

A simple method, you can literally just list all the note in your melody, and find a scale which can fit all those notes. After that, according the note on the first beat of a bar to choose the chord which has this note for this bar, and in the most situation, I recommend selecting chords within the seventh chord.
[eg. the first note of a bar is E, and all notes of your melody are fitted in C Major, you can choose C, Em, Am as your chord of this bar.]
But after you wirte the first chord, you need to carefully choose the chord of following bars (also in same way). Cuz if you wanna your music sounds well, you have to build a good chord progression, and not every different chord in the scale can arrange into well-sounded progression. And also different chord progressions will decide the emotion of your music.

[Passante]

Yeah, I progressed quite a bit from one year ago. Now I have no problem harmonizing my melodies. Also, finally my work started to sound more varied. Still my trademark melancholic touch is there, but now things can be more ambiguous.

[johne1]

I suggest you search on YouTube on, “Putting chords to melody.” You may have to experiment with your search criteria, but there’s a very good video on this very topic from a young German composer. The woman graduated from a music conservatory and is now writing film scores.

She takes melodies and shows how she strings completely different chords over the same melody phrases all throughout her film score. These chord phrases aren’t just minor deviations or chord substitutions. Your chord phrases can be in different keys and yet they all still work. It avoids repetition and can make your music much more interesting.

It’s a simple, clever method she devised and teaches in her YouTube video. After teaching her technique, she demonstrates it in action. She’ll have you listen to completely different chord changes over the exact same melody phrase.

It does require a little chord knowledge. We all know that there’s only 12 notes in Western music, but each of those 12 notes work within many, many chords. They must! Or how else would we have chord books with a thousand different chords?

The chords you come up with to play over a phrase in your melody don’t even have to include your melody note. I’m getting ahead a bit.

Suppose your melody phrase begins on Eb (AKA D#).
So what chord could you play over the start of this melody phrase?
What chords contain Eb or D#?
Of course, all the Eb chords.
In what chord is Eb or D# the 3rd?
That would be the B Major chord (B=root, C#=2nd or 9th, D#=3rd).
In what chord is Eb the 5th?
That would be the Ab Major chord.
In what chord is Eb the minor 3rd?
That would the C minor chord.
In what chord is Eb the b7th?
That would be the F7 (Dominant 7th) chord.
In what chord is Eb the 2nd or 9th?
That would be some form of Db(add 2 or sus 2) or Db9.
In what chord is Eb the 4th or 11th?
That would be some form of Bb(add 4 or sus 4) or Bb11 or Bbm11.
In what chord is Eb the 6th or 13th?
That would be Gb6 or Gbm6. Or F#6 or F#m6, if you’re asking about D#.
That’s almost all 12 notes.
I left out the b9th, b5th, b6th, and the Major 7th.
You get the idea?!

First step is to identify the phrases in your melody. Try to keep it simple.
The rhythm should help you identify small snippets or phrases.
Work on one phrase at a time.
Starting out, I recommend you try to find 1 or 2 chords per measure.

Create several different groups of chords to play over that same melodic phrase.
Assuming your melody has phrases which repeat, that gives you much more opportunity for different groups of chords over the same phrase.
Your imagination is the limit.

With a good ear you can figure it out. Add to that good ear some chord theory knowledge and you can come up with all different chord rhythm tracks even faster.

The more you do it, the better and faster you’ll get at it.
She’s come up with the best, simplest method I’ve ever seen.
No Jazz or Classical knowledge required, just chord knowledge, period.

[mjolnir]

it can be difficult, but i try to do implied counterpoint of something like a 4 part harmony.
I start with one melody, then overdub another melody, then another, and then another.
They are all melodies, but some notes are closer to others, and I try to keep one in the bass, and one in the middle, and a few high accents.
The notes jump around like an arpeggio, even if sustained. That's the only way I know to get harmony lately.

I took a college class and I'm supposed to know how to make chords based upon the class and my piano lessons, but in actuality, i can't remember how to do any of that. But i'm still able to overdub / stack the one line melodies.

It's all partially trial and error but that's how I got my most recent tune done, "Rather Unknown". There's a link to it in my signature.
Hopefully this is helpful to somebody out there.