#Liquid notes chords from melody how to#

That understanding of strong versus weak is important when fitting melodies to chords, for this reason: notes that happen on strong beats should usually be chord tones.Īnd the second part of that thought is this: notes on weak beats don’t need to be chord tones. (The uneven spacing in the strong/weak beats is simply to fit the words in) If you tap your foot, you’ll notice that the syllable “need-” is a strong beat, “-ed” is weak, “you” is strong, and so on. In songs like this, it’s fairly easy to hear that the music is organized in alternating strong beats and weak beats. You’ll notice that he plays a B chord through this first phrase, and two of the notes he sings don’t belong to a B chord (shown in red):

#Liquid notes chords from melody how to#

The first two bars are all you need to demonstrate the issue: how to fit non-chord notes into a chord. So that means that occasionally you’ll be singing a note that doesn’t fit the chord.īut just to pull a classic example out of the air, how about Townes Van Zandt’s “If I Needed You.” Give it a listen and you’ll notice that most chords are held for two bars (8 beats) while the melody moves up and down, occasionally by leap and occasionally by step. Most songs will demonstrate how this is done, because most songs consist of melodies that move up and down from one note to the adjacent one. Get the complete Deluxe Bundle of 10 eBooks at a discounted price of $37. L ooking for good songwriting content for your iPad, Kindle, laptop, desktop, or other PDF-reading device? “ The Essential Secrets of Songwriting”bundle packages will show you why good songs are good, and how to apply those lessons to your own music. Most of the time, you’ll find that melodies move in a stepwise fashion with occasional leaps, like “Blowin’ In the Wind”, for example.īut that can present you with a question: what do you do about notes in your melody that don’t happen to belong to the chord that you’re playing?

Melodies that consist only of chord tones leaping about, like the melody for “America,” are rare. If you listen to Leonard Bernstein’s “ America”, from “West Side Story“, you’ll notice that practically all the notes from the melody clearly outline the chord that accompanies it:

The diagram below shows the relationship between a C major scale on the top and an A minor scale on the bottom.A bit of songwriter’s theory for today, and it’s an important lesson especially if you’ve created a melody and are at the stage where you’re adding chords. To find the relative major of a minor scale, start at the tonic and count a whole step and a half step up (A to B is a whole step. In the case of C major, the relative minor key is A minor (C to B is a half step, B to A is a whole step). To find the relative minor scale to a major scale, start at the tonic and count a half step and a whole step down. Relative major/minor keysįor every scale there is a relative major or minor scale that shares the same notes. The seventh note (B) is a diminished chord, which means it is comprised of a tonic (B), a minor third (D), and a flat fifth (F). In short, the second, third, and sixth notes in the C major scale (D, E, and A) are minor chords, while the tonic, fourth, and fifth notes (C, F, and G) are major chords. The third note is E and is assigned to E minor (notes are E, G, and B). The second note in the C major scale is D, which is assigned to D minor (D as tonic, F as third, and A as fifth). For those of you who don’t read music, the notes in the C triad above are C (tonic), E (third), and G (fifth). This may seem a bit confusing, but the diagram below can shed a little light on this concept.Įach diatonic chord is made up of three notes within its scale: a tonic, a third, and a fifth. These chords are called diatonic chords, and they play an integral part in assigning chords to a melodic note. Say your melody comprises the notes in a C major scale (C-D-E-F-G-A-B) each one of those notes is the tonic, or root note, of its own chord. Most melodies are based on a major or minor scale that correlates with the key of the song. So what do you do when inspiration strikes in the form of a melody? To move forward with an isolated melodic idea, we should understand two vital concepts that will prove essential in choosing the right chords for your melody. Some prefer to write a chord progression or a rhythm first, while some pen lyrics before any music comes to mind.

Where each musician begins their songwriting process also varies. It can strike anywhere and any time, and what your inspiration yields will always be different. An often complicated aspect of writing music is unpredictable inspiration.