Your thoughts on melodies and chords

  • Thread starter Thread starter tonyoci
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I think I get what you're saying. You're just looking for chords that go with what you're singing. Unfortunately, there's no hard rules that say "such-and-such a chord goes with this note." You have to play with it and find out what chords you like. Let's say the song you're working on is in C and you're singing a G. You could play almost ANY chord with that G. You could play a C, or a Dm, or an E, or an F, or a G, or an Am or a Bb. Now I can tell you that a regular B chord would not really work there unless you were going for something really strange.

Basically, you have to play with all the different chords and see what direction you want to take the song.
 
Thanks Sile, it's more like, "how do I figure out the notes that I'm singing so that I can then figure out some potentiall chords"
 
tonyoci said:
Thanks Sile, it's more like, "how do I figure out the notes that I'm singing so that I can then figure out some potentiall chords"
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I'm sorry ... I guess you're tone deaf.

If you can't go to a piano, sing "la," and match the pitch on the piano, you're tone deaf.

I don't know what else to say. There is absolutely no reason why you should not be able to match pitch on an instrument.

And ANY "singer" who can sing decently in tune will be able to match pitch on an instrument-- amateur or otherwise.
 
Sorry we can all be as good as you but you might be interested to know that the songs I sing don't use the word LA very much. I am making up songs, recording them into a portable recorder then try to match some notes (as said I haven't tried that hard). A relatively fast, rock style lyric, with words cannot be matched by singing LA into a piano.

Tony
 
Ok, just answer me this: Do you know what key the song is in?
 
Nope and I give up with this discussion. I sit, usually in the car, and I come up something that sounds good. I can definitely do more work to identify notes and keys and I understand I need to do that, but I disagree that it's as easy and common as you seem to think.

This discussion with you has been getting me very frustrated so I'm going to bow out and don't plan to check it again. I am sure the truth is somewhere in the middle, I could definitely do more but you are out of touch with the common musician.

Tony
 
tonyoci,

I think beagle has a valid reason to be confused with your replys. Perhaps his comments seem harsh, but you taking an overly agreesive stance is not helpful.

If you can not even pick out the melody line you are singing on a keyboard, guitar, kazoo or whatever your preferred instrument, how can you possibly hope to figure out chords?

If you are able to figure out chords, you must be able to figure out single lines - and if you can do that, you must be able to figure out the melody lines you are singing. If you can't at a minimum figure out a single melody line on an instrument, you are in no way prepared to try to figure out chords.

Regarding singers ability to know notes. I've worked with hundreds of musicians on every level from the finest pros to garage wanna bes. I've worked with dozens and dozens of singers. While many were not formally triained, almost every one made some effort to understand the key of a song, to understand whole & half steps and to understand the most basic of theory (the do ra me scale). The ones that didn't seemed to fall by the wayside.

If a singer or musician is not willing to undertake that most basic of musical knowledge, they will never be able to communicate with other musicians and will never progress as singers/musicians.

In everything I've read about the Beatles (and I've read a lot) I think you are very much incorrect to suggest they knew nothing about music during the 1st recordings. While they may not have been completely educated in theory they most certainly understood melody, harmony, chord structure, etc. I am pretty sure they could sing a melody and then figure out how to pick it out on a piano or guitar.

While I respect that you are asking question and trying to learn - taking offense at what seems to be reasonable statements and your own indication that you "can't" pick out a melody on an instrument - could be interpreted to indicate that you are simply not willing to put in the most minimum of effort.
 
I have just read all the frustrating replies.

tony the only way I think you will understand is to take lessons. That may help you. Seriously if you can't pick out a note on what ever you like to write with that is a problem, or you just need a little pitch training.

I remember back in the day I always wanted to play better chords, and not use the typicals ones. Usually when I come up with some weird melody I will hit just the root note (note i'm singing or something that forms a harmony frm the note i'm singing), and will start building other notes around the root note to make a chord. TRY THAT!! If you can't take some lessons.

done.
 
tonyoci said:
A relatively fast, rock style lyric, with words cannot be matched by singing LA into a piano.
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I'm not slagging you here, I'm convinced that there is some basic miscommunication taking place. Let's take a step back and evaluate your statement above.

Since you are schooled in music theory you understand the difference between tempo and pitch...... right?

So you are either singing in semitones or your voice is completely without pitch. Which is it? Neither? I thought so.

If you sing a note, you can locate and play the same note. Period. It may be that you can't, but that will be a reflection of your own current ability. It is, in practice, really really uncomplicated. If you cannot match a note on an instrument to your voice, I would look at other avenues of musical expression besides singing.


All of this can be avoided by writing the music first and then coming up with a suitable melody... right? Instead of reinventing the wheel, why don't you just do what works for you?


-Casey
 
Here's an idea, if you ever come back to the thread

I seem to hear you saying that you can't translate the melody you sing into notes on an instrument.

I don't know if this will work, but if you buy a chromatic tuner with a mic and an automatic note finder built in (i.e. you play a string on a guitar and the tuner tells you it's an E note, but flat or sharp or dead on) and sing your notes into the tuner, it should tell you what note you're singing--the same way that it will tell you the note when you pluck a string on a guitar. (I just bought a tuner like that for about $10.00--not too expensive.)

Write that note down, then the next one in the melody, and the next, and on.
Once you have the melody, you can play with the chords (based on the notes in the melody) that fit. If you hear (in your head) a minor sounding melody riff, for example, you can use a minor chord that has the notes in it from the melody.

I don't know if this will work for voice, since voice is not as "pure" a tone as a plucked string, but it might. I'm sure you could test it at your local music store. Good luck.

Oh, BTW--I read a review in a computer mag about some of the "train-your-ear software (might have been that specific one--I don't recall) and they gave it a pretty good review.
 
tonyoci said:
I am quite capable of working out a chord progression and coming up with a, usually, simple melody. After a while though this gets pretty boring.
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tonyoci said:
But even today I can knock out a more catchy and fun tune than these technicians can.
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So which is it, man? Do you have a problem writing melodies or not? Read those quotes above and tell me why readers shouldn't be confused. In addition, do you have musical training or not? Are you tone deaf or not? Are you an instrumentalist or not? Can you tune your instrument or not?

People are asking these questions to help identify the problem so they can help you with it. But instead of appreciating the fact that they've taken an interest in you, you're getting pissy with them. It's not their fault that they don't understand you. After all, they've got two big obstacles to overcome. The first is your confusing posts. The second is your defensive attitude.

For what it's worth, Tony, when I feel like I'm writing boring melodies, I finish the song anyway, mostly because I often write lyrics and music at the same time. Then once I get the basics of the song nailed down, I go back and look for places where I can tweak the melody. I do this when no one's around so I can sing some crazy stuff and not feel too self-conscious about it. Most of the time I end up hitting on some pretty good stuff.

So if you've already got some musical training, and you're already "knocking out catchy tunes," perhaps this is something that will work for you. If not, go ahead and bite my head off, dude. I can take it.

Hey, Beagle: Apparently what they say is true: No good deed goes unpunished.
 
tonyoci said:
This discussion with you has been getting me very frustrated so I'm going to bow out and don't plan to check it again.
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Everyone on this thread is frustrating me, I plan on checking in again to see if my attitude has changed.
 
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