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Fitting chords to lyrics ?


raggety

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Posted

How do you go about this?

 

Say for example, just one lyric line from a song i wrote:

 

"..Sitting on a mountain top, waiting for the world to stop...."

 

 

what would be the way to find out what chords best suit that line?

 

the way i sing it i would emphasise the words.. 'Sitting, Mountain & World'

 

but how do i get the chords to fit, like i read of harmonising a scale.

 

but is there a way to harmonise a lyric and build useful chords that 'fit' from that?

 

because the way i play it now is just a constant cycling around of the chords G Am C D and while its ok like that, i have never been too happy with its sound.

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Posted

The most important rule is that if it sounds good, it is good. Use your ears. When inpiration isn't getting you there try these ideas:

 

First you need to identify the melody notes that the vocal line is using. Then you can determine the key and scale you are singing in. Once you know that, you can identify the chords in that key and try different chords under the melody. Usually, placing a chord that contains the melody note under the accented spots (i.e. on the first downbeat or the and of two...) will sound good.

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Posted

If you have a melody in mind, figure out the notes in it.

 

Then you need to harmonize the melody.

 

Say your melody goes something like G-A-B. The G to B is probably outlining the notes of a chord.

 

It could be a G chord, or an Em chord, or a Cmaj7, or an A9 or an Am9.

 

Because those notes are part of all of those different chords.

 

So for any little melodic fragment you have, there are a lot of chords that you could fit.

 

Play around with it until you find something you like.

 

Also, if G-A-B is connecting two chords, you could be going G to Bm7, or Em to Cmaj7, or whatever. Etc....

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Posted

Yes, as mentioned above, it's all a matter of what sounds good. I usually don't go about writing songs like this, but what i do is i recall a really hokey song (like, say, Last Kiss or Wonderful World or something) and I put my lyrics over top of that melody. I then {censored} around until I find something original and different.

 

But if you want my opinion, you should make up a chord progression and a melody first. It's usually easier.

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Posted

The posts so far assume you already have a melody in mind. If that's the case, then it's not too tough to find the chords for the melody. Sing the melody, then find the melody on the guitar. Figure out what notes are in the melody. Write them down and look at them...C D F# A C G...hmm...those are all notes from the G major scale. So try chords appropriate to that key (G, Am, Bm, C, D, Em, F#dim).

 

If you don't have a melody yet, it gets harder. What I usually do if I have some lyrics with no melody is try to discern the feel of the piece. Do I want it to be upbeat? Driving? Mellow? Melancholy? That drives a lot of the chords I choose. Figure out what kind of rhythm the lyrics require, and what mood you want, and that'll get you started into picking chords. If you want upbeat, driving, you could go for a I, IV, V (G, C, D) type of progression. If you want a little more rocking, you can try mixing a flatted VII in there (F). If you want something sad, try some minor key progressions.

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