Songwriting/chord question

[Serena Casey]

Pardon the extreme newbieness of this question. I wrote a song by plinking out the basic melody on the keyboard. What I want to do is come up with guitar chords for it, but I don't know how, other than to just sit down and strum until something sounds right, and that could take a while! (I don't actually play guitar. Yet. But I know a few chords.)

Is there a set way to figure out the chords, like on certain beats, or what? I don't know if I'm even phrasing this in an understandable way. I do know which notes I'm playing on the keyboard, letter-wise.

[Priene]

Songs are played in keys, and the chords which fit together are the ones composed of notes in a song's key. Imagine you're writing a song in the key of C major. The notes in the C major scale (the white keys on the piano) are

C-D-E-F-G-A-B

The chord of C is the first, third and fifth notes in the scale

C-E-G

That's the first chord that fits in the key of C major. But we can also take the second, fourth and six notes and make a chord

D-F-A

This is D minor, our second chord. We can then take the third, fifth and seventh

E-G-B

which is E minor. Taking each notes in the key in turn and building chords from them, we get

C
Dm
Em
F
G
Am
Bm7-5

The last one is for jazz afficionados mainly, but these are chords which will fit together well in a song. You can extend the other chords to include sevenths like G7, F major 7 and A minor 7.

And once you're comfortable with that, start looking at other keys. Good luck.

[rugcat]

Priene's post is quite correct, as far as it goes. But I would guess it's not quite as comprehensible to you as it might be. We musicians tend to forget that what is obvious and instantly apparent to us isn't always as clear to non musicians.

Take some basic lessons, from a live person, perhaps a guitar player, even though you are currently plinking notes on a keyboard. The money you spend will be well worth it in terms of time and being able to more quickly understand how to do things. Even a couple of lessons will help greatly.

[Serena Casey]

So how do I know which key my song is in? It does start with C. I've been Googling this, but everything is over my head. I do want to take lessons (have wanted to for almost two years) but haven't been able to.

Thank you both.

[roncouch]

Good information above! Should you learn to play the guitar, here is something that will help. Many songs are played with three guitar chords. Remember 1, 4, and 5. Say you start playing a song with a C chord (1) strum to the F chord (4) and finally the G7th (5). These three chords are parts of a family. They go together. Remember this 1, 4, 5 sequence. Examples:

Major Major Seventh
D G A7
E A B7
F B C7
G C D7
A D E7
B E F7

Just re-read your post. The above is for beginning guitar players. Sorry.


Ron

[rugcat]

So how do I know which key my song is in? It does start with C. I've been Googling this, but everything is over my head. I do want to take lessons (have wanted to for almost two years) but haven't been able to.

Thank you both.If you start on a C and it's a simple tune, it's likely in the key of C. But there are so many exceptions that it's not possible to give you a quick answer that would make any sense to you. You really need a teacher. Or at least, a beginning music book -- there are thousands of them. If you know anyone who plays guitar or keyboards, they also might be able to answer your questions. But it's really not possible in a simple post, esp without hearing the tune.

Sorry.

[Serena Casey]

Major Major Seventh
D G A7
E A B7
F B C7
G C D7
A D E7
B E F7

Just re-read your post. The above is for beginning guitar players. Sorry.

Well, that's me. In fact, even what you said is over my head! But I have seen references to 1,4,5 before, just didn't know what it meant. Thanks for the helpful info.

Thanks to rugcat, too, for the replies. I do need some one-on-one lessons. This is all more complicated than I realized. Now to find the money.

[roncouch]

FYI

http://www.chordie.com/chords.php

Ron

[Serena Casey]

Ooh, great site! Thanks!

[benbradley]

Pardon the extreme newbieness of this question. I wrote a song by plinking out the basic melody on the keyboard. What I want to do is come up with guitar chords for it, but I don't know how, other than to just sit down and strum until something sounds right, and that could take a while! (I don't actually play guitar. Yet. But I know a few chords.)

Is there a set way to figure out the chords, like on certain beats, or what? I don't know if I'm even phrasing this in an understandable way. I do know which notes I'm playing on the keyboard, letter-wise.

Well, firstly, it helps a lot to know what your melody is is in terms of notes, and it's good you already know the names of the notes on the keyboard. On a guitar there are all different notes on each string at each fret position (except for the two E strings), so in a way there's more to memorize on the guitar.

If you're playing the melody on all white notes, then your song is most likely in the key of C (it could be A minor, but that's another lesson). It's also called the key of C major, but the word major is often left off and assumed. The three main chords that go along with the key of C are C, F, and G. If it's a "simple" song (and a lot of songs are), you'll only need those three chords to accompany the melody.

Of these three chords, the F chord is hardest for a beginner to play because you have to fret all the strings. A lot of folk songs are in the key of G, where the three main chords are G, C and D, or in the key of D, in which the main chords are in D, G, and A, partly because all those chords are easy to play.

Now here's a challenge for you. You already know what the notes are on the keyboard, so play the scale, eight notes from C to the next higher C. Now play those same notes on the guitar. Yes, this IS an 'exercise' but it will help give you a feel for where notes are and how they sound, and it will help you play a melody on the guitar as well as chords, and it will ALSO help you recognize the notes in the melody of a song you hear.

Next. play the notes in the key of F. You'll play the next black key after A, it might sometimes be called A#, but in this key it's actually called Bb, because you already played A, and you skip B, going from Bb to C as part of the scale. Now play THAT on the guitar.

Play the notes in the key of G on the keyboard. You'll play an F# instead of F. Now play THAT on the guitar.

The "strum something that sounds right" is pretty much the way it's done, and you're way ahead on hints by knowing what key you're in and knowing what chords "go along" with that key. There are more chords for each key than the three I mentioned, but there are a LOT of pop, rock and folk songs that only use the three main chords!

I've done this long enough to "hear" the chords in my head as the melody plays. And yes, one can legitimately come up with different chords to the same melody, so there isn't any right or wrong, though some combinations usually sound 'better' than others.
FYI

http://www.chordie.com/chords.php

Ron
I'm looking at that thing and... well, for a moment I saw 'errors' but I didn't see the little number to the left of SOME of those diagrams that says which FRET the diagram starts on. It all makes sense now, as long as you remember that, and move your fingers up the frets depending on what that little number is. Otherwise, a lot of those chords won't sound right.

Geez. You can't trust nothing on this IntraWebz thing.

[benbradley]

Well, that's me. In fact, even what you said is over my head! But I have seen references to 1,4,5 before, just didn't know what it meant. Thanks for the helpful info.

Thanks to rugcat, too, for the replies. I do need some one-on-one lessons. This is all more complicated than I realized. Now to find the money.
I think as someone else mentioned, there are LOTS of books on how to read music, how to play piano, etc. Look for them in your library and in used bookstores (and see my blog entry on getting books). It's good to have lessons (I suppose, I can't speak from experience), but it's also possible to learn a lot on your own for very little money (I do have experience in that).

Those "chord numbers" are often written in Roman Numerals, so the chords may be called I, IV and V instead of 1, 4 and 5. I've seen numbers used as notes, such as in the key of C, 1 = C, 2 = D and so on, and when there are accompanying chords, the chords are written in Roman numerals, which distinguishes them from the numbers for the notes.

In many protestant churches, after the minister gives a prayer and says the final "Amen," the organist plays the two chords IV and I, sometimes with the choir singing "A" (chord IV) - "men" (chord I). I suppose it adds a finality to the prayer.

I recall a forum poster who would agree with the "truthfulness" of a previous post by responding with

IV-I

which of course meant "Amen." :)

[Serena Casey]

Thanks so much, Ben, for the comprehensive explanation. I will try those exercises. I definitely have not mastered the F chord yet. It's still a challenge to get G and C down pat. I always thought I had long slender fingers but now I find they're not nearly long enough! It's such a stretch to get them to fret both E strings at the same time, and it's also putting a strain on my wrist. Are some guitar necks thinner than others? I wonder if mine's just too big for me. I probably should have bought a child's guitar...

[Yeshanu]

Free theory lessons on the net. (http://www.musictheory.halifax.ns.ca/lessons.html)

This looks like just a basic introduction, but if you read through it, what others have said above might make more sense.