Having trouble matching a chord progression to a melody

Cafe Society
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Started a Thread not too long ago about some experimenting I’ve been doing recently with my songwriting.
Not experimenting in the sense of “Far out, man! Dig that crazy unconventional experimental music!”, simply experimenting in that I’m trying to write songs in a style that is outside what I have considered my comfort zone.

Heretofore I had been writing pop/rock, folk, country, blues.
The recent experiments have been to write songs in the style of “old standards”, like George Gershwin or Cole Porter types of songs.

I had always written songs with my guitar in hand, but with this project I have been writing by singing the melody then picking up my guitar to figure out what the chords should be. Writing in this way has had the pleasant result of leading me into chord progressions I normally wouldn’t use (indeed even using chord structures I normally wouldn’t use), naturally progressing uncontrived key changes, and fun time signature changes I never would have otherwise used.

Figuring out the chords has been a chore, though.
I have a pretty good ear but not a great ear- so when I sing the melody, it takes a while to figure out what the actual notes are through some trial and error. I do have a basic understanding of Music Theory- so once I figure out the key that the song is in, figuring out the notes of the melody goes along more quickly.

The major difficulty has been that, in many sections, the melody goes up or down step by step at a time. Instead of “1 1 3 3/ 4 4 8 4/” it’s more like “1 234 5/ 6 543 2/”. The songs I’ve completed so far sometimes have up to four chord changes in a single measure because I find I can’t go so much as two notes before I’m singing something that doesn’t sound good over the chord that was required by the previous note (though sometimes the “chord change” is simply a matter of adding augmentation to the previous chord).

Difficult though the process has been, I’ve struggled through and am coming up with songs far more interesting that anything I had written before- and I’m judging my success in that, though the songs are challenging musically (to learn and play), they are not challenging to listen to: fun catchy memorable melodies that don’t require judicious intellectual review in order to be appreciated.

But I’m starting to get really impatient with the process of figuring out the chords to go along with the melodies in my head. The song I’m working on now has a great melody that I love singing, but even though I know the key that it is in (and I know where the key change comes in) I can’t for the life of me figure out chords that match the music in my head.

Any advice?
I could just put the entire project on hold, enroll at Berklee, spend a few years becoming a master at Music Theory, then start working on the songs again. I’d prefer, however, for faster results.

Know what would be great???
Is there any kind of website Dopers could recommend (Google has failed me), where I could enter a melody and the magic of technology could spit back the chords to me? I don’t have any music software on my computer, but would consider investing in some if there’s anything that comes highly recommended.

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Bienville To answer your last question first - no, I know of no such software, and I don’t think it exists, though I will ask around. All of the software I know of allows you to write out what you have already composed or arranged, or it plays back an expanded version of the chord symbols, or it assists with transcribing music by analyzing sound files.

My advice - first off, get that melody recorded, either in an audio or a written form. That will keep you from changing something you already have that you like.

Songwriting and composition are skills to be developed in the same way that your playing of an instrument gets developed. I’m skeptical of fast results in composition, just like I am in playing. I believe in long term progress, not quick answers, but that is only my opinion.

There are teachers of composition and songwriting, but I’m not sure if there are any in your neighbourhood. I find my knowledge of music theory very helpful in both my playing and my writing, but not everyone shares that feeling, and it depends massively on the attitude of who teaches you/what book you’re learning it from.

Can you hook up with another guitarist or singer? I remember helping a friend write out a song where he knew the melody, and he knew it well enough that I couldn’t throw him. So, he would sing and I would try chords underneath and he’d say yes or no, and in a few hours, he had his song. It’s not my favourite way to work, but the song turned out alright.

Forgive me if I’m teaching my grandmother to suck eggs, but I’m assuming you’ve gone through some Gershwin and Porter songs from a fake book and worked out where the melody notes are part of the chord, and where they’re not? Jazz harmony can have a different scale from the home key implied by a chord, and any note in that scale can be added over the chord and ‘resolve’ to a note that is in the chord. Studying the masters is a fantastic way to enlarge your own harmelodic vocabulary

In the end, your current method is painstaking, but it is teaching you what you want to hear. May I suggest - try to hear a chord in your head as you play each note, and try to find that chord. At the same time, as an exercise, sing different notes over the same chord and listen for how they affect where that chord wants to go next. I like to think of it in terms of attractions, like magnets or gravity. Some chords really want to move, some are more content at rest. Sometimes a chord moves where you didn’t expect it to, but that may have increased its potential energy for the next change, which was stronger for having that chord in the middle. Sometimes the melody is strengthened by having only one chord over several different notes.

I hope some of this helps, and good luck with your piece.

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I’ll try tonight, but Band In A Box does a good line in suggesting alternative jazz chords, though I think you may need a bit more than just a melody line (maybe a bass line to add some harmonic context). It can also generate comped guitar parts (one beat chords that contain the melody notes up and down the fretboard).

What chords are you using/trying? I’d be using the following

melody relative note
I…II…III…IV…V…VI…VII
Chords
I…V…I…IV…V…IV…V
IV…IIm…IIIm…IIm…I…VIm…IIIm
VIm…VIIb…VIm…VIIb…IIIm…IIm…
Vsus…Isus

On the II,III and VI the minor is optional for a passing chord - it depends on whether your melody/harmony is diatonic. Also, the three diminished chords (there are only three, pick the one that fits your melody) can fit in almost anywhere, and the I and V sustained chords give harmonic options, too.

Good luck

Si

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My only comment, which reinforces something Le Ministre de l’au-delà said, don’t try and force too many chords into the song. You say that you may make a lot of chord changes but sometimes it’s just to “add augmentation to the previous chord.” Consider starting with that chord in the first place. If you find yourself changing from a C to a C maj 7 to C add 9 or something, then maybe it should just be one measure of C maj 9 with the melody emphasizing the 7th and 9th as required. Or maybe just play a plain old C major chord and let the melody alone add the extra colour. In line with this, make sure you get a feeling for what notes are “passing” notes and which ones really need to be part of the chord structure. I pretty much feel you can get away with anything if it’s in the right key, the only times an out of chord note really sounds off is if it’s out of key like a minor 3rd over a major chord or a dominant 7th on a maj 7 chord etc, and even then it can sound ok in the right circumstances

I guess what I’m really saying is that often not changing the chord can be much more interesting than trying to make everything fit nicely.