Finding Chords

DJ Sola

New member
Hey guys, I wanna ask another question from the unending fount of knowledge that is the FP forum :) If I have a melody written or a track that I want to flip or remix, is there any way to find chords by ear? I know my chords for the basic major and minor scales. Do I need to know any more? thanks fam :).
 
although your question is probably way too ambiguous to answer, here's my best response. most modern (western) music relies on chord resolution. if your melodies are periodically moving around and back to one note, that note should be the "tonic", or the root of the key you're in. for example, in C major, the note C is the tonic.

essentially, most songs start and end on the so-called tonic, or root note. this applies to both melody and harmony (chords). i would recommend starting to look at chord progressions, especially the 2-5-1, and 4-5-1 to begin. if you know how to write melodies then it should make sense pretty easily. there are many more things to consider but this is a good start.
 
Last edited:
Is there a way to find chords by ear?
this is a very vague question cause youll hate me for doing this but the answer is in the question itself almost
you find it by ear by listening to it
 
If you're asking how to add chords to the melody. You could try a more technical approach.. Figure out the key of the melody. figure out your chord rhythm. Resolve to the key that your melody is in. you can even start at the end of your progression with the tonic chord then work backwards.
If your asking how to figure out existing chords, some ear training may be needed. There's also several websites and apps that have the chords for many songs. There are ways to figure out the scale and then go from there. Let me know if you have any further questions.
 
Piano is still an advanced thing but the basics will be basics man. 12 notes exist, the pitch changes but the notes stay the same.
And turns out the chords and scales learned apply to everything. I just now realized it lol learning all the major/minor scales and regular scales and remember each note is the start of each scale so you already know what sounds good is kinda improvising O_O

Like example D can be used with F# and C# while staying consonant and f can do A# while staying consonant and E can do F# and G# etc
 
I had one piano teacher that drilled keys, chords, progressions, etc. And another piano teacher that just told me to let my hands wander, don't worry about sounding "good"...and just gradually learn for myself what does in fact sound good to me. So....I'm not super up on theory, I know some basics...but when I write, I just sit down and jam. If I have a melody already, I'll let it play while I jam some chords until something clicks. Or if I have chords laid down already, I'll let the progression loop while I plunk out a melody that sounds like crap....until it doesn't.
 
Aite. there is a way to find out chords by ear and it is called ear training. If you attend any ear training / music theory courses at schools or with any teacher, the first thing they will tell you about finding a chord by hearing it is to find the "root note" or the tonic. So in C Major, C is obviously the tonic and E and G are thirds and fifths respectively. This means that your first guess should be to try to guess what note the bass (or sub-bass, or the lowest instrument) is playing. Generally, what the lowest note is the root note and from there, you can guess the chords combined with music theory.

To explain really briefly, if you know your theory, in the Key of C you have seven diatonic (just means derived from the tone) chords from the scale of C.

C Major
D Minor
E Minor
F Major
G Major
A Minor
B Diminished

If you know the key of the song is in C + if you can hear the bass note, then you can know what chord it is by combining ear training and theory.

i.e. if you hear the bass note E, then you know the chord is E Minor.

Hope that explains the basics. Of course in most pop music and 99% of EDM, this will suffice.

:P
 
Last edited:
Back
Top