how to find a chord progression from a melody

Reezy

New member
not a composer. just a producer trying a find a solution of this prob. so here i have a melody, i cant find the chord progression to it. is there any formula or tricks that can determines the chord progression of a piece of melody please let me know
 
the key here is that you want to harmonise at the bar level rather than at the note level so you will want to include all of your notes in your determining which chord is active. When you have all of your notes taken into consideration the key question is to ask which notes are really active vs which ones are passive

i.e. if your melody has the notes B-A-G-A, is the "A" active or passive? depending on how you answer that can help you decide if the chord to use should be G (G-B-D), D (D-F#-A) or Dm (D-F-A) or maybe F (F-A-C) or Am (A-C-E) or maybe F#m (F#-A-C#) or Bm (B-D-F) - you might also just choose to use the notes on beats 1 and 3 as you chord determiners or the notes on beats 2 and 4 - if you have more than 4 notes in your bar the decision remain the same, except now the notes off the beat may be the ones helping you to decide which chord is the best to use

try these from a while ago

melodic design and to a lesser extent harmonising

which goes into detail on how to harmonise twinkle in new and interesting ways
 
I'm reading all of this stuff and I never realised how much theory was behind it all! This may be a silly question but isn't it all just putting in to words what comes naturally or am I just lucky in that respect?
 
I'm reading all of this stuff and I never realised how much theory was behind it all! This may be a silly question but isn't it all just putting in to words what comes naturally or am I just lucky in that respect?

the amount of theory is proportional to how complicated you want to make it and also how complicated your melody is to begin with

being "lucky" might be a part of your particular skill set but it is more likely that you understand the principles intuitively or intimately and are therefore able to easily make decisions that others struggle with

Is it a melody from an actual song? If so, you can always look for and download the midi file.

that would only help if the song were accurately transcribed into that midi file

@reezy:

an example from your melody would let me provide you with feasible alternatives
 
in my experience a lot of midi files created/transcribed by unknowns are less than accurate - I am talking in terms of 30 years of assessing midi files with 90% being less than stellar (in excess of 100000 files listened to)....

in transcription circles (those who do it professionally for money) it is said that the best one can hope for is about 95% accuracy as there will always be something missed, either deliberately or accidentally, or perhaps hidden in the mix.
 
in my experience a lot of midi files created/transcribed by unknowns are less than accurate - I am talking in terms of 30 years of assessing midi files with 90% being less than stellar (in excess of 100000 files listened to)....

in transcription circles (those who do it professionally for money) it is said that the best one can hope for is about 95% accuracy as there will always be something missed, either deliberately or accidentally, or perhaps hidden in the mix.

Big difference between midi's having 100% accuracy down to detecting things hidden in the mix.....and getting the proper melody from a song via midi.

Big difference.
 
not a composer. just a producer trying a find a solution of this prob. so here i have a melody, i cant find the chord progression to it. is there any formula or tricks that can determines the chord progression of a piece of melody please let me know

If you don't know the chord prog, it'd help to determine which key you're operating in first.

So take the notes of your melody and check out this chart below

http://johnthomasmumm.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/keys.jpg

See which key has all the notes of your melody included. Then determine a logical chord progression using whatever notes you played, preferably like bandcoach said - harmonizing at the bar level rather than at the note level.
 
Last edited:
Big difference between midi's having 100% accuracy down to detecting things hidden in the mix.....and getting the proper melody from a song via midi.

Big difference.

not really: if the melody has been incorrectly transcribed as often happens there is no point in using that particular midi file

also MIDI on its own means Musical Instrument Digital Interface: shortening them without context can only lead to confusion for everyone

@free spirit: that only has the white key major scales and will barely be a guide to the possible chords for each note

a more complete version is below (yes C#-Db and B-Cb but they are considered normal keys)

KeyIiiiiiIVVviviib5
AbAbBbmCmDbEbFmGmb5
AABmC#mDEF#mG#mb5
BbBbCmDmEbFGmAmb5
BBC#mD#mEF#G#mA#mb5
CbCbDbmEbmFbGbAbmBbmb5
CCDmEmFGAmBmb5
C#C#D#mE#mF#G#A#mB#mb5
DbDbEbmFmGbAbBbmCmb5
DDEmF#mGABmC#mb5
EbEbFmGmAbBbCmDmb5
EEF#mG#mABC#mD#mb5
FFGmAmBbCDmEmb5
F#F#G#mA#mBC#D#mE#mb5
GbGbAbBbmCbDbEbmFmb5
GGAmBmCDEmF#mb5
[
 
Last edited:
thanks guys much helpfull. i wont go into that complexity i just want a harmonized chord prog out of the melody. i think the chart gonna help much. as i know i should start w (i) always. and in w (i) home>****ing around> getting back home. is that info enough ?
 
the chart is only part of the equation as you need to know what notes are in each chord for it be valuable

KeyIiiiiiIVVviviib5
AbAb
Ab-C-Eb
Bbm
Bb-Db-F
Cm
C-Eb-G
Db
Db-F-Ab
Eb
Eb-G-Bb
Fm
F-Ab-C
Gmb5
G-Bb-Db
AA
A-C#-E
Bm
B-D-F#
C#m
C#-E-G#
D
D-F#-A
E
E-G#-B
F#m
F#-A-C#
G#mb5
G#-B-D
BbBb
Bb-D-F
Cm
C-Eb-G
Dm
D-F-A
Eb
Eb-G-Bb
F
F-A-C
Gm
G-Bb-D
Amb5
A-C-Eb
BB
B-D#-F#
C#m
C#-E-G#
D#m
D#-F#-A#
E
E-G#-B
F#
F#-A#-C#
G#m
G#-B-D#
A#mb5
A#-C#-E
CbCb
Cb-Eb-Gb
Dbm
Db-Fb-Ab
Ebm
Eb-Gb-Bb
Fb
Fb-Ab-Cb
Gb
Gb-Bb-Db
Abm
Ab-Cb-Eb
Bbmb5
Bb-Db-Fb
CC
C-E-G
Dm
D-F-A
Em
E-G-B
F
F-A-C
G
G-B-D
Am
A-C-E
Bmb5
B-D-F
C#C#
C#-E#-G#
D#m
D#-F#-A#
E#m
E#-G#-B#
F#
F#-A#-C#
G#
G#-B#-D#
A#m
A#-C#-E#
B#mb5
B#-D#-F#
DbDb
Db-F-Ab
Ebm
Eb-Gb-Bb
Fm
F-Ab-C
Gb
Gb-Bb-Db
Ab
Ab-C-Eb
Bbm
Bb-Db-F
Cmb5
C-Eb-Gb
DD
D-F#-A
Em
E-G-B
F#m
F#-A-C#
G
G-B-D
A
A-C#-E
Bm
B-D-F#
C#mb5
C#-E-G
EbEb
Eb-G-Bb
Fm
F-Ab-C
Gm
G-Bb-D
Ab
Ab-C-Eb
Bb
Bb-D-F
Cm
C-Eb-G
Dmb5
D-F-Ab
EE
E-G#-B
F#m
F#-A-C#
G#m
G#-B-D#
A
A-C#-E
B
B-D#-F#
C#m
C#-E-G#
D#mb5
D#-F#-A
FF
F-A-C
Gm
G-Bb-D
Am
A-C-E
Bb
Bb-D-F
C
C-E-G
Dm
D-F-A
Emb5
E-G-Bb
F#F#
F#-A#-C#
G#m
G#-B-D#
A#m
A#-C#-E#
B
B-D#-F#
C#
C#-E#-G#
D#m
D#-F#-A#
E#mb5
E#-G#-B
GbGb
Gb-Bb-Db
Abm
Ab-Cb-Eb
Bbm
Bb-Db-F
Cb
Cb-Eb-Gb
Db
Db-F-Ab
Ebm
Eb-Gb-Bb
Fmb5
F-Ab-Cb
GG
G-B-D
Am
A-C-E
Bm
B-D-F#
C
C-E-G
D
D-F#-A
Em
E-G-B
F#mb5
F#-A-C

as for starting on i and making your back to i whilst f*#king around along the way not necessarily true there is no rule that say you need to start on i|I or even end on i|I just listen to a bunch of stuff other than trap and you will begin to understand
 
hmm I don't know about chord progressions but you can find it's key. convert the score to the piano roll and look at the notes. Next go to showscale.com and use the piano roll to check it's note. And obviously go for the the most highlighted notes.
 
Back
Top