2 Part question, Melody from Progression and Instrumentaion

**kukura** · 04-14-2012

Let's say you have a chord progression for example
Em7-am7-f#m7-Em7

How would you make a Melody to a progression?
For example would most of your the first notes of your bar have a chord tone in it?
and the second question what about the instrumentation if you had a chord progression would you lay the chords down and throw a melody instrument on top or lay a part of the chord down and use the melody instrument to finish the chord?
example some instruments are used only for melody Such as a flute trumpet or even stuff like a theremin or a lead synth
others have chordal functions to them such as pads pianos and guitars
So for example would you have the piano play Em and have a flute play the 7th of the chord or would you play the Em7th and do something else with the melody?
Im trying to come up with a different way of doing things any help would be appreciated.

**bandcoach** · 04-15-2012

Originally Posted by kukura

Let's say you have a chord progression for example
Em7-am7-f#m7-Em7

How would you make a Melody to a progression?
For example would most of your the first notes of your bar have a chord tone in it?

First up lay out the scale that's gonna work with all of these chords and see what you gotta watch out for

E-G-B-D~A-C-E-G~F^#-A-C^#-E

rearrange the notes to reflect scale tone order

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

Also note that each chord has the E in it, as root (Em⁷), 5th (Am⁷) and 7th (F^#m⁷)

I would not use the C^# against the Am⁷ chord unless it was being passed through very quickly to the D.

However, everything else is fair game. try starting on C^# and moving down to the B and the G - it may mess with the sense of tonality but it will certainly establish a signature sound

and the second question what about the instrumentation if you had a chord progression would you lay the chords down and throw a melody instrument on top or lay a part of the chord down and use the melody instrument to finish the chord?
example some instruments are used only for melody Such as a flute trumpet or even stuff like a theremin or a lead synth
others have chordal functions to them such as pads pianos and guitars
So for example would you have the piano play Em and have a flute play the 7th of the chord or would you play the Em7th and do something else with the melody?
Im trying to come up with a different way of doing things any help would be appreciated.

Split the chord into a bass note plus triad, e.g.

Chord	Tones in chord	Bass Note	Triad
Am7	A-C-E-G	A	C-E-G
Em7	E-G-B-D	E	G-B-D
F^#m7	F^#-A-C^#-E	F^#	A-C^#-E

If needed slip the root of the chord into the triad again, also moving to 1st and 2nd inversion

Chord	Bass Note	Triad	Root position	1st inversion	2nd Inversion
Am7	A	C-E-G	C-E-G-A	E-G-A-C	G-A-C-E
Em7	E	G-B-D	G-B-D-E	B-D-E-G	D-E-G-B
F^#m7	F^#	A-C^#-E	A-C^#-E-F^#	C^#-E-F^#-A	E-F^#-A-C^#

These forms of the chord can now be used as pads, stabs and any other way you can think of (as source notes for an arp, as just one possibility)

I have some notation and other things to share, but I seem to have lost some run-time libraries which is causing problems with Cubase so I'm going to have to reinstall some sw from the looks of it......