beginner - writing chord progressions

[cloud360]

hi guys,

I am still fairly new to producing music. I have read up on some theory and pretty comfortable with my knowledge on scales and some chords. however, one thing that has been bugging me for quite some time is chord progressions. I understand they are almost vital to a song. Usually, when i make a song, i just add a baseline and a melody (which is like single based/played notes). My main question is how do i use chord progressions? I have browsed on various forums and i always read people going on about so and so song has this and that chord progressions ect but the thing is, when i listen to that song, i can only hear single based/played notes playing.

I just don't understand how they work. Do i make my main melody a chord progression or something? I have watched countless videos on youtube but they never really explain my problem. Also, when i think of chord progressions,i think of like 3 or 4 chords hitting each other, one after another

like this;
6-4-1-5 Chord Progression in C Major - Piano Lesson - YouTube

See, when i think of chord progressions, i think of that (above) and when i try to add a chord progression , it just sounds so robotic (in the sense of one hitting after another) like the above link.

Now, if i were to ask someone what/whether there are chord progressions in a song like this (below), a lot of people would be able to spot them but i can't hear them at all, because my idea of how a chord progression should sound/flow sounds robotic like the link above. Instead, in the track below, i can hear the single notes/melody being played...well, the melody sounds like it's being played in a single note fashion..

Miguel - Adorn - YouTube

or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LEOEAhhK9A

thanks!

 

[bandcoach]

hard for the melody to be being played as it is actually being sung

the keyboard airy sound is actually playing a chord progression reinforced by the bass - it is too early here for me (4:50am) to turn it up and give you the full progression: it sounds like G-A-D-Bm-G-G-G-G- (but too soft to be certain) (D: IV-V-I-vi-IV-IV-IV-IV-) but I'll check this afternoon when Ii an actually crank it up and listen well.

now as to how you use a chord progression: if you have a bass line and a melody you have a n implied chord progression already: your bass line outlines possible root movement or inversion movement that is reinforced by the melodic choices you make: i.e. some of your melody notes work better than others against your bass line and to some extent you choose your melody based on your bass line

The whole field of what chords match what melodic notes is vast - as for any note there are at least 27 chords that can be used to harmonise it - i.e. chords that contain the note (major, minor, augmented triads - we tend to ignore the diminished triad); in addition you can treat the note as a tension note against the chord creating a further quadrupling of the possibilities (total of 108 possible harmonisations, probably many, many more)

 

[cloud360]

hard for the melody to be being played as it is actually being sung

the keyboard airy sound is actually playing a chord progression reinforced by the bass - it is too early here for me (4:50am) to turn it up and give you the full progression: it sounds like G-A-D-Bm-G-G-G-G- (but too soft to be certain) (D: IV-V-I-vi-IV-IV-IV-IV-) but I'll check this afternoon when Ii an actually crank it up and listen well.

now as to how you use a chord progression: if you have a bass line and a melody you have a n implied chord progression already: your bass line outlines possible root movement or inversion movement that is reinforced by the melodic choices you make: i.e. some of your melody notes work better than others against your bass line and to some extent you choose your melody based on your bass line

The whole field of what chords match what melodic notes is vast - as for any note there are at least 27 chords that can be used to harmonise it - i.e. chords that contain the note (major, minor, augmented triads - we tend to ignore); in addition you can treat the note as a tension note against the chord creating a further quadrupling of the possibilities (total of 108 possible harmonisations, probably many, many more)

Well, when making basslines i just make a melody from the same scale that i made my orginal melody (the single notes) from. Ok, so from my understanging the chords/chord progression is almost like a gel to the bassline and on going (single note melody)?