Q. you know how theres people who read chords and add a bunch a notes to the song based on the chords? how do i do that?
A. do you know the notes in the scales of the chords youre using? if so:
adding the 7th note of the scale will give you a sound of suspense.
adding the 2nd, 4th & 6th notes make different "far out" kinda sounds, you call those 9th, 11th and 13th chords (as though you add the number onto the top of the scale, confusing i know but its pretty simple)
repeating the 5th is totally hardcore.
sticking a flat 5th in there (if it's a minor chord) will make the song sound sinister.
in fact, you can add pretty much any notes from the scale in there, one "rule" is try not to repeat the 3rd note. just experiment.
piano chords?
Q. I'm learning to play a song on the keyboard and i got the chords from the net. The problem is that there is only 'C', 'Am', 'F' etc written over the line of the song. What i want to know is have i to play only the chord cause if thats it then its just not sounding right. i'm really confused how you play it. eg.
Gm Dm
I was on your side when nobody could hold us down
Is dat all i'm supposed 2 play?
A. The composer of the chord symbols would have intended that the piece be written for guitar, yes, but if you intend to sing along with it whilst playing it on the keyboard, try, in your left hand, (don't just play the chords, as it can sound "perky or plain" on a keyboard with voice), try to play the the broken chord of Gm, but use {G, Bflat, G}, going up the scale. Play those three notes before the words and sustain them while you're singing, or play them whilst you sing the "I was".
For the D minor, again, for keyboard and voice, don't just play the simple chord{D,Natural,A}, but play the broken chord (one after the other, in quick succession or slowly) with the notes {D, Fnatural, D} or {D, A, D}, going up, repeated or sustained for the length of the rest of the phrase, whatever your liking.
But with the change between the two chords, Either play the Gminor broken chord before the "I was" while sustained (held down), or quickly, or sing the first two words slower to fit the three notes. Then, play the lower D whilst you sing the "on", then follow it with the F natural or A then D, repeated or just held while you sing the rest.
I hope that's not too complicated, but it should work.
see what you think.
Eg. -Note, the letters are notes, not chords, and the B is a B flat note, the F an F natural
GBG DFD DFD
I was on your side when nobody could hold us down
How to know what piano chords go with notes?
Q. So I'm composing a song and I need to know what chords go with the notes. Last year my teacher told us something about 1,3,5 and 2,4,6 and how from C to C there are numbers. Like C would be 1. If someone could tell me that method it would be awesome.
A. The method you're talking about is numbering the notes within a scale; also known as "scale degrees". Each note in a scale has a certain spot, or position within the scale. You can think of it kind of like rungs on a ladder. How high up are you on the ladder? Each rung has a specific position on the ladder (e.g. the 2nd rung is always a certain number of feet off the ground, etc.).
How well this works depends on how well one knows their scales. In C major, C would be scale degree 1, D is 2, E is 3, F is 4, G is 5, A is 6, B is 7, and finally back to C again.
In D major, D would be 1, E is 2, F# is 3, G is 4, A is 5, B is 6, C# is 7, and back to D again.
This works just as well with any conventional scale. For example, in C natural minor, C is 1, D is 2, Eb is 3, F is 4, G is 5, Ab is 6, Bb is 7, and back to C.
Now as far as finding the right chords, so in C major scale, a C chord contains the scale degrees 1, 3, and 5. D minor chord is the notes 2, 4, and 6. E min is 3, 5, and 7. And so on. So the easiest, most basic way to harmonize a melody would be to choose a chord that has that note as one of its chord tones. If you have the note A in a C major scale, that's 6, or the 6th scale degree. That fits a D minor chord (2,4,6), an F major chord (4, 6, 1), and an A minor chord (6, 1, 3).
There are many, many more choices as your ear for harmony continues to improve. But for starters, that's a fine way of choosing chords. (Also, the best way to choose chords is by ear; this whole discussion about scale degrees means a whole lot more once you can hear them, meaning when a person develops the ability to identify scale degrees just by listening. In other words, t's not some magic formula, it's just a way to describe how music sounds.)
Hope that helps!
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