Originally Posted by
dwest2419
Hi guys back with another thread. From my previous thread called:"How to Memorize at Hearing Intervals" I learned a lot about how the intervals their names and how songs are created using intervals, and determine to if a interval is minor second or major second, minor third in a song. Now that I have accomplished that - the thing now is how do I determine where chords come into play. For instance, if you take the Happy Birthday tune I learned the melody to it but where do chords come in at? And that is what I'm asking how to determine chords from a melody? How to determine a chord in a song even when there is a major second in a melody or is it more to it than just having a major second interval in a song? And does it take more intervals to make a song. Its just what I'm asking.
It's not about the intervals as such, but the main notes in each phrase of the melody.
Normally, the strong notes in the tune - those on the beats, and/or the longest notes, particularly the final notes of phrases - will be contained in the chords. Notes on weak beats, or shorter notes, may not be.
It's possible to harmonise every single note in a tune with a different chord (this is how classical harmony works, although it begins with simple tunes). But for most tunes, certainly in popular music, this would sound far too busy (let alone harder to play!), so chords tend to last for a measure or so, and will contain most (but not all) the notes in the melody.
Taking Happy Birthday (in C) as an example, we can start with the last note of each phrase:
Happy birthday to YOU (B)
Happy birthday to YOU (C)
Happy birthday dear [d-WEST] (A)
Happy birthday to YOU (C)
"[d-WEST]" allows 2 syllables for the name; the last syllable is the significant one.
So the question is, which chords (in key of C) contain those notes?
B is in G and Em
C is in C, Am and F
A is in F, Am and Dm
A good tip is to go with the prime chords to begin with - the majors I, IV and V. (Only bring the minors in when the majors don't seem to sound right.)
For the two C's, we should probably go with a C chord as first choice. (We could try F if we don't like the sound of C.)
So that leaves us with:
Code:
|G
Happy |birthday to |YOU
|C
Happy |birthday to |YOU
|F
Happy birthday dear |[d-west]
|C
Happy birthday to |YOU
Now, how about the chords for the first parts of the lines?
Here are the notes for the whole tune:
Code:
g g | a g c |b
Hap-py |birth-day to |YOU
g g | a g d |c
Hap-py |birth-day to |YOU
g g | g e c | b a
Hap-py |birth-day dear |[d-west]
f f |e c d |c
Hap-py |birth-day to |YOU
You'll see that one of the first things you need to know (after the notes!) is what the time sig is, and where the barlines fall; where "beat 1" is. This is essential for deciding where to place your chords. This song is normally played in 3/4 time, and the syllable "birth-" is on beat 1.
The first 2 Gs are a "pick-up", or "anacrusis", which means weak notes before the first downbeat. The chord here is not too important, and we could play either the key chord (C) or G. (Playing a G chord to start with can help people tune in with the first note they need to sing.)
With the first full bar, the notes are A-G-C. These are not all contained in one single chord (remember we're working with plain triads to begin with). Of the 3 major chords, A and C are in F, and G and C are in C. So we could pick either. F might seem favourite because A is a strong note. (In 3/4 time, each of these notes is the same length, so there is no guide there. The tune can be played in 4/4 time, where the G would be longer, making it more important than A.)
But an important tip is to always start with the key chord if it fits. In this case, you'll probably find it sounds better to begin with a C chord, even though the A note is not in it. Technically the A would be known as an "appoggiatura" or "leaning note", because it resolves down to a chord tone (G). This is a very common effect, so won't sound "wrong".
Another important tip is: don't change chord until the melody really demands it. (Too many chords will be distracting, taking our attention away from the tune. With a lot of rock songs, you can hold one chord for several bars.)
So, in this case, because the 2nd line starts the same way as the first, we could use the same chords. But we already have the 2nd line ending on C. The best (simplest) thing here is to keep the G chord from the end of the first line, all the way through until we go back to C at the end of the line.
Likewise, the 3rd line starts with a C major arpeggio - so the obvious answer there is stay with the C chord, all the way to the name at the end.
The name begins with a B note, which is not in the F chord. It's optional what you do here. The B note can be another "appoggiatura" - in this case it sounds dissonant against the F, but that can be an attractive sound, as it resolves down to A quickly. Or you can choose a quick chord to harmonise the B, which means G (unless we bring Em in). All these options are worth trying, and there is no one "correct" answer.
For the 4th line, as before we can begin with the chord the 3rd line ended on (F), because the first notes are F. The notes E-C then indicate a C chord; the D note means a G chord; and finally we end on the key chord, C.
So altogether we get this:
Code:
(G?) C G
g g |a* g c |b
Hap-py |birth-day to |YOU
(G) G C
g g |a* g d |c
Hap-py |birth-day to |YOU
(C) C F
g g |g e c | b* a
Hap-py |birth-day dear |[d-west]
(F) C G C
f f |e c d |c
Hap-py |birth-day to |YOU
* = accented non-chord tones.
That's about the simplest solution, and will work fine.
There are of course many other ways of doing it, making the chords more interesting. It just depends how "interesting" you want the chords to be. For the usual kind of performance of this tune, the simpler the better: people just want to wish someone a happy birthday, they don't want to listen to you showing off your fancy harmonising skills!
Generally, the better the melody, or the more interesting the lyrics, the simpler and more direct the chords should be (IMO). Chords are like a suit of clothes: nobody looks good over-dressed, although they'll usually look better in some smart tailoring.
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