Creating Melody over Chords

There's no need to switch scales for each chord. If you listen to the chord sequence, and play from that key's scale over it, you'll soon get a feel for what works with which chord and what doesn't.

Best,

A :-)

That makes sense, thank you

Hi,

As Alan says, it seems to be a matter of "getting a feel for it".

If you try and set rules for it, it all looks good on paper, but if you work through a few songbooks most songwriters don't appear to have read the rules! :wink: But they have figured out what they like the sound of. :D

Assuming you already have your chords worked out, I guess the simplest would be to start with the root note of each chord (which would sound pretty dull) and then move to trying combinations of other notes in each chord. So if the chord was a C Major try C, E, orG.

The next possibility (which is probably more interesting again) would be to use a different note from the same key. This might be somewhat similar to what happens when you build extended chords Like C Major 7, or whatever.

Here's an example from a songbook:

I was looking at a song this morning, in the key of G. The melody line used a series of G notes for the first bar, over a G chord. The 2nd bar used an A and a B note over a D chord (D is A, D and F# - no B in it).

The melody line then repeated. One bar of G notes (but this time they were played over a C chord instead of a G. (C is C, E, G). The next bar was A and B again, but this time the chord used was a G (G, B, D - no A in it).

Then the chord sequence was repeated, but some changes made to the melody line.

I'm still figuring all this out too. :wink: But it seems reasonable to start with at least some 'predictable' winners, and to experiment with moving further away from the obvious towards the unknown... (and, depending on the effect you're after, just about anything in or out of key is worth a try).

Cheers,

Chris

There's also a great answer from Tom - Noteboat - over on this thread

http://forums.guitarnoise.com/viewtopic.php?t=32512&highlight=&sid=89954c450685b65925af67025e6cd859

which is on a very similar subject

Best,

A :-)

I thought I could play any of these notes over a chord progression in the key of G.

You can, but depending on where you are at with your chord progression, it will not necessarily sound right, unless you are aiming to create that dissonance. Each chord has its flavor and what can go best with it. You can use any note you want actually, but it is up to you to make it fit.

But if you want to play it safe and make it easier, the just play the chord tones (1,3,5 for the Major or the 1, b3, 5 for the minor). Someone posted the link to Tom's article above. He does a fantastic job explaining this. Just realize, you can't just take the scale and play whatever you want over the chord progression (well you can, but it might not work out well). You need to listen what you are playing over and try to play appropriately.

It may be easier to set some constraints for you when beginning to learn to to do this. Use only the chord tones. It will be easier to learn to improvise or cretae melodies this way. Then throw something new in and try to figure out works or what doesn't. Too many choices can be very overwhelming. SO limit them and see what you can come up with.