NoviceMusician

Hi, I'm a beginner musician. I'm now into making tunes. I know that a chord progression, let's say, C - F - G - C can have alot of tunes or melodies. My question would be: if a certain tune or melody can have different sets of chord progression ?
thanks for your response.

Daktari

Hi there,

If you have a melody in mind that fits to the chords you mentioned above, just as an example try changing the C chord to and Am chord and the G to Em. The same tune should still fit but this will give you a sadder or more bluesy feel to the melody.

I writes songs and use this quite often, the same melody but with different chords.

Hope this is helpful, Gordon.

mr dave

yes.

i'm no theory expert but unless i'm mistaken CFG is an I IV V progression, where the 2nd chord is 4 steps higher than the first and the final is one step higher than the middle. it's a typical pattern used by just about everyone at some point. it's all based on the first chord you chose, so if you were to start on G (I) then you would skip A(II) and B(III) to play C(IV) and D(V). G-C-D is quite possibly the most used chord progression out there but the tonal intervals are still the same.

Daktari provides a great example on how to colour traditional chord progressions so they don't always end up sounding the same. just changing a major chord into a minor can do wonders.

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Daktari

Just a quick note though. Am is the relative minor to Cmaj so this should work but if you change Cmaj to Cm, that would not fit the same.

The fact is, you can play any notes over any chords, you need to experiment. You will find that sometimes it sounds good and interesting other times the notes will clash and be harder to listen to.

In most cases, the relative minor can replace the major and still provide a nice backing to the same melody, it just changes the whole feel and character.

If it helps, here are the major chords with their relative minors:

Amaj - F#m
Bbmaj - Gm
Bmaj - Abm
Cmaj - Am
Dbmaj - Bbm
Dmaj - Bm
Ebmaj - Cm
Emaj - Dbm
Fmaj - Dm
F#maj - Ebm
Gmaj - Em.

There ya go... try swapping some of the major chords that you play with one of these relative minors and see how the mood changes.

Gordon.

Daktari

Hello, me again,

Sorry to be butting in and following my own post but I just remembered a tune I wrote, 'The Sun Will Always Rise', which I realize is a good example of the same melody line played twice against minor keys then on the third and fourth time through, basically the same melody but now with major chords.

(I know linking my own music anywhere else than Songwriting is frowned upon but in this case, it is for a good cause. I'm trying to help someone with an example).

Here it is:

SoundClick artist: Daktari - I mainly play one-man reggae usually in local bars, restaurants and private parties. Also getting in

Hope this is helpful to you, Gordon.

Nateon

Yes, there are plenty of chords you can substitute for melodies or you can expand on chords to give them more color by adding a 7th, 9th, etc.