Chord Changes
by Tim Thompson

In my first two articles, I focused on two of the three elements that make up a song- lyrics and melodies. Now I'd like to talk about the one thing that isn't usually included in a copyright, but greatly affects the character of a song- the chord changes.

I mentioned in an earlier piece that learning the diatonic major scale is an integral part to understanding and creating melodies. It also applies directly to the chord changes of a song. After you've come up with a melody, you'll need some accompanying chords, unless your intention is to write in the a cappella style. By understanding the diatonic major scale and how it works, you can extract chord changes that will work with your melody. The cool thing about this is that there is more than one chord that will work with any given note in your melody line.

The chords you decide to use are influenced by the genre of music for which you are crafting your song. For example, let's say you're in the key of C and the melody note you're dealing with is C. That's the first note of the C scale. I'm going to keep things simple here because it can get very complex, and you can get bogged down in music theory if you don't use your ears to help you decide what chord you should play. Okay, we're trying to find a chord that works with the note C. Some options that will work are the C, F, or A minor chords. There are more chords that are compatible but other factors are involved, so I need to explain some music theory.

Music theory gives us an understanding of the nuts and bolts of music, how each piece works, and how the parts relate to each other. To start at the beginning, there are basically twelve notes in music. I say "basically" because the human ear (in the Western world at least) is only able to distinguish pitch intervals that translate into half steps. In order to make sense of these twelve notes, someone in the distant past came up with a way of organizing them into groups that are pleasing to the ear. A good comparison is the English alphabet having 26 letters, you break those 26 letters down into words, group those words into sentences, group those sentences into paragraphs, etc. Well, the twelve notes in music get grouped into 7-note scales, then into 3-note chords called triads, 4 note chords, and so on.

A diatonic major scale"(do, re, me, fa, so, la, ti, do) has seven notes. Those seven notes are each given a letter name starting with A and ending at G. Because there are twelve notes in music and we're only using 8 letters, there is a standard for naming the other 4 notes. Here is a list of all twelve notes using sharps to name the half tones on the ascent:

A-A#-B-C-C#-D-D#-E-F- F#-G-G# and flats (b) to come back down:
A-Ab-G-Gb-F-E-Eb-D-Db-C-B-Bb

Notice that there are no flat or sharp signs shown between the notes E-F and B-C; these are the natural half tones. On a keyboard the natural half tones are clearly visible as they are the two places within a single octave where there is no black key.

Now then, a major scale uses 7 of those 12 notes and is based on an interval set or model scale. Let's start with C major, the model scale for the major scales. To create a major scale, the intervals referred to as "steps" are as follows: whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half. The notes using letters are C, D, E, F, G, A, B, and then it starts over at C (an octave higher.)

To build a chord that makes musical sense, start from any note in a major scale and play every other note (up to three notes) simultaneously. These three notes form a triad, the most basic chord. The triad built on the first note of the C major scale would be C-E-G. Add a fourth note and you are adding what I call color.

Remember how in my last article you used the C scale to record random melody ideas? Each note you decided to use in your melody will be related to the following information about chords.

Let's give each letter in the scale a number, 1-7. Start on 1 and build our first chord in the key of C. Jump every other note so we end up with 1, 3, and 5. That is a basic triad because we're using three notes. Since we started on 1, let's call that the 1 chord. You'll understand how the Nashville Number System works when you get a handle on this. The notes are C, E, and G, again the C major triad.

Now start on the second note and build a chord. We get 2, 4, and 6. In the Nashville Number System, that's the 2 chord. Try the third note: 3, 5, and 7. Do the same thing with all seven notes and what you end up with is seven chords that will work for a melody in that particular key. The chords/triads you end up with after doing this are: C Major, D minor, E minor, F Major, G Major, A minor, and B minor b5 (diminished). The reason for the names of the chords, especially the ones that have the word "minor" in them is another can of worms that we don't have enough space to cover here; for now, you'll be able to use this technique to help you find chords to play with your melody.

One other important thing I need to mention: If you're assigning chords to a melody on a guitar or piano, you don't have to use just three notes. As long as you use the same numbers, you can have more than one of any given note in the triad. You have four fingers and a thumb on each hand so that's a possible ten notes on a keyboard. You probably won't use all of them but you could try something like this: On a piano, starting with your left hand and working with the 1 chord, play 1 and 5. With your right hand play 1, 3, and 5 an octave higher. Play all five notes at the same time. That's the 1 chord.

This information applies to all instruments. If you're preferred instrument is guitar, it gets a little more complicated because as you work out a scale on a guitar and start building chords, you'll find that the notes can't always be played in sequence. For example, the term used to refer to the order of the notes in a chord is "voicing." So the voicing of the chord would be 1, 5, 1, 3, 5. On a guitar you'll have voicings like 1, 5, 1, 3 and 1, 1, 3, 5. On a guitar the notes get "scattered" so you'll have to pay attention to the patterns.

Now that you have all that under your belt, look at your melody. Break it into musical phrases. Usually the phrases will consist of one line of your lyric sung at tempo. During this phrase, you'll need to analyze the notes and find chords that contain all or at least some of the notes in that phrase. For example, let's take a simple descending melody like C-B-A-G. I'd probably play a C chord over that because it contains C and G which are two of the notes in a C chord. Let's try and ascending example: A-C-E-G. I'd probably use A minor for this one because it has A, C, and E which are all of the notes in A minor. The chord is like a relative to the melody because it contains some of the same DNA.

I'm going to introduce one more key so you'll have plenty of options to work with. I'll use Eb because it forces the 1 chord of C to be minor so you can really see how this technique can help you create interesting music for your lyrics. Here's the Eb major scale:

Eb - F - G - Ab - Bb - C - D (Eb)

Now go through the same steps as above. Give these notes the same set of numbers, 1-7. Start on 1 and skip every other note just as you did in the key of C and build the same seven chords. What you end up with is: Eb Major, F minor, G minor, Ab Major, Bb Major, C minor, and D minor b 5 (or D diminished).

This is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to understanding music theory but I tried to pick out a few things that can jump start you into creating melodies and chord progressions that you may not have thought of.

Thanks for reading and all the best in your future songwriting.
Tim Thompson

---

---

About the Author

As a professional musician working in a competitive industry, Tim Thompson has learned to play his strengths in more than one area of the business. Not only is he considered a guitar virtuoso and talented singer/songwriter, he's also a much sought after independent producer and session player.

Thompson grew up in a musical family in Minnesota and began playing piano at age nine, then trombone, and eventually picked up the guitar. Ambitious and focused, he practiced and challenged himself and by age fourteen was playing guitar professionally.

Since moving to Nashville in 1993 Tim has released six albums and produced records for artists such as Kerrville Folk Festival winner Mike Brandon, and finalist Nelda Sisk. Tim's newest release, Revved Up contains five new original compositions plus complex arrangements of "Josie", "Eleanor Rigby" and an entertaining version of "The Flintstones".

Learn more about Tim Thompson and his music on the web at: http://www.timthompsonguitar.com/