Harmonizing a melody.

I have some free time and I mean to create a backing track for a melody, so I'm wondering if you could share some of your wisdom.

I've identified the scale of the melody (dunno about modes tho, for me they're all major) so i could just bang chords on that key until something sounds nice-ish then try some inversions or substitutions but this would be very trial an error so maybe you could share some wisdom as to what to aim for and what to avoid in general. i.e. what considerations to take regarding the chords and the bass line so they don't clash, and stuff like that.

love, GORDO.

Glass Plate can tell you

I recommend trial and error until you find something you're happy with. Honestly unless you know theory like the back of your hand, trying to learn it and apply it in this situation MAY be like castrating yourself. Trust your ear. Sometimes a "clash" can be used to HUGE effect. Just mess around.

well yeah it's turning out not so bad (sounds worse with every listen tho), still, starting points save a lot of twiddling time and frustration.

  On 4/8/2010 at 8:35 PM, sneaksta303 said:

I recommend trial and error until you find something you're happy with. Honestly unless you know theory like the back of your hand, trying to learn it and apply it in this situation MAY be like castrating yourself. Trust your ear. Sometimes a "clash" can be used to HUGE effect. Just mess around.

this this motherfuckin' this. just try playing along with it, transposed, and adjust any wrong notes, perhaps?

i love you guys.

Your harmony ends up resolving at the end of a period, so I'd suggest not trying to get to the resolution to quickly. Have the chords skirt around the issue and it will create more tension which will lead to a more powerful climax.

That's pretty vague and if used too often would probably suck.

  On 4/9/2010 at 8:05 AM, tysen said:

Your harmony ends up resolving at the end of a period, so I'd suggest not trying to get to the resolution to quickly. Have the chords skirt around the issue and it will create more tension which will lead to a more powerful climax make you cum stupid hard.

 

That's pretty vague and if used too often would probably suck.

  On 4/9/2010 at 4:23 AM, modey said:

  On 4/8/2010 at 8:35 PM, sneaksta303 said:

I recommend trial and error until you find something you're happy with. Honestly unless you know theory like the back of your hand, trying to learn it and apply it in this situation MAY be like castrating yourself. Trust your ear. Sometimes a "clash" can be used to HUGE effect. Just mess around.

this this motherfuckin' this. just try playing along with it, transposed, and adjust any wrong notes, perhaps?

thsi for sure

this and melodyne LOL

I recommend just work on writing 2 melodies that work together...don't over think it at all... just put your original melody on loop, and hum or play something different over it...

when you are content with that, now you can really proceed in creating richer harmonies, and as a bonus, you have 2 lines to work with, as thematic material... together or separate.

Now that you have 2 lines of melodies, you can look horizontally at your implied harmonies. Get creative... think of as many different chords as you can that contain those 2 notes that are happening at the same time. do this for each note change. now you can start playing/writing those chords in, and seeing how the harmonies sound... once you find a nice chord for the first pairing, move to the next pairing, and repeat. just loop it, and dont move on until you think the chord sequence sounds right. trust your ear. also consider a pacing or grid division that you want to work in. often the success of a chord sequence is dependent upon the harmonic rhythm.. knowing how long to stay on a chord, before moving on... setting a pace of progression, is just as important as the notes you choose.

now that you have a basic chord sequence, you can start adding more melodies, in a more informed manner. look at what notes are already being played in the original melodies... try picking out the other notes of the chord that you've decided on, that you haven't actually played yet. see if you can shape melodies out of the pattern you've extracted. get creative with it, move the note placements around etc. but remember, its not always best to sound all notes of a chord, and sometimes it sounds best to double notes.

now you should have 3 lines that work well together, and imply a movement of harmonies. you can now play theses lines alone, all 3 at a time, or 2 at a time (3 variations on that).

but remember, just trust your ear. close your eyes a lot.

interesting idea. will try that with the chorus i guess cus i should vary the arrangements a bit (getting boring).

so far i've come up with this, a rough idea of the direction it's going. do you reckon it sounds ok-ish?

tmplvto.mp3Fetching info...

quite

funny

  On 4/10/2010 at 1:07 AM, GORDO said:

funny

no i'm being serious, that chord progression is fine.

I've mentioned this before and someone on here called me a retard. But I'll mention it again. I sampled chords and put them into a sampler and played them one fingered. Not straight boring one handed triads but lots of inversions etc. Make sure you name them even if you don't know naming conventions, something like C5D6E7, and then you can quickly recreate them with another timbre. It's a very quick writing tool and allows for serendipity without too much thought about theory.

similiarly, if you are using live, you could have a bunch of MIDI clips set up for various chords... jam out, triggering them to make a progression, and then pick a sequence chunk you like, and crop it. Then you can go in, and alter the MIDI notes... rhythm, add melodies/lines. in fact I'm going to go do that right now!

i really like antares Harmony Engine for quick harmonizing ideas, it's basically the most realistic sounding 'backup singers' filter i've ever heard. Its made for vocals but it works great on synths or guitars. it has been cracked recently i think but only for the PC, im still using it on the mac with my ilok from when i used to work there (before they made the T-pain iphone app). No midi required if you use 'auto' mode where it just creates a chord out of your incoming sound and tranposes it accordingly

  On 4/10/2010 at 4:33 AM, sneaksta303 said:

  On 4/10/2010 at 1:07 AM, GORDO said:

funny

 

no i'm being serious, that chord progression is fine.

heh sorry, you know how the word quite has a different meaning here.

  On 4/10/2010 at 11:12 PM, kakapo said:

I've mentioned this before and someone on here called me a retard. But I'll mention it again. I sampled chords and put them into a sampler and played them one fingered. Not straight boring one handed triads but lots of inversions etc. Make sure you name them even if you don't know naming conventions, something like C5D6E7, and then you can quickly recreate them with another timbre. It's a very quick writing tool and allows for serendipity without too much thought about theory.

nice idea.

3rds, 5ths, octaves in contrary motion.