Tutorial on Creating Chord Progressions

[nigeld]

I am beginning to use Band in a Box more, and I would like to become more proficient at choosing the chords for a backing track.

I am not looking for information about how to improvise on top of a chord sequence. And I am not looking for information about arranging. I want to be able to put a simple chord sheet together or to change one.

I don’t need something for complete beginners - I know what II-V-I is, but that is about the limit of my knowledge. I am looking to get beyond circle-of-fifth progressions. But I also don’t want a learned treatise on whether a 13b4 chord fits with a melody in Mixolydian mode. I just want something practical with examples to get me to the next stage.

I’m sure this must have come up before, but a quick search didn’t find it.

Can anyone recommend a course or a book?

 

[jbtsax]

Are you asking about which chords to use for an existing song, or chords to harmonize an original melody of your own?

I make a lot of BiaB accompaniment tracks and usually start out with ones from BiaB Jazz Tunes. Often times I will change the backing instruments/style to one more to my liking, but generally the chord changes are the ones I go with.

Perhaps others can suggest an entry level book on jazz harmony or chord progressions.

 

[Bari251]

It might be worth looking at The Jazz Harmony Book - A Course in Adding Chords to Melodies. Written by David Berkman
See Amazon
The Jazz Harmony Book (Piano Solo with 2 Free Audio CDs):Amazon.co.uk:Books
Malcolm

 

[Veggie Dave]

I am beginning to use Band in a Box more, and I would like to become more proficient at choosing the chords for a backing track.

Can anyone recommend a course or a book?

If I understand correctly, what you're basically asking is how to write the components of a song.

Until you find a book you like, try this. Choose a chord - any chord - and then hum the next note that comes to mind. That's the root of your next chord. You can keep it in a particular key or not. Probably best to keep it in the one key at first, though. When you have your second chord, hum the next note. Eventually you'll have a complete chord progression that you should like the sound of.

The hard bit is playing over it and producing a melody/theme that you like.

 

[nigeld]

Are you asking about which chords to use for an existing song, or chords to harmonize an original melody of your own?

Yes - I want to add chords to an existing melody.

I make a lot of BiaB accompaniment tracks and usually start out with ones from BiaB Jazz Tunes. Often times I will change the backing instruments/style to one more to my liking, but generally the chord changes are the ones I go with.

This is what I do too. But I hear chords that I like or don't like and I don't have a basis for how to understand or change them.
For example when a C9 or a C6 sounds better than a C7.

 

[nigeld]

It might be worth looking at The Jazz Harmony Book - A Course in Adding Chords to Melodies. Written by David Berkman
See Amazon
The Jazz Harmony Book (Piano Solo with 2 Free Audio CDs):Amazon.co.uk:Books
Malcolm

That sounds just like the sort of thing I am looking for. Many thanks.

 

[Colin the Bear]

I seem to have picked up quite a bit about arranging from using BiaB. My music theory is limited but growing, so it's nice to have the rules in the software to correct my boo boos.

Generating and regenerating an 8 bar intro throws up some interesting progressions. Any you like can be borrowed. and any of the chords you like the sound of, can be substituted in the melody.

There's a tab for making it play 6 chords instead of Maj7 and then realising a 13 is a 6 an octave up, you can stick in some 13s and maybe alter them. #5 or b9 or ...well ... anything you like the sound of.

The chord builder tab is useful, if a little time consuming, Picking from a menu to extend the harmony in a given arrangement.

The real tracks are a revelation too. Change the player of an individual instrument or add more instruments to the arrangement. Some of the real tracks are a little limited, especially with piano I'm finding, so that some of the extended chords will play the same phrase every time you use them. Changing them makes it play a different phrase. Am7, C6, C13, same notes, different order, different phrase each time.

If the bass is jumping about, adding a slash chord can help to direct it. Am7/C Am7/E, Am7/G etc.

I sometimes load a given arrangement, then play a melodic solo over the top of it. I then stick the melody back into BiaB and ask it to harmonise it. I don't necessarily use what it throws up but if there's anything interesting, I borrow bits and pieces.

For a simple AABA type song, typing in the middle eight from a different arrangement can change the feel and give it a lift.

For example when a C9 or a C6 sounds better than a C7.

If the piece is in C, C6 and C9 are in C but C7 is in F. I've got a thing for playing a Maj7 over a 69 at the mo. Sounds lush to my ears.

The more you use BiaB the better it gets.

 

[Colin the Bear]

There's a video on here with a woman teaching at a whiteboard that I can't seem to find. Anybody?

 

[nigeld]

There's a video on here with a woman teaching at a whiteboard that I can't seem to find. Anybody?

Possibly Karen Ramirez. I have seen several of her videos. Ithink she’s great.

 

[Colin the Bear]

No.Just some middle school teacher being profound.

 

[jbtsax]

That sounds just like the sort of thing I am looking for. Many thanks.

What keyboard skills do you have? For me the easiest way to harmonize or create changes that go to a melody is to try different chords at the keyboard. I don't have great "voicing" skills, but I can fumble about enough to find sounds that I can work with. If this sounds terribly difficult, it is not---at least at my level of skill.

Start with the C scale and then play the triads with an added 7th going up each step of the scale:

Cmaj7....Dm7....Em7....Fmaj7....G7....Am7....Bdim7....Cmaj7

These are the I maj7, ii m7, iii m7, IV maj7, V7, vi m7, vii°7, I maj7 in that key. Each key will build the chords from the scale steps in the same way.
If you voice them: Root-3rd-5th-7th they are easy to play and remember. (You just play every other note)

 

[nigeld]

I can play chords (slowly) on a keyboard, but I would prefer not just to rely on trial and error.
I find the easiest way to try out sequences is to put them into iRealPro.

I have ordered the book mentioned above, so I will see if that helps.

 

[Colin the Bear]

The simplest way to harmonise any melody is just I IV V7. These chords cover all the notes in a given major scale. The sequence @jbtsax has given expands this a little and is a good scale exercise btw. I struggle to find what I'm hearing or describe what I'm thinking or aiming for. Extra notes, extensions, substitutions and those clever progressions that lead you through a piece have mostly been expressed before.

www.jazzstudies.us is a wonderful resource. Typing some of these arrangements into BiaB and hearing how they unfold will educate your eyes with your ears. Those great old compositions have been filtered and refined by many to arrive at some fine harmonic progressions. They'll show you how to modulate and colour a piece.

 

[Dibbs]

...
realising a 13 is a 6 an octave up, you can stick in some 13s
...
Am7, C6, C13, same notes, different order.
..

A 13 chord is not the same functionally as a 6 chord and they are not interchangeable. C13 is a dominant chord and implies a 7. C6 could be either tonic or subdominant (in a major key).

 

[Dibbs]

...The simplest way to harmonise any melody is just I IV V7...

Yes. To take a diatonic melody and harmonize it with I IV and V is a good way to start. Then you can apply various substitution techniques to make it more interesting.

vi ii and vii (diminished or 1/2 diminished) can often substitute for I IV and V respectively.
Add extensions
Change mode. i.e. swap major/minor.
Add V7s or ii V7s in front of chords.
Add other passing chords. Perhaps moving the bass diatonically between two chords.
Apply tritone substitutions.

Make sure your substitutions make sense with the melody.

 

[jbtsax]

I just thought of something that was buried deep in my "little grey cells" as Poirot calls them from college nearly 50 years ago. That is to start with the "skeletal harmony". That would be to go through your song and identify the I's and V's that make the "cadences". That gives you a very basic harmonic outline that you can then fill in with "connecting harmonies".

 

[nigeld]

The Jazz Harmony Book mentioned in post number 3 arrived today.
It is intended to be just what I want.
Covered chapter 1 today.