Melody and Chords Guitar Lesson

Chapter 1: (03:19) Introduction We've been talking extensively about finding a melody line amongst chords, right? We've chosen a few choice chords with which to experiment, but how in general do you find the chords that you want to work with? What chords are representative of the emotions that we are experiencing at the time? Here are some general rules to follow when selecting chords:

Major Chords
Tend to be happier, triumphant, representative of resolution and joy, playful, rejoiceful.

Minor Chords
Tend to be sadder, angry, morose, brooding, full of tension and stress, powerful, suspenseful.

Please keep in mind that these are generalizations about major and minor chords and are most certainly subject to interpretation. For example, the C major chord

C major

E_0_
B_1_
G_0_
D_2_
A_3_
E_x_

tends to have a slightly more sad and thoughtful sound than the G major

G major
E_3_
B_0_
G_0_
D_0_
A_2_
E_3_

Obviously, how a particular chord makes you feel is a personal and subjective matter and can be affected by how the chords are utilized in the song or your mood at the time. Either way, from a general standpoint, major and minor chords tend to adhere to the notions above as applied to the manner of emotion that they elicit.

Chapter 2: (04:55) Verse, Chorus and Bridge Verses, Choruses and Bridges
One way to locate chords that you may want to use in your new song is to use majors in the verses, minors in the choruses, and a combination of the two in the bridge (if you have one). Or, minors in the verses, majors in the choruses, etc., or mix 'em all up and combine majors and minors as you see fit. Let's take a little closer look at the various ways you can combine majors and minors, shall we?

Let's just assume that you've had a sad experience as of late and you are feeling really motivated and compelled to express it in song form. You start playing the chords Em, D, A and Bm and find that you have something cool and catchy that is kind of sad and perhaps even representative of the way that you are feeling at the moment. Just as a memory refresher:

Em
E_0_
B_0_
G_0_
D_2_
A_2_
E_0_

D
E_2_
B_3_
G_2_
D_0_
A_x_
E_x_

A
E_0_
B_2_
G_2_
D_2_
A_0_
E_x_

Bm
E_2_
B_3_
G_4_
D_4_
A_2_
E_x_
Chapter 3: (08:24) Singing and Playing Exercise 1
Play the Em, D, A and Bm chords using the strum "down down-up down-up". Remember to use a snap-strum where the down and up strums are hyphenated.

Play the four chords while remembering to relax your wrist and allow the pick (if you're using one) to flow over the strings. If you need to review any facets of strumming and chord construction, please feel free to peruse my Intro to Guitar series and refresh your memory. Play the four chords until you start to get a good feel for them and are able to play them easily and comfortably. Watch me in the video for insight into making the chords into a smooth and beautiful progression.

Exercise 2
Play the four chords diagramed above using the same strum pattern. This time however, start to think "melody line, melody line, melody line." As we did in previous exercises, you can pick notes out of each chord, or just simply start to hum over the top of each chord. Continue to do this until you have formed a catchy little melody line for yourself that you like.

Okay, so now you take a second to reflect: do these chords and this melody line accurately represent your emotions? Do they reflect your current state of mind and express what you're feeling? An important thing to remember is that part of songwriting is simply experimental and great songs can come simply from trying different combinations of chords. Hence, it can be very helpful to try one chord with another, with another and yet with another until you have the "right" mix. You decide that these chords do express the feelings that you have at the moment and decide to continue with this progression.

So after experimenting with a number of chords, you (we) decide that C major, G major, D major, and F maj7

Fmaj7
E_0_
B_1_
G_2_
D_3_
A_x_
E_x_

might make a cool sounding combination of chords for the chorus. Chapter 4: (07:26) Exercises Exercise 3
Play the four "new" chords using the strum "down down-up," which is similar to our verse rhythm but slightly different, giving variation to our song. Think about how you might want to change the dynamics from verse to chorus aside from the slight change in rhythm that we've already incorporated. Do we want to make it slightly louder? Do we want to add a palm-muting effect? Or, do we just want to keep it simple and stick with what we've got at this juncture? Decisions, decisions, decisions!

Exercise 4
Once again, find the elusive melody line amongst our chorus chords. Don't forget the techniques that we've discussed, including picking each note of each chord and stringing notes together, and simply humming along with the chords as you play.

Alright, so it appears as if we have a song in process so now all we have to do is create a bridge for our song. As we've discussed previously, the musical bridge is often used as a break away from the chords and/or key of the main body of the song. It can also be used to prepare the listener for the final climax and eventual end of the song as well. There are no hard and fast rules to writing a bridge but many songwriters have opted to pick a key that is a fourth above the key of the verse. Since our initial chord is an Em, let's use A major for our bridge since it's a fourth above E.

Because we have so many options when creating our bridge, let's keep it as simple as possible and start with simply playing an A major chord and a B major chord. We're going to use an A major chord you may not be familiar with:

A major (9th fret)
E_0_
B_10_
G_9_
D_11_
A_0_
E_x_

B major
E_2_
B_4_
G_4_
D_4_
A_2_
E_x_

Play these chords using the strum "down down-up-down" and play the A chord three times, but the B only once. Watch me in the video for more on this as I'm throwing in a little twist here to make the bridge more interesting and a little different so that it will stand out from the rest of the song. Chapter 5: (08:19) Creating the Bridge Exercise 5
Play all of the parts that we've added to our song in this order:

Verse-Chorus-Verse-Chorus-Bridge-Verse-Chorus-Coda

For this particular song in today's example, we'll structure our song this way, but you don't have to do it this way! The bridge can be brought back more than once and can serve as a reminder of material from earlier in the song by reintroducing a piece of the melody that was sung or played previously. Keep this in mind when you're working on a song of your own in the future.

In case you’re unfamiliar with the term "coda," it's an Italian word meaning "tail" or the end of the song.

Exercise 6
Using the techniques that have worked best for you, find a melody line in the bridge using the A and B chords. You should also, at this juncture, re-sing and re-member the melody lines that you've discovered in the verse and chorus sections of the song. Put the whole thing together now and hum and/or sing the melodies that you've created for the entire song. Once again, a question that you may need to be asking yourself is "do these chords represent or express the emotions, thoughts, feelings or message that you want to impart to your audience?

As we've discussed previously, matching words to the chords you've chosen can be a little tricky but certainly not impossible for a great songwriter like you! Remember to listen actively (without tv's, x-boxes, people or other distractions that may impede your songwriting process) to the chords that you're playing and listen for phrases, notes, particular sections that may sound like words. I know this sounds like a potentially difficult jump to make but the only way to get good at it is to experiment over and over again. Use a journal, notebook, cocktail napkin, bus schedule or any surface that will hold ink to keep track of lyrics that you come up with over time. You may find that some of your lyrics don’t work for the song that you’re working on now, but may fit perfectly with songs you are composing down the road so it's important to keep track of your work even if you don’t see it working for you in the present.

Exercise 7
Now, put the whole song together with the lyrics that you've written for the song. Are you tapping into past and present experiences to find meaningful lyrics, or are you composing something that is expressive of feelings that you have or have had in the past? You could even write something comical and make the song into something amusing!

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