As you know, you can strum a chord for quite a number of bars, and the melody that you sing over that chord will usually feature a lot of different notes.
Sometimes, the various notes of a melody might actually come from the chord itself. For example, “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone” (Norman Whitfield, Barrett Strong), recorded by The Temptations in 1972, uses a melody, all of the notes of which come from the one chord you get to hear throughout the song: Bbm.
But most of the time, a melody will use notes that move around, some of which are notes from the accompanying chord, and others of which don’t belong to the chord at all.
A good example of this is the melody for “Groovy Kind of Love“, originally recorded by, and made famous by, The Mindbenders, and then as a 1980s ballad hit for Phil Collins.
As you’ll hear in that melody, you get scale-like figures (“When I’m feeling blue…”, and “All I have to do…”) where some of the notes belong to the chord of the moment, and some of the notes don’t.
Because Phil Collins’ version has a new-age kind of sound, the issue of chords and melodies gets a little murky. But if you listen to the Mindbenders’ version, you’ll hear the chords and melody a bit clearer. That opening melody uses the first notes of a G major scale, all sounding over a G chord. But in that melody, which uses the notes G-A-B-C-D, only the G, B and D will fit the G chord. The other notes (A and C) don’t.
If all you need are tons of progressions to try out, you need “Essential Chord Progressions” and “More Essential Chord Progressions.” They’re both part of “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle.”
So the short answer to “Must all my melody notes fit the chord?” is, evidently, “No.” But why do the notes that don’t fit the chord sound OK? When the A and C happen in the melody, we don’t cringe.
The Power of Beats
For most melody-chord relationships to work, the melody note that happens on a beat (i.e., every time you tap your foot) is, more often than not, a note that also occurs in the chord that’s happening at that moment.
So the first chord, G, supports the first note of the melody, G, quite nicely. The second note of the melody, A, doesn’t fit the G chord, but it’s “in between” beats, and for that reason, our musical brains will allow for that momentary dissonance, and wait for the next beat, where a B melody note sounds. The next note is C, and similarly to the A note, we’re accepting of the momentary dissonance of that note against the notes of a G major chord.
Our brain also allows for a momentary dissonance even if that dissonant note happens on a beat. For example, when the melody reverses and heads back down (the second line of the song, on the word “All”), the note that happens on the beat is a C, which doesn’t belong to the G chord. But we’re OK with it, because it immediately moves to a B.
So you get the idea here — most melodies will be made up of notes that are supported by the chord of the moment, with other notes not being a member of the chord.
In most cases, if you sing a note that’s not a member of the chord, the best way to leave that note is by step, either upward or downward, as is clearly shown in “Groovy Kind of Love.” You’ll hear that way of resolving dissonant (i.e., notes that don’t belong to the chord) notes in most songs. Listen to “Saturday in the Park” (Robert Lamm), and make note of when melody notes belong to the chord, and when they don’t, and then how they move to notes that do belong to the chord.
Most of the time, you’ll be happy to know, you don’t have to give this a lot of thought: much of the way we treat chord tones and non-chord tones is handled by our own musical instincts.
But gaining some prowess on how to use dissonances, and how to properly resolve them, can give your songs a bit more spark. It was a lot of years ago now that I wrote a blog post called “Chords and Melodies: 5 Errors to Avoid“, but I think that article still has some important info for songwriters, some of which directly relates to this topic. Please give that a read.
Written by Gary Ewer. Follow Gary on Twitter.
Lyrics become all the more powerful when they’re properly paired with a good melody. That’s what Chapter 5 is all about in the eBook “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting.” Polish your songwriting technique with the 10-eBook Bundle. Comes with a Study Guide.