Using Strong Beats to Help Add Chords to a Melody

Learn how to add chords to a melody by reading “How To Harmonize a Melody, part of “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-eBook Bundle. That eBook bundle covers every important aspect of songwriting, from chords to melody-writing, to lyrics.  Now with a 7th FREE eBook. Read more…
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In practically all songs of every popular genre (pop. rock, country, jazz, etc.), music is organized into alternating strong beats and weak beats. We all feel this pattern quite naturally. If you’ve written a melody and want to add chords to it, identifying the strong and weak beats is an important first step.

To demonstrate this concept, give Lady Gaga’s “Applause” a listen. You’ll notice, after an ambiguous introduction, that the music settles into a very clear beat pattern, at about 142 b.p.m., and because of the nature of the song, your foot is likely tapping each one of those beats.

In the following diagram, you see the first line of lyric, with a red line indicating the beats – the likely spots where you’re instinctively tapping your foot:

“Applause,” as with most songs in popular music styles, organizes those beats into alternating strong and weak beats, and that’s the tricky part: identifying which of those beats are strong and which ones are weak.

If you purposely choose to tap your foot on every second beat, you’ll probably choose to tap on the first beat of a musical phrase, and then every second beat after that. By doing that, you’re identifying the strong beats:

If you find it tricky to identify the strong beats, there’s a good reason for that. Pop music tends to strengthen the weaker beats by placing snare drum shots on those ones. In “Applause”, any beat that has a snare drum shot is a weak beat.

So now you’ve identified the strong beats and the weak beats. And whether the song you’re listening to is “Applause”, “Beat It”, or “Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini,” all music you’re likely to encounter is organized in this way.

Identifying strong and weak beats is important, because chord changes mostly happen on strong beats. The only time you’ll hear a chord change on a weak beat is when the songwriter purposely wants to throw a syncopation into the mix. A good example of that is in the intro to Hall & Oats’ “Out of Touch”, where two chords happen in quick succession, one on a strong beat, and then on the immediately-following weak beat. (You can hear this at about the 10-second mark.)

So let’s assume that you’ve written a melody to which you want to add chords. Simply do this:

1. Sing your melody through, and identify the strong beats and weak beats. First start by tapping on every beat, then alternate beats (beat 1, beat 3, etc.)
2. Identify the actual notes you’re singing.
3. Plan to change chords on every second strong beat. In other words, you’ll put a chord on the first strong beat, strum it until you reach the third strong beat, at which time the chord will possibly change, etc.
4. Identify the first note you sing, and then every note up to (but not including) the third strong beat.
5. Find a chord that uses all or most of those notes. Ideally, the chord you choose should definitely include the two notes that happen on the first two strong beats, plus a majority of the other notes up to the third strong beat.

In addition to those five steps, you’ll want to be sure that your progression sits strongly in a key. In other words, if your song is in C major, you want to do those five steps with the thought in mind that the chords C, F, G, and perhaps Am and Dm are all playing an important part. If you need help identifying the key of your song, read this blog posting.

This is a quick overview, but my eBook “How To Harmonize a Melody” goes into greater detail, with sound samples and step-by-step instruction. That eBook is part of “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-eBook Bundle.

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Gary Ewer is the author of “Beating Songwriter’s Block: Jump-Start Your Words and Music”, available through Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and Hal Leonard Books. He has also written “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-eBook Bundle. Read more..