What is a chord?
Chords provide interesting harmonic depth and interest into music, but you can't always just use any chord with any part of the melody. In this section, we are going to find out what chords should go with which parts of the melody. I will also give an example of how you can work out where to place the chords, and then you will receive your task.
What chord goes where?
Each of the triads we have learnt has 3 notes that create the chord. Let's have a quick look at those notes, assuming we are in C major:
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C Major (I) = C, E, G
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F Major (IV) = F, A, C
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G Major (V) = G, B, D
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A Minor (vi) = A, C, E
I want to take a moment to talk about two of those chords in particular: I and V. If we compare the notes present in the I chord and the V chord, we will see they both share a note (in the case of C major, a G), with the other notes being one step away from each other. In the case of C major, the B is a semi-tone away from the C, and the D is a tone away from the C and the E. You may have noticed that melodies normally end D->C or B->C. What we can tell from this quick analysis is that the V chord really wants to go to the I chord. We call chords that want to take us back to the I chord dominant function chords. Have a listen below.
Let's compare another pair of chords: vi and I. You will see that there is only one note that is different between the two chords. Where the I uses the 5th scale degree (G), the vi uses the 6th scale degree (A). This means these chords can be used interchangeably. You can hear what this sounds like below; the first pair of chords is the V-I, and the second is the V-vi.
I want to make one more chord comparison. If we compare the IV and V chords, we will notice the VI chord is exactly one step below the V chord. Again this means VI wants to take us to V. Chords that are leaning toward dominant function chords such as the V chord are called Subdominant Chords. You can hear how these sound below.
To see how we can use this knowledge to add harmony to a melody, check out the tutorial video below.