To create original chord progressions, we often use chords that don’t belong together, chords that don’t have a shared key.The problem with such progressions is that they can sound disjointed – as if they shouldn’t be togather at all.
One way to solve this problem is to compose a melody that does hang together, despite the chords.
One way to do this is to exploit any notes that the chords share. A common chromatic chord in C major, for example, is E major (try playing C major, E major, F major). E major isn’t in the key of C, but if you use melody notes that both chords share you can overcome that problem.
For example the melody for Amazing Grace:
G C E D C E
This could all be harmonised with a C chord, and it would sound fine, but try changing to an E chord with the word ‘Grace’. Because the melody is an E note at the point, a note common to C and E, the E major chord fits just as well.
The same principal can be applied to more ‘difficult’ chord changes – if they fit the melody, the key relationships aren’t necessarily too important.
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