So, we’ll show you how to establish the key your melody might be in, how to generate a palette of chords that work with it, then create an example progression using those chords.įrom there, you can vary the sounds you use and change up the rhythm and voicing of the chords to suit your own tastes. One perennial issue for songwriters is what to do when they’ve come up with a melody line and need a chord progression to fit it. These note names are shown below on the treble clef followed by the bass clef. Middle C (midi note 60) is shown with an orange line under the 2nd note on the piano diagram.

View key signatures on the treble and bass staves memorize the order of their accidentals, and learn the chords found in each key. The chord progressions used in most pop songs are relatively simple, mostly consisting of a cycle of between two and four chords that are diatonic to the song’s key.ĭiatonic means that the chords are made up of notes in the parent scale of the key - so if a song is in the key of E major, say, then the majority of the notes in the melody will be found in the E major scale, and the notes that make up the supporting chords - bar one or two exotic exceptions maybe - will be taken from the E major scale too. This major scale key is on the Circle of 5ths - Bb major on circle of 5ths, which means that it is a commonly used major scale key. The key of F major / D minor has one flat: Illustrated map of all the flat key signatures with relative minors.

Flats in b flat major