Chord Placement

[Jim P.]

OK - I'm new to the mandolin and to music notation. I know how a major scale is formed, I know how to figure out a triad chord, I know basic chord progression is I, IV, V.
I know the first and last chords in a piece of music are usually the same as the key of the piece, i.e., tune = key of G, first and last chords are G.

What I don't know is how to figure out the placement of the chords within a piece. In my example of a piece in the key of G, what tells me when to play a D, C, or G chord in the piece?

Any advice, etc, greatly appreciated..

Jim

[SincereCorgi]

Are you writing a song or trying to learn a specific song?

The matter of where to change chords in relation to the melody line is what makes each song distinct, although there are some broad general rules that differ by genre. If you're just starting to compose, then generally speaking, use chords that seem to be implied by what your melody is doing (e.g., if the melody is going E-G-E-G, that suggests that maybe a C chord or E minor chord might sound okay) but this is heavily dependent on context. Moreover, the dissonance of 'wrong' notes against a chord are a lot of what makes a piece of music interesting.

The best thing is probably to get the sheet music for some of the songs you like and analyze what they do. This might be confusing and you'll make a lot of mistakes, but it will help you formulate question that can be answered by studying theory, if that makes sense. Just jumping into theory without reference to actual music can be very academic and it doesn't necessarily sink in.

[Miked]

Here's an example of your I, IV, V progression:



Here's the tab to go along with it. Hope this helps a little!

[Jim P.]

Thank you both for the advice and demo and the tab. I can see there's no easy answer to the question I posed. Seems to be a matter of instinct and experience and listening and parsing a lot of tunes.

Thanks again...

Jim

[Rob Gerety]

That's right. It comes with experience and practice. Also, you can play many different chords for the same melody - there isn't just one way to do it. Lots to learn here. Its all about taste and creativity and style.

[Jon Hall]

When I'm learning a chord progression, either while listening to a recording or deciphering sheet music, I pay attention to the bass line. The bass usually plays the root of the chord but of course it's not that simple since they often alternate between the root and 5th, play 3rds and "walk bass lines" between some chords.

[fanmando]

There is some good advice on this thread; the bass line thing particularly is one that gets overlooked a lot.

I took a few theory classes in the East Tennessee State bluegrass dept, and condensed the notes from one class down so I could put them on a website. It's the 7th link on this page http://www.fiddlewidget.com/FiddlewidgetU.html and there is more of this coming as I dig it out and get time to post it.

But all the info you've gotten back so far looks good to me; paying attention to the melody line and the bass,there may be several choices for chords that might work in some situations, and you just have to try a lot of this stuff out unless you have an unusually good ear for that sort of thing.