Re: [Harp-L] Determining the "Right" Chord(s)?



Hi Bob, 

I know what you are talking about as I found myself in the same situation some time ago. I got a hymn book as a present from my friend from the U.S. and as a non-native speaker and foreigner I couldn't figure out the harmony of the songs in the hymn book as I've never heard them before. Eventhough I know the theory and I can follow some chrodal changes, though in cases of the more complicated harmony changes I had troubles of following the exact chord progression. Although I was blown by the richness of harmony in many songs, it was impossible to play along and improvise without having an idea of what "fancy" chords are in between the regular chords (such as major, minor and the 7ths). 

Trying to find the solution I entered all 4 parts of the chosen song in the Band In A Box format and the software came up with the harmony (based on the voicings provided in those 4 parts) - that is - exact chords of the song. In reality, the harmony generated was not 100% exact but rather modified and therefore I obtained the distorted version of the original song. 

Then, I recalled that all genious things are simple and googled the midi version of the song - the best and correct version in terms of harmony. Then I opened it in several software applications like Sibelius and Band in a Box, capble of generating the chord progression of the song and then made a discretionary decision which fancy chords to keep or not. 

After getting an idea of what the songs sound like in reality - as I've never been exposed to the hymnal vocabulary before -  I was able to play along and even play the accompaniment on a guitar. And more than that, after listening to the midi files I managed to identify chord progressions even without putting them through the additional software. 

*As a side thought, I believe that the hymn books should contain the corresponding chord changes, otherwise it's almost impossible for the person to "guess". On the other hand, as the hymn book is for the people to sing along or play along, it means that there's the sheet music for people who play the accompaniment. And I'm sure guitar players have their own cheeting notes on what chords are used in this or that hymn to cope with the challenge to follow the chord changes - so it's worth chatting to the band members who peform the songs in question or similar songs. 

**Once you have the harmony on the grand staff, it's easy in case you know the harmony theory. So, knowing the key you are in you can calculate the chords. But we are not that sophisticated, at least I'm talking about myself, and it's better to use the PC brain and software power and, in particular, I recommend the Band In a Box application for that purpose. As it's a usual thing now, I'm throwing the disclaimer here that I don't work for the PGmusic and don't advertise their products, I'm just a happy customer who can only recommend. 


Hope that helps,

Best, 

Alex 


>>> Robert Coble <robertpcoble@xxxxxxxxxxx> 10/09/2008 07:00:05 >>>

Here's something a little different for the music theorists.

Given a hymn book containing four-part harmony on the
grand staff, how does one determine the appropriate chords 
to be played and how long to stay on a particular chord?

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