How and Where to Add Chords Before I explain the How? I’ll explain the What? The best way to know is to use your ears because there is no right chord for any one spot. It is refreshing to hear different harmonies on the same tune (although there can be some definitely wrong ones!). Most people can hear when a chord change wants to happen–even if they don’t know what the chord should be. Until you begin to make sense of common chord progressions and can apply a little music theory, one great place to find chord changes is in tune books. Even if you don’t read music well (yet) you can see when and what chords are used. In this article, the lead sheets provided show the chords I use. Rolled Chords The most obvious solution to adding chords is to play chord tones in rapid succession up towards the melody note that occurs on the beat of the chord change. This is a good stepping off point to learning chords and applying them without getting your hands tied up in
knots. Here’s how it works. Just before the beat where the chord change occurs, find the next two closest chord members below the melody note. For instance, if the melody note is an F# and the chord is a D, the next closest D chord member below F# is D, then the A below that, then F# below that (depending on if you want a 3-note or 4-note roll). Let’s start with a three-note rolled chord. In this case, your three notes will be, from bottom to top: A, D, F#. There are two common ways this is transcribed in music notation. The first
Descending Arpeggio Style This method also sounds harp-like by filling in the sustaining melodic notes with notes of the chord played immediately below the melody. In fact, the word arpeggio is Italian for “harplike” as it refers to playing a chord one note at a time as a harp would. I’ll use
Amazing Grace to demonstrate this method. Notice that in this style you follow each long melody note with the next closest note of the chord. In this case, since the first long melody note is a G and the chord is a G, the next closest G chord member is D, followed by B, D and low G. There are three 8th
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uses the piano tradition used when an interval is too large for a player’s hand. All the chord members are written on the same beat and stem as the melody note and the player knows to roll from
bottom to top any notes that do not fit under the hands. This looks a lot cleaner on the page, but does not show how the chord is actually played on the instrument. The examples in this article use this style of notation. The other notation system is more precise in terms of accurately expressing how you will play the notes by using grace notes before the beat of the chord change. The pitfall of this system is that it looks cluttered on the page and can appear more intimidating to play than it actually is. In either case: Bottoms Up! Always roll up a chord from bottom to top, even when the music may have all the notes printed on the same beat. Below is the first phrase of Si’Bheag Si’Mhor with three and four-note rolls. As you work through these, be mindful to keep the melody note at least 10% louder than the rolled notes.
notes worth of time to fill, explaining the three descending arpeggio notes: B, D and G. The Descending pattern gives a very interesting contour by constantly cascading downwardly. It is really effective when accompanied by a second instrument that arpeggiates the chords upwardly.
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