From the course: The Songwriter's Toolkit: New Perspectives

Unlock the full course today

Join today to access over 22,400 courses taught by industry experts or purchase this course individually.

Finding chords from a melody

Finding chords from a melody - Sibelius Tutorial

From the course: The Songwriter's Toolkit: New Perspectives

Start my 1-month free trial

Finding chords from a melody

- [Instructor] One of the first ways I learned to write a song was to start with the chord progression and come up with melodies based around the chords. Playing some notes on your instrument or even singing to a backing track or beat is a tried and true way of finding songwriting inspiration. After more than 20 years of writing, I still use this technique. But what if we started looking at it the other way around? What if we let the melody tell us which chords are available? I'm going to show you some of the chordal possibilities with a melody we all know and love, Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. I'm assuming you know this song, but just in case, here's the melody and the lyric. ♪ Twinkle, twinkle, little star ♪ ♪ How I wonder what you are ♪ ♪ Up above the world so high ♪ ♪ Like a diamond in the sky ♪ ♪ Twinkle, twinkle, little star ♪ ♪ How I wonder what you are ♪ The melody of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star is not unlike the melody of most pop songs in that it is firmly fixed in a…

Contents