Creating Chords From Notes Of A Scale

hello there im making a song at the moment in the key of d harmonic minor and i really like a note progression that goes d,c#,f (descending).How do i go about constructing a chord from these notes?obviously i use the notes d,c#,f but how do i figure out the root note??

You are not required to use all notes of the melody when creating chords.
Two possibilities come to mind:

D Minor = D F A
F Augmented = F A C#

There are no rules. What you choose is a matter of taste.

well i know you can bend the rules and so on but how do i find the root note?

The root note is in the name of the chord. Pick which chord sounds better:

D Minor = D F A – root is D

F Augmented = F A C# – root is F

i dont get it??can i not just use d c# f as a chord???

D C# F is not a chord typically used in pop or rock music because the interval from D to C# is a semitone and is therefore dissonant. Basic 3 note chords typically consist of notes with intervals of major or minor thirds.

But if the chord sounds good to you, by all means use it.

If we consider 4 note chords that include D C# F, you could use this chord:

Dm(maj7) = D F A C#

It is D minor with a major seventh tacked on. It is unusual but more common than just D C# F.

I would play A#maj - A#,D,F ignoring c# during matching chord progression

Isn’t that a chord inversion ?

Well yes…sort of…it certainly is something but generally it would be viewed as a diad (two notes) as the three notes don’t really fit

So D, F, and C# could be:

C#maj(no 5th) (C# & F) or Dmin(no 5th) (D & F) or etc, etc

Personally, I would look at using the ‘D’ as the seventh in a chord ie Emin 7th (EGBD)

Use the C# as a passing note to imply Emin6 (EGBC#)

and then go to Fmaj7 (using the F as the root and not the 7th as I couldn’t get a chord to fit right)

Using the top note as the seventh (or even 9th (or for you jazzers a 13th)) in a chord is a nice way to fit some chords to a melody; it’s no hard and fast rule but it certainly helps. Tweakage should always be applied and trust your ears

(YMMV of course ;))

(disclaimer: i did this in my head and have no keyboard to try this out atm so it might sound shit… :blink:)

thanks for all the replies,im just going to use d,c#,f as a chord,i love dissonance anyways,i was just hoping for a surefire way to find the root note but i guess its up to me to decide depending on my intentions

If you are working on a key (d harmonic minor in this case) you have some chords available in that key. If you “make you own chords” or use another chords, you’re working out of the key.

How is D F C# in the key of D Harmonic minor? Those notes can appear in many different scales (and depending in what order the OP used them) in many different keys; it all depends on context

Could really do with an example riff so we know what we’re shooting at

Whenever I get stuck on this kind of thing, I always wish someone would just explain it in plain english to me, so I’ll try my best…

I’m pretty sure there is no root note for the sequence d c# f, only chords and scales have root notes. To choose a chord that sounds good with those notes, just pick one that has some notes in common. It doesn’t have to have all of them. Usually it will have two or more, but not always.

So D minor might work (has two notes in common, D and F)
or F augmented (has two notes in common, F and C#)
or Bb (two notes again, F and D)
or A (this one only has one note in common, C#, but it also sets up a perfect cadence back to D minor. Whether this works or not depends entirely on the context of your song.)

Picking a chord from the D harmonic minor scale like those above would maintain the harmonic minor tonality in the song, but you could pick a chord from outside the key if you wanted.

Hope that helps at least a little bit. I’m no expert on music theory, but this method works for me.

It would probably make a great Tool, but I’m not sure it’s possible…

It would probably be the opposite of Scale Finder.

its ok d,c#,f sounds fine as a chord in the sequence im using,just wanted to know the root note

I’m starting to hear this in my head as a desperate, almost whining voice. Am I right? :D

:w00t:

Root note of what?

Dude… just…

…the root note…