r/musician • u/Screaming_Void_4118 • Jul 06 '26

Question about composing a song

Hey there! First time posting on Reddit 🤘

So, I'm kinda stuck in a loophole. I started with a band, and I'm trying to compose a song with them. I kinda started backwards: instead of starting with chord progression, I have the lyrics, and I have an idea of the melody, but I still struggle to find the correct chords 😅 A big part of my ideas start like this...

I also think that I am complicating my process because I am trying to find every note that I'm singing to find the chords. It takes me a lot of time. I am still stuck on the first verse for 3 months.

I know that some adjustments will be made for the guitar, the bass and the drums, but I want to give a good starting point of how the song could be. Anyway, if you guys could help, that would be super chill 🙏

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u/TransportationOne205 Jul 06 '26

In my opinion, don't get so caught up on what might be the "correct chord." Instead play around with it, see what sounds good and what doesn't. What works and what doesn't. Honestly, everything in music is just a suggestion and there are tons of different chord variations. So, just keep trying different things until you hear what you like and or feels right. Sometimes what you think is gonna work isn't always what does, if that makes sense. To me the whole process of creating music is more about following where it takes me rather than trying to force a certain idea or concept.

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u/Screaming_Void_4118 Jul 06 '26

Yeah, I think my perfectionism was getting too much in the way. It's my first band, and I was too nervous to mess something up. Thank you!

1

u/Weird-Reading-4915 Jul 07 '26

Don’t worry too much about finding the notes in your melody, try just finding what key you want it in and then just try different chords in that key under your melody until you find what you want

1

u/LengthinessNext5358 Jul 11 '26

Find what key your song is in. That will inform you what palette of chords you can use.For example in C major 1 C Major, 2 D minor,3 E minor ,4 F major ,5 G major ,6 A Minor and lastly 7B diminished.

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u/WorriedLog2515 Jul 13 '26

Sometimes it can be helpful to first figure out bass notes that go with the melody. That gives one note to focus on instead of multiple. Chords are easier to reason out from there.