This may be getting deep into music theory but here goes: A lady in our Sunday night pick-up music group has an auto harp and wants to learn some Irish tunes so we can play duets with whistle and autoharp. The problem: virtually all my music is ABC files or downloads with just the melody. Is there a way to figure out a chord progression that matches the melody?
If that’s too hard to do, does anyone know any sites that have ABC or other files with chords in addition to the melodies for Itrad tunes?
I can’t think of a direct answer to those questions, but here are a few comments:
There are lots of tunebooks and internet sites that do note the chord changes. In fact, most of the whistle tunebooks, such as McCullough’s do.
Most of the tunes are simple enough that she should be able to figure them out by trial and error. Learning a few tunes this way will help her intuitively figure out others without having to understand much music theory. For example, she’ll find that tunes in the key of D often use the G and A chords also. These three chords naturally fall together, and are referred to as having a I, IV, V relationship. In the key of C, the I, IV, V would consist of C, F, and G. (You can count this out in other keys: If G is the I, then C is the IV and D is the V, etc…).
It’s helpful to have a little bit of theory under your belt. It’s not that hard, and you’ll use it constantly. Scan the internet to learn about the “circle of fifths”, for example. This will help make it more clear than my rambling explanation! Best of luck!
I would suggest the Celtic Backup Method by Chris Smith, if she’s ready to make a bit of a commitment. Its mostly geared toward guitar and bouzouki, but I found the information very applicable to folk harp. Available from Mel Bay.
Or just google “chord progressions” and you will find lots of basic, and in-depth music theory sites that deal with this stuff.
To really understand this you will need to learn at least about intervals and diatonic scales (major and minor) to understand how to build chords, and what chords fit to the scale played.
Not that you have to understand it to play it. Go by trial and error otherwise, based on the I-IV-V-I relationship described by crookedtune.
The chord setting function in ABCMus is a nice feature, however, one still needs to listen to the final results with a critical ear. It’s not foolproof, and you can get some questionable chord progressions from time to time. Just don’t accept its renderings without some measure of quality control and discretion.
Of course, you could invest in a book such as An Amazingly Accessible Annotated Accompaniment Archive (also known as the the NEMOFOTMAD CHORD BOOK), which has the chords (only) to a whole bunch of tunes including a generous helping of Irish ones. I happen to have a few still available.
Thanks for all the replies. I’m fiddling around (not on a fiddle) with chord progressions and will look at the sites listed for tunes with chords. Thanks again.
