When choosing chords for (harmonizing) a song, you can tell a lot from listening to the melody and words with just the bass notes.

I believe that the core of harmony’s emotional impact on a melody primarily has to do with the relationship between the melody and the bass notes.  Maybe it’s partly because I’m a bassist, but I think that the full sound of a chord can sometimes actually obscure that basic impact.  That’s why at some point in the writing process I think it’s important to remove the in-between stuff… and just listen to the top and the bottom.

For example, recently I was working on a song where the beginning of the Title (in the 2nd bar of the Chorus) landed on a melody note of Bb… in this context actually a note which momentarily takes us out of the preceding key.

The first two chords of the Chorus are G and Eminor/A… then we hit that Bb in the melody.  At first I harmonized the Bb with a Gminor7 (the Bb being the 3rd of that chord).  Then I started liking the way the Bb sounded against a C7sus4 (the Bb being the 7th of that chord).

I think I was seduced by the chord progression – G to Eminor/A to Csus just sounds a bit cooler and funkier to me than G to Eminor/A to Gminor7.  And maybe it is.

But then I backed up and sang the words and melody against both bass line roots – without the full chords.  It became clear to me pretty quickly (this is totally subjective) that with the G under it instead of the C this melody was stronger and had more emotional power.  And, as much as it hurts to make that choice sometimes, for me the effectiveness of the melody and words has to take precedence over the coolness of the chord progression.

I’ve been through this process many times.  I’ve found the tool of boiling the song down to its words, melody, and bass notes to be an invaluable one.