Originally Posted by: oib111How dyou figure out what chords sound good over a riff?


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Write out all the notes you are playing and find out which scales and thus chords they are potential part of. I am assuming you are bending that E note up two frets to F# (a whole step).

Notes in riff:
E, F#, G, A, D

So you have 5 notes of the E minor scale (or relative major - G major scale).

Therefore, the first chords to try would be chords that are in that key:
E minor (I) - e, g, b
F# dim (ii dim) - f#, a, c
G major (III) - g, b, d
A minor (iv) - a, c, e
B minor (v) - b, d, f#
C major (VI) - c, e, g
D major (VII) - d, f#, a

One possible way to match chords and notes from the riff are to look for places that the strongest sounding note of the riff is one of the notes of the chord. So anytime the note E happens an E minor chord, A minor chord, or C major chord might be a good fit.

Because the riff does not explicitly use the C, you could also think of it as a C#.

E, F#, G, A, C#, D

So you have 6 notes of the D major scale (or relative minor - B minor scale).

D major (I) - d, f#, a
E minor (ii) - e, g, b
F# minor (iii) - f#, a, c#
G major (IV) - g, b, d
A major (V) - a, c#, e
B minor (vi) - b, d, f#
C# dim (vii dim) - c#, e, g

This would change my previous suggestion to: anytime the note E happens an E minor chord, A major chord, or C# dim chord might be a good fit.

Also, consider that if you are bending that E up to F# and it sounds as a F# more than an E, you might consider treating it as an F#. Then you want to match that the the chords. Anytime the note F# happens a D major chord, F# minor chord, B minor chord might be a good fit.

Hope this helps.