Judge a chord from lead?

How to judge a chord from a note. For example, I know the lead for national anthem and it goes like--- SA RE GA GAGA GA GAGA GA GAGA RE GA MA. This can be played on any scale. Now, my question is how the chords are judged for a note say SA? Also, chord for which note is played? Is is that the note which comes after a certain beats is used as a root of chord or something?
Thanks in advance!

Actually.. the chords for a song lead will depend on the composer's wish.. but.. for lead like C E A C2 A ( say for example) Cmaj or Amin will suit.. well its just the fact that one of the notes of the lead is taken as a root or it may even be the fifth or third of a chord.. its true that more than one chord can be played for the same piece of lead.. as i say its all the wish of the composer..

ashyantony is right!
if you are sure with the scales then u will not have doubt on chords.. as you know the formulas for a basic Major scale goes like 1 3 5 and goes like this.,

with that notes you mentioned sa re ga ga for eg: we'll take it for C major scale, you play the melody, find the apt scale, and using the formula u'll know the chord. for C major song u can add Aminor too and it sounds nice on same parts,. C Major's related Minor is Am. you play and you'll hear the difference ;-)

And should the chords be shifted only after certain amount of beats or is that depends on my playing and strumming style.

Originally Posted by Ashyantony7

Actually.. the chords for a song lead will depend on the composer's wish.. but.. for lead like C E A C2 A ( say for example) Cmaj or Amin will suit.. well its just the fact that one of the notes of the lead is taken as a root or it may even be the fifth or third of a chord.. its true that more than one chord can be played for the same piece of lead.. as i say its all the wish of the composer..

I also agree with you man. It is true that more than one chord can be played for the same piece of the lead.
In fact, more than one chord can be played for a single note in a lead, solo or whatever piece of a song!
A very nice example is the song Mohabbat Ho Na Jaye from movie Kasoor (2001), Kumar Sanur - Alka Yagnik.
The song is in the Eb major scale. So listen to the piano intro in the beginning,
There are 3 chords being played for the same note, the Eb note, the Eb, G# and the Cm!
The chords for the first 4 measures are:
/Eb-Cm/ G#-Bb/ 2x

Just listen to the song on youtube (piano solo from 00:06-00:20):
YouTube - ‪Kasoor-Mohabbat ho na jaye..‬‏

Btw, i think this is a very good thread, just about the discussion how to discover the chords for a song and everything what is needed to do such. Very important is to discover the scale!!!

tushar! well not really.. depends on the original song composed you have to hold/play the chords whether its 2 beats or one bar. for a same melody you can even shift chords for each beat., u might not know this music director his name is iilayaraja! he is terribly amazing man when it comes for chord progressions.. each word, each letter! lol he makes a chord.

Keoraf thats a nice example and yeah its good to have a thread for chords discussion we'll make it more bigger.. still there are more musicians around.. would be nice to put ur ideas here., help us to learn more

Surely more than one chord can be played on a particular piece of lead. I guess, when you can judge the basic chord or the root or key of the song, then you can play all other chords, which fall in the progression of that root chord by judging the chord by ear of just by hit and trial.
One more thing I am curious about is- Can all songs be played this way? I mean playing a song by judging the root chord and then playing only those chords which fall in the chord progression? Or are there songs which require you to play some other chord than the chords in the progression?
EDIT- By chord progression I mean those specific chords progressions that are common for a scale. For ex- Em...CM...DM...

@ Tushar:
There are plenty of songs where the chord progression is not only from that particularly scale.
There is no rule in the music world that is saying that only the chords of a certain scale is going to be used.
A little example about what you asked is the song Pukarata Chala Huun Main, movie Mere Sanam (1965).
I've posted the chords for this song a while ago:
Pukarata Chala Huun Main
In the Stanza the G chord is being used, the scale is Cm, the G chord doesn't exist in ths scale

/ Cm / Cm /
Ye Dillagi Ye Shokhiyaan Salaam Ki
/ Cm / Bb /
Yahi To Baat Ho Rahi Hai Kaam Ki
/ Eb / Gm /
Koi To Mud Ke Dekh Legaa Is Taraf
/ G / Cm /
Koi Nazar To Hogi Mere Naam Ki
/ Cm/ Cm /
Pukarata Chala Huun Main
/ Bb / Cm /
Gali Gali Bahaar Ki
/ G# / Bb /
Bas Ek Chhaanv Zulf Ki
/ Cm/ Eb /
Bas Ik Nigaah Pyaar Ki
/ Gm / Cm /
Pukarata Chala Huun Main

In that particularly part of the song, the song is going "out of scale", thats why the G chords is being played!
And this is happeing in lots of other songs aswell!
There are very less songs just played in the notes of the used scale, very often notes of other scales are used aswell!
Thats music man, the use of the "out of the scale" notes is giving the song another mood, feeling dimension etc.!

@Keoraf- Nice example to explain. When you have said this I would like to know something more. The formula for a major chord is 1-3-5. This holds true for a keyboard too. Isn't it? Then, how does it hold true to the D major chord?

I don't exactly understand what you mean by this.
The 1-3-5 formula is for the scale, in your example, the D chord!
So you have to look for the 1st, 3rd and 5th note of the D-scale and not in another scale!
The notes of the D-scale:
D E F# G A B C#
So the D chord, 1-3-5 ----> D-F#-A, the 1st, 3rd and 5th note of the D scale

Eb chord, the 1st, 3rd and 5th note of the Eb scale, Eb-G-Bb:
Eb F G Ab Bb C D

The Cm chord, the 1st, 3rd and 5th note of the Cm scale, C-Eb-G :
C D Eb F G Ab Bb

I guess, this is it what you meant!

Good work on this thread Keoraf and allen_nissi... What Keoraf talks about is all the accidentals i.e notes played which originally do not belong to the scale.. accidentals occurs in the lead too.. Hmmm.. Let me tell a you simple example.. it is always good to use E7 to give unique feel in A min songs.. Actually A minor scale(natural) has notes A B C D E F G .. But E7 has notes E G# B D.. Well we know G# doesn't belong to this scale.. Well if you closely follow minor scale songs.. You'll know that the sus4 chord and 7th chord of the fifth note is occasionally used.. well.. We know that that there are quite a large variety of chords are available such as sus4,augmented, diminished , maj7 which are used just for compositon.. Well you can build a song with only the 3 maj, 3 min available which is quite simple and the truth is majority of songs are done with just that.. But sus4, seventh ,dim will add different feels for the song.. Well A.R.R uses quite a number of different chords like these.. If you are a beginner , then you can take note of these formulas..

Major - 1,3,5
Minor - 1,3b,5 (major scale ) , 1,3,5 (minor scale)
sus4 - 1, 3#,5
dim - 1,3b,5b
Maj7 - 1,3,5,7
7 - 1,3,5,7b
6 - 1,3,5,6
aug - 1,3,5#

well.. There are still a quite huge variety of chords available based on tension like 9,11 etc.. and variety of combinbations available like dim7.. All I can say is that if we speak of chords it is quite a huge topic to cover.. But I can say is that if you have good knowledge on theory it will be a good asset..

@Tushar - the rule 1 - 3- 5 holds good for every major chord.. Well firstly you must know the scales where D major occurs.. D major occurs in scales D , A , G and of course their relative minors Bm , F#m , Em..

firstly I want you to know the rule for major and minor scale..

Major r,1,1,1/2,1,1,1,1/2
Minor r,1,1/2,1,1,1/2,1,1

1=2 sharps or two semitones
1/2= one sharp or semitone

Well.. following the rule I"ll write down the notes

D - D E F# G A B C#
G - G A B C D E F# G A
A - A B C# D E F# G# A
Bm - B C# D E F# G A B
Em - D E F# G A B C D E
F#m- D E F# G# A B C# D

Hmmm.. You can see If you take from D you ,ll find 1-3-5 for Dmajor chord

But I must say Keoraf And Allen-nissi have done a good work on this thread..

Originally Posted by Ashyantony7

But I must say Keoraf And Allen-nissi have done a good work on this thread..

Thanks man, thats what i meant with the "out of scale" notes, didn't know they where called accidentals in English!
As you already have noticed, my English isn't so well, just because i'm from the Netherlands, so please don't judge me what about my English!
Very well said indeed, you also are doing some good work on this thread!

Thanks everyone. IT was a great help. Highly appreciated.

keoraf the song you posted is a wonderful example..

well as its explained earlier a composer can add whatever chords he wants to sit on the melody! like the song you mentioned has got some accidental chords and it decorates the song/melody more and more.. even we can try something new ;-) .,


ashyantony: Thanks alot for the formulas and your compliment. you took good time writing stuffs on this topic. i appreciate.

and other members too!

sharing is love.. share and we'll learn more..