Can AI create chords from a melody?
Yes — AI can create chords from a melody, and Veena's CoProducer does it from the notes you actually wrote. Play, draw or hum your melody into Veena, ask for chords, and your personal music producer writes a chord track that fits under it, in your key, as editable MIDI. Ask for three versions and pick the one that moves you. Free, in your browser.
Veena is an AI DAW with a personal music producer built in. Describe the song you want and CoProducer builds it with you — beats, chords, melody, arrangement and mix — as real tracks you can edit, mix and export. Free, in your browser.
"Chord progression" is the single most common phrase in first requests to Veena. Most people who type it already have a tune. This page shows what harmonizing a melody means, three ways to do it, and how to get all three from CoProducer.
How chords fit a melody
A chord fits a melody when the melody's important notes, usually the ones on the strong beats, are notes of that chord. The rest is taste: how often the chords change, and how much colour they carry.
Take the tune most of us learned first, in C major, one note per beat:
| Bar 1 | Bar 2 | Bar 3 | Bar 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| C C G G | A A G | F F E E | D D C |
Here are three honest harmonizations of those four bars:
| Version | Bar 1 | Bar 2 | Bar 3 | Bar 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plain triads | C | F, then C | F, then C | G, then C |
| Jazzy sevenths | Cmaj7 | Fmaj7, then Em7 | Dm7, then Am7 | G7, then C |
| Bittersweet | Am7 | F, then C | Fm, then C | Gsus4, then C |
Why each works. In the plain version every melody note on beat 1 is a chord tone: C in C, A in F, F in F, D in G. The jazzy version keeps those tones but moves the chord under each held note: the G in bar 2 becomes the third of Em7, and the E in bar 3 the fifth of Am7. The bittersweet version starts on the relative minor, then borrows Fm from C minor in bar 3. The melody's F still sits in the chord, but the flat sixth under it is the sound of a film cue turning sad.
How to get chords from your melody in Veena
- Put the melody on a track. Draw it in the piano roll, play it in on your computer keyboard or a MIDI keyboard, import a MIDI file, or sing or hum it into your mic.
- If you sang it, turn it into notes. Ask CoProducer to turn your recording into MIDI. It places an editable MIDI line on a new track and mutes the original take, so you can fix any wobbly note.
- Ask for the chords. Paste this, or write your own:
Here's my melody on the lead track. Write a chord track under it in C major at 90 BPM on a warm electric piano. Give me three options: simple triads, a jazzier version with sevenths, and a bittersweet one that borrows Fm in bar 3.
- Pick one. CoProducer offers the options in one carousel. Browse them with the arrow keys, hover to preview, and press Enter to add the one you like.
- Keep going. "Change the chords every two beats instead of every bar." "Voice them higher." "Add a bass line that follows the roots." Each new part reads the notes already placed, so the bass follows your chords and your chords follow your tune.
Why this matters: CoProducer writes against the real notes of your melody, not a label like "a sad song in C". Two tunes in the same key can want completely different chords, and the one you wrote gets its own.
What you can do with the chords after
Every chord is a set of MIDI notes you can grab. Re-voice a chord by dragging one note up an octave. Swap the electric piano for strings with one sentence. Export the chord track as MIDI for any other session, or export the whole song as WAV, MP3, MIDI or MP4, as often as you like, with no watermark. You own what you make, on the free plan and on Veena Pro.
Related questions
Go deeper with the chord progression generator and the melody generator, read what a chord progression is, or browse learn music production with AI.
Try this in Veena
Here's my melody on the lead track. Write a chord track under it in C major at 90 BPM on a warm electric piano. Give me three options: simple triads, a jazzier version with sevenths, and a bittersweet one that borrows Fm in bar 3.
Frequently asked questions
Can AI harmonize a melody I sing or hum?
Yes. Record the melody into Veena from your mic, and CoProducer can turn your voice into an editable MIDI line, then write chords under it. The chords are built from the notes you actually sang, so the harmony follows your tune rather than a generic progression in the same key. You can then fix any sung note in the piano roll.
Can AI give me different chords for the same melody?
Yes, and that is where it earns its keep. Ask Veena's CoProducer for options, like 'a simple version, a jazzy one and a sad one', and it offers several chord tracks for the same melody. Browse them with the arrow keys, press Enter to add the one you want, and ask for another colour whenever you like.
Will the AI chords be in the right key?
Yes. CoProducer reads the key from your Veena project and the notes of your melody before it writes anything, so the chords sit in the same key as the tune. You can still ask for chords from outside the key on purpose, like a borrowed minor iv, and every chord stays editable in the piano roll.
Can I export the AI chords as MIDI?
Yes. The chords CoProducer writes are MIDI notes on their own track in Veena, so you can export them as MIDI, or render them as audio in WAV or MP3, as often as you like. The free plan exports with no watermark and no cap, and you own what you make.
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