How do I break songs into basic chords?

Hi there, I have a very important question for my future Project, that I never saw answered anywhere. So, if I have a piece of music, that I very much like, I want to play and whistle it. But I never saw a tutorial on how to break any song down to ukulele chords.
An example for my question would be this tune
https://youtu.be/oPKyW20sLOY

I want to play the clarinette/bassoon line with the ukulele and whistle the flute one. How do I detect the correct chords for this?

https://youtu.be/cG7SIuNme6g

This ones a short but good one too, that I want to play.

Thanks in advance for your help and I hope my english wasn't too bad...

Hi Aninok
Your English is great. Welcome to UU.
My process for figuring out chords, is to first pick out the melody by ear on the uke. Often times the starting note will give you a clue to what key it is in. Once you know the key (how many flats/ sharps), you can guess what chords will be used by using some basic music theory. Each key uses a select group of chords based on the scale the key it is in. Many of the melody notes will be in the chord you will play for each part. You can usually figure out the chords by ear at that point. There will be some spots where a couple of chords might work, and you will have to make an artistic choice about which one to choose. I hope that helps. Some basic music theory is very helpful for this process.

–Lori

Thank you for your tips. But as I am not playing ukulele for that long, I don't know yet how to match chords to keys. Do you know any source, where I can inform myself more on this topic?

This site might be useful to you.

http://www.gametabs.net/games/p

That's really kind of you, but I know this site already and I don't want already made chords. The main reason is that there are so many songs out there, which I really want to play by myself, but just aren't covered yet. And the thrill of exploring a new way into a musical skill makes it worth a whole lot more ^^ I just don't know where to start this journey. All I know thanks to Lori is to find the key, and select a given amount of fitting chords. But where do I find some sort of List for this? And many more questions

Lori's advice is good. If you want to analyze songs by yourself rather than just look for chord sheets or tabs online, you will need to learn a little music theory -- for example, many songs are built around the first chord in a key (the C chord in the key of C) along with the fourth chord (the F chord in the key of C) and the fifth chord (the G chord in the key of C).

This website may be a good place to start: http://claudio-uke.blogspot.com/p/useful-music-tools.html

You will also have to learn to trust your ear.

Thank you so much ^^ I will try to apply the learnt right tomorrow.

http://www.musicdials.com/IMAGES/chtable.jpg https://www.pinterest.com/pin/173247916892232784/
Here are a couple of charts I found by Google search for "Music Theory Chord Progression Chart". There is a lot out there if you know the right words to search with.
Hope this gives you a good start.
–Lori

I wish we had Upvotes for things like this! This looks like a cool site. Thank you Keith M!

uke1950 said:

This site might be useful to you.

http://www.gametabs.net/games/p

Click to expand...

Here's another simple tip for finding the key. The final chord is almost always the I ( one ) chord of the key. That means, simply, if the final chord is a "C" chord, the song is in the key of "C." The first chord of the song is usually the key of the song as well, it's just easier to hear the final chord. Another hint: The next to last chord will almost always be the V-7 chord.

Once you've found the key of the song you can make a few assumptions.

1) If it's a simple song ( a hymn, a folk song, maybe a rock and roll song ), the chords are probably the I, IV, and V-7 chords. Count up with your fingers from the Key to get the "four" and the "five" chords. In the key of "C" go C=1, D=2, E=3 F=4, G=5.
So, there are the 1, 4, and 5 chords: C, F, and G

2) If it is not a "simple" song --- for instance, it's minor or it has more that these 3 basic chords, it's currently beyond your theory level. Find songs that fit the pattern of #1 above and practice until you are at least a little competent with that level before you move on.

3) The "V" chord is almost always a "V-7" chord. pronounced, "Five-seven chord." It consists of four notes, the fourth is the flatted-7th. For now, look that chord up in a chord chart.

4) There's one more thing to understand: What is a chord? Assume for simplicity right now that a chord is a "triad," ( 3 notes ), consisting of the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes of the scale ( for now think of the key as the scale). In the key of C the scale is the set of white keys on a piano, starting with "C." Play the first note ( C ), the 3rd note ( E ) and the 5th note (G) and, HOLY COW! You just played a "C" chord.


From here, a great deal of music theory is just more of the same.

Good luck. It's easier than it seems at first, but it goes on and on and on into little details as you learn more.

Here's a slightly different approach :
If you can read music you can transcribe the tune into ABC then import that source code into something like AbcMus http://www.norbeck.nu/abcmus/ and use that program to suggest chords for you. Just remember ... "There's not just one correct chord sequence, but there are very many more incorrect sequences"

Good luck

This Key Chord Chart is really handy.

http://ezfolk.com/uke/Tutorials/1four5/music-theory/key-chord-chart/key-chord-chart.html

Indispensable really. Some times you have to change a chord to a dim or a 6th or what ever to get the right sound but it will get you close and gives you Majors and Minors on one sheet.