Writing a melody over a chord progression. It determines the mood of the song. The verse progression in his song, 'Lay, Lady, Lay' an For example, if you are writing in c major the primary chords. How to write a melody over a chord progression . On the other hand, if you. A chord progression gives you the tonal environment for the melody. The melody is almost completely consonant, with a few partially consonant notes, and few (if any) dissonant notes. For example, if you have a chord progression of c major, f major, a minor, then each of these notes have the common note of c. This means that when you play a particular chord, the majority of the notes in your vocal melody for this section (usually the ones that fall on the beat) will align with the notes in your chord. You can also try to find a common note within your chord progression and base your melody off of that common note. If your chord progression repeats, try using the same melody for each repea...