Harmonization of a melody

The main practical goal of this subject is to learn the basics of how to
harmonize a given melody.

Harmonizing a melody means putting chords (chord progressions) to the

existing melody. First of all we need to remember, that chords are not
used to harmonize melodies in every culture of the world. About half of
the world cultures do not harmonize melodies at all, as their music in
mostly monophonic (without harmony). Some cultures use “drone”
(sustained note) instead of chords to accompany a melody, others use a
“counter-melody” (or melody that goes together with the original
melody). In rock music, for example, there are usually no full chords, but
only so called “power chords.” In our subject we will learn different ways
of harmonizing a melody, with chords and without chords.

First we will discus very basics of harmonizing with chords, starting from
such a basic thing as “what is a chord”, then we will go into more
interesting things, like finding different versions of the chords for the
same melody. We will also talk (but not learn in detail) about principles
of harmonization in different musical styles, like classical, rock, jazz,
pop, Brazilian, African, Lithuanian, Georgian.

Remember, there are many different ways to harmonize the same melody.
Remember also, that simpler the melody, the easier to harmonize it in
different ways. Each simple melody can be harmonized by hundreds of
different chord progressions. If a melody is more complex, or “jumpy”, it
does not allow too many different ways to harmonize it.

Here are a few practical advices of how to harmonize a melody, or how to

put chord progressions to a melody.

STEP 1
When you hear a melody, first of all you need to decide WHERE do you
think this melody needs chords, and where these chords must be
changed.
Music flow is usually organized into “bars.” The usual place for the chord
change is at the beginning of the bars. Bars often have four beats, and the
bar starts at the count “one” so the usual place to change a chord is at
count “one.” You do not really need to count “one, two three, four” all
the time, most likely you will feel where is a good place to place a chord.
We have an innate feel of the rhythm, so just follow your natural feel.
Remember, changing chords at the bar-line is not always the case in
music. Sometimes the same chord may stay longer, and sometimes there
can be more than one chord in one bar. It is totally your choice where to
put the chords, so chose as you feel this. If you are not sure, then try to
change chords at the bar-lines (on the count “one”).

STEP 2
To have harmony, we must have at least two notes sounding together.
When there is only one sound at one time, there is no harmony.

When there are two notes, this is called INTERVAL, which means
“distance.” Interval is the distance between two notes. The names of
the intervals are prime, second, third, fourth, fifths sixths, sevenths, eights
(or “octaves”). There can be also ninth, tenth, and even more numbers.

When there are three notes (or more notes) sounding together, the
combined sound is called a CHORD. Chord must contain at least three
notes (like A, C, and E). Chord that contains only three notes, is called
TRIAD. Triad is the simplest and the most popular type of a chord.
Remember, not every three notes (for example, a-b-c) make up a chord,
there are special rules how to make a chord. Later we will see what
makes triads.

When there are four notes put together, this is called SEVENTH-
CHORD. We will not need any more complex chords than seventh-
chord, so we will not learn chords containing five, six or more notes.
Seventh-chords also are organized in a special way, and not every four
notes make up a seventh-chord.

So, we will be dealing with chords that consists of three notes (triad) or
four notes (seventh chord).

How we build the simplest chord, known as TRIAD:

As we remember chord need at least three notes, and that chords can not
be made of any three notes taken together (for example, A-B-C, or B-C-
D do not form a chords). There is a very strict rule for creating chords in
European music (and many other popular styles of music).

To make a chord, first you chose a core of the chord, which must be one
note (for example, “A”). Then you add two other notes on top of the core
note.
When looking for these additional two notes, remember: you must
always leave a SPACE between the notes. So, if you are building a
chord from A, you must leave out the key B, and use instead the note C.
To find the last, third note, you must leave out the next note from C
(which is D), and use instead E. So, now we have a chord from A: A-C-
E. This is the most widely used type of chord, called TRIAD,
consisting of three notes with “spaces” between the notes.

STEP 3
As we remember, when a chord contains only three notes with “spaces”,
it is called “triad”. C-E-G is a triad, as well as D-F-A, or E-G-B.

SEVENTH-CHORD: If you add one more note to the triad (again living
out one “space”), you will have a so called “seventh chord”. Seventh
chord contains four notes. Seventh chord from A is A-C-E-G, from D
seventh chord is D-F-A-C, and from E seventh chord is E-G-B-D.

To help to build triad and seventh-chords, we will be using the string of

seven notes that all music is based upon: A, B, C, D, E, F, G. For the
convenience write this string of seven notes at least twice. A World
Music Choir student, Brooke Cherubim, started using a more convenient
graphic set of notes in the first semester of 2011. She wrote them in
undulating pattern, like this:

A C E G B D F A C E G B D
B D F A C E G B D F A C E

In this set off notes it in easier to find how to built a triad, seventh-chord,
or how to harmonize the melody, so I suggest students to use this system
for the two tests that we will have during this semestre.

STEP 3
How to find out which chords can we use with the notes of a given
melody

This is the most important part of our subject, as I want students to be

able to know about the wide range of possible chords that can be used to
harmonize the same melody.
Look first at the first note of the melody, or at the note where you think
you should put the first chord. For example, the first note of the melody is
“C”. Now we need to learn, which chords can we put on the note “C”.
This is very simple:

Remember: every chord (triad or seventh-chord) that contains the

note C can be potentially used to harmonize the melodic note C.

Such chords are:

C triad (it contains notes: C, E, G)

A triad, (notes: A, C, E)
F triad (notes F, A, C)
D seventh-chord (or D7) (notes: D,F,A,C)

So you can use any of these chords C, or A, or F, or D7.

To make it easier, I would suggest a simple method of finding of suitable

chords: write down the string of musical notes:

A C E G B D F A C E G B D
B D F A C E G B D F A C E

and then, when you need to find chords that will harmonize with the note
“C”, you just need to go left from the note C. So the chords that
harmonize with the note C, are: triad C itself (C, E, G), triad from A (A,
C, E), triad from F (F, A, C), and seventh-chord from D (or D7).

You will need to do the same thing (going two note backwards) to find
which chords can be used for any note of the melody where you want
to put a chord.

So, to harmonize for example, the note D, you can have chords from D
(triad D,F,A), another chord from B (triad B, D, F, A), another chord
from G (triad G,B,D), and finally a seventh chord from E (E7: E,G,B,D).

You should be able to find the four chords for every note of the melody
which you think must have a chord.

You should also know, that there are many more chords that can
harmonize with each note, major and minor chords, different major,
minor, augmented and diminished seventh-chords, different ninth-chords,
etc. Many of these chords use not only white keys, but black keys as well,
but we will not be learning these chords.

===========================
let us now, as an example, harmonize a simple melody, changing chords
at the bar-lines.

As many breadth students might not know the musical writing system, I
will be mostly using alphabet to write down the melodies. According to
my experience, more students understand the alphabetical system of
writing down music, than the proper musical writing system, so we will
be using mostly alphabetical system to write down a melody (and
harmony). By the way, alphabetical writing system of music was the
oldest music writing system, invented in ancient Mesopotamia about 4 or
5 thousand years ago.

Se here are notes written by alphabetical seven notes a, b, c, d, e, f, g. We

use only seven notes. The groups of these notes are separated by barlines
(vertical line - | ). As most of the music has a meter (the number of beats
in each bar), this melody also has a meter, and it contains 4 beats in each
bar. So in each bar there are four beats (in the fourth and eights bars the
note is long and takes up all four beats).

|c c d e | f e d c |d d d c | d--- | c c d e | f e d c | d d d c | c--- ||.

Now we need to put chords for all the notes at the beginning of the bars,
on the first beat (after the barline)

Here are three different version of chord progressions (try to play these
chord on a guitar, or a piano, if you know how to play these chords).
Small m stands for minor chords. If you do not know what is minor
chord, just omit this sign (small m). We will learn this very soon.

(1) C / F / D / G / C / Dm / G / C .

(2) Am / Gm / Dm / Bflat / Am / F / E / Am.

(3) F / Dm / G / E / F / Dm / E / Am.

STEP 4:
Major and minor triads. Triads (and most chords) are of two different
types: major and minor. The difference between major and minor triad is
only one note, the middle note of the three notes that makes up a triad.
When you change the middle note of the triad, you change minor into
major, or vice versa.

For example, C-E-G is a major triad, to make a minor triad, you need to
have C-Eb (pronounces “E-flat”)-G. “Fflat” is a name of a black key that
is a bit lower than the actual key. So the note E-flat is a bit lower than the
note E. another black key, which is on a right side and is a bit higher, is
called “sharp” and is usually indicated as #. So C# means “C-sharp”.
Every black key actually can be a “flat” or a “sharp”. For example, a
black key between C and D can be called as C-sharp, or as D-flat.

REMEMBER: This text is only to assist you in understanding of what

we will be talking about at the lecture hours. For our practice we will be
discussing triads, seventh-chords, we will be playing during our classes a
few pop and rock classic songs, and will be analyzing chord progressions
in these songs, sometimes even trying to change the chords in these
songs.

SUGGESTION TO STUDENTS: If you know any pop, rock,

or classic song that you think has very interesting chord
progression, please bring the CD with this song to our class
and we will try to work out and discuss chord progression in
this composition.

Most importantly, do not sit quietly if you do not understand something

that we are discussing.
Be active! Ask questions!