Step One: Determining the Melody

The first step of the process is to learn how to determine the melody. To be very honest, this concept is very easy to grasp and doesn’t require 300 pages to accomplish. Anyone with a decent ear can eventually find the melody to a song. However, in addition to the other techniques, principles, and concepts taught in our course, there are a few pointers to remember when determining the melody. The following lesson is taken right out of our 300-pg course (pgs 252-254): 

 

Again, this is just 3 pages on harmonizing melodies. If you are truly serious about taking your piano playing and music knowledge to the next level, I invite you to read more about my 300-pg course entitled, "The Secrets to Playing Piano By Ear." Click here for more techniques, principles, concepts, tricks and tips on playing the piano by ear.

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(Part two of a two week series on harmonizing melodies. Click here for last week’s lesson).

 

 

Last week’s lesson generated many questions so before providing answers to the exercises I issued in the last newsletter, I’ll first take some time to address some key thoughts:

 

 

Question #1 from student:

 

Hi Jermaine,   Your harmony scale seems to be just what I’m looking for. Do these chords always apply to these melody notes and how do you know when to use other chords that may fit better?

 

 

Answer:

 

The simple answer to to the first question is no. For the second question, it depends.

 

Here it goes…

 

 

 

The harmonization scale taught in the last lesson (and shown below) is just a template to use for most basic songs, but it is not written in stone.

 

There will be times, for example, in C major, when you play a “C” in your melody and it won’t be harmonized by the Cmaj (E+G+C) chord I discussed last week. In this case, the “C” melody note may be harmonized by an Fmaj (F+A+C) chord, which still puts “C” on top and is a better fit for the song.

 

Let me give you an example:

 

“Jesus Loves Me”

 

 

Yes, Je-sus Loves Me

G     E    G    A      C

 

Yes, Je-sus Loves Me

G     E   C     E      D

 

Yes, Je-sus Loves Me

G     E    G    A      C

 

For the bib-ble tells me so

A    A   G   C   E     D   C

 

 

Normally, this entire song, like many others, could be harmonized using the chart I introduced last week:

 

When melody note is:	Simply play this chord:
C	E + G + C (played all at the same time)
D	F + A + D
E	G + C + E
F	A + C + F
G	C + E + G
A	C + F + A
B	D + G + B
C	E + G + C

 

 

 

Simply put, all you have to do is take each note of your melody and replace it with the matching chord.

 

So…

 

According to the chart above, “Jesus Loves Me” would look like this:

 

Part One	Part Two	Part Three	Part Four
Yes C+E+G   Je G+C+E   sus C+E+G   Loves C+F+A   Me * E+G+C	Yes C+E+G   Je G+C+E   sus E+G+C   Loves G+C+E   Me * F+A+D	Yes C+E+G   Je G+C+E   sus C+E+G   Loves C+F+A   Me * E+G+C	For C+F+A   The C+F+A   Bi C+E+G   ble E+G+C   Tells G+C+E   Me F+A+D   So E+G+C

 

 

 

If you play this song with the triads listed above, mostly all the chords would sound good except for the ones I’ve noted with an asterisk *.

 

It’s not that they sound bad. It’s just that there is a better fit for these melody notes.

 

 

My golden rule is that your ear should always be the judge. So when you are harmonizing a melody and one chord just doesn’t sound right, ask yourself this question?

 

“Is there any other chord that might harmonize this note better?”

 

 

This is where you get into different types of harmonization scales. On pages 243-244 of the 300-pg course, I teach about three different harmonization scales with various functions:

 

 

1) Using only primary chords to harmonize a scale (i.e., “I, IV, and V chords only”)

 

2) Using a mixture of minor and major chords (like the chart you already learned above).

 

And…

 

3) Using substitute chords on certain tones of the major scale.

 

 

 

 

Using only primary chords to harmonize a scale

 

In any given major scale, the I, IV, and V make up the primary chords.

 

For example, the C major scale is:

 

C D E F G A B C

1 2 3  4  5 6  7 8

 

The primary chords of this key are Cmaj, Fmaj, and Gmaj.

 

 

Let’s see how well you understand this concept:

 

1) What are the primary chords of F major?

 

 

Answer: F major ( I ), Bb major ( IV ), and C major ( V )

 

 

2) What are the primary chords of B major?

 

 

Answer: B major ( I ), E major ( IV ), and F# major ( V )

 

So, if you had to harmonize the C major scale using only a Cmaj, Fmaj, and Gmaj chords, it would look something like this:

 

Harmonizing a scale with primary chords only
When melody note is:	Simply play this chord:
C	E + G + C (played all at the same time)
D	G + B + D
E	G + C + E
F	A + C + F
G	C + E + G
A	C + F + A
B	D + G + B
C	E + G + C

 

 

 

The only difference between this harmonization chart and the other one is that the “D” in this scale is harmonized by a “Gmaj” chord instead of a “Dmin” chord.

 

This is the “Gmaj” chord that should be used in “Jesus Loves Me.”

 

Try comparing the second part of “Jesus Loves Me” (one with the regular “Dmin” chord and one with the “Gmaj” chord used to harmonize the “D” note).

 

Old version	New Version
Yes C+E+G   Je G+C+E   sus E+G+C   Loves G+C+E   Me * F+A+D  (old)	Yes C+E+G   Je G+C+E   sus E+G+C   Loves G+C+E   Me * G+B+D (new)

 

Doesn’t the second version sound a lot better with the Gmaj than the Dmin? This is exactly what I’m talking about — using your ear to make the final decision.

 

 

 

Using substitute chords on certain tones of the major scale

 

In some cases, only certain chords of the harmonization scale need to be changed.

 

On page 244 in the course, I discuss how sometimes the IV chord can substitute for the I chord.

 

To better understand this, let’s look at our original harmonization scale:

 

 

When melody note is:	Simply play this chord:
C	E + G + C (played all at the same time)
D	F + A + D
E	G + C + E
F	A + C + F
G	C + E + G
A	C + F + A
B	D + G + B
C	E + G + C

 

 

Notice the first chord in this chart.

 

Usually, if you were playing a melody, any time you’d hit “C”, you’d replace your melody note with E+G+C.

 

However, in “Jesus Loves Me,” this chord didn’t sound correct when harmonizing the “C” notes with “E+G+C” in parts one and three.

 

 

After poking around at a few more chords, you might notice that an Fmaj chord sounds a lot better there. An Fmaj chord is played: F+A+C.

 

Understand that the highest note doesn’t change — it is still “C” like we want it to be.

 

Now, try changing the (E+G+C) chords in parts one and three to (F+A+C) to see the difference it makes:

 

Old version	New Version
Yes C+E+G   Je G+C+E   sus C+E+G   Loves C+F+A   Me * E+G+C (old)	Yes C+E+G   Je G+C+E   sus C+E+G   Loves C+F+A   Me * F+A+C (new)

 

 

I don’t know about you but the Fmaj beats out the Cmaj chord here.

 

 

 

 

So the lesson to be learned here is:

 

• If the chord you’re using to harmonize the second tone of a scale (in C major, that’s “D”) doesn’t sound right, try switching to a primary chord (or the V chord). In this case, we ended up replacing the Dmin chord with a Gmaj chord and it sounded much better.
• If the chord you’re using to harmonize the first tone of a scale (in Cmajor, that’s “C”) doesn’t fit as well as you think it should, try switching to the IV chord (with the same note on top). Remember, the highest note shouldn’t change since the I and IV chords share this same note in their chords.

 

 

Now, let’s see if you answered last week’s exercise correctly.

 

If you remember, the aim was to correctly harmonize “Mary had a little lamb” and “Are you sleeping” with the help of the harmonization chart.

 

Here are the answers:

 

 

“Mary had a little lamb”

 

 

 

E D C D E E E (Ma-ry had a lit-tle lamb)

_____________________________________

 

G+C+E (Ma)

 

F+A+D (ry)

 

E+G+C (had)

 

F+A+D (a)

 

G+C+E (lit)

 

G+C+E (tle)

 

G+C+E (lamb)

 

 

 

D D D (lit-tle lamb)

_____________________________________

 

 F+A+D (lit)

 

 F+A+D (tle)

 

 F+A+D (lamb)

 

 

 

E G G (lit-tle lamb)

_____________________________________

 

 G+C+E (lit)

 

C+E+G (tle)

 

C+E+G (lamb)

 

 

 

E D C D E E E E (Ma-ry had a lit-tle lamb, her)

_____________________________________

 

G+C+E (Ma)

 

F+A+D (ry)

 

E+G+C (had)

 

F+A+D (a)

 

G+C+E (lit)

 

G+C+E (tle)

 

G+C+E (lamb)

 

G+C+E (her)

 

 

 

D D E D C (fleece was white as snow)

______________________________________

 

F+A+D (fleece)

 

F+A+D (was)

 

G+C+E (white)

 

F+A+D (as)

 

E+G+C (snow)

 

 

 

 

“Are you sleeping”

 

 

C D E C (Are you sleep-ing)

______________________________________

 

E+G+C (Are)

 

F+A+D (you)

 

G+C+E (sleep)

 

E+G+C (ing)

 

 

 

C D E C (Are you sleep-ing)

______________________________________

 

E+G+C (Are)

 

F+A+D (you)

 

G+C+E (sleep)

 

E+G+C (ing)

 

 

 

E F G (Bro-ther John)

______________________________________

 

G+C+E (Bro)

 

A+C+F (ther)

 

C+E+G (John)

 

 

 

 

E F G (Bro-ther John)

______________________________________

 

G+C+E (Bro)

 

A+C+F (ther)

 

C+E+G (John)

 

 

 

 

G A G F E C (Morn-ing bells are ring-ing)

______________________________________

 

C+E+G (Morn)

 

C+F+A (ing)

 

C+E+G (bells)

 

A+C+F (are)

 

G+C+E (ring)

 

E+G+C (ing)

 

 

 

G A G F E C (Morn-ing bells are ring-ing)

______________________________________

 

C+E+G (Morn)

 

C+F+A (ing)

 

C+E+G (bells)

 

A+C+F (are)

 

G+C+E (ring)

 

E+G+C (ing)

 

 

 

 

C G C (Ding dong ding)

______________________________________

 

E+G+C (Ding)

 

B+D+G (dong) — use different harmonization type

 

E+G+C (ding)

 

 

C G C (Ding dong ding)

______________________________________

 

E+G+C (Ding)

 

B+D+G (dong) — use different harmonization type

 

E+G+C (ding)

 

 

 

 I hope you enjoyed part two of this series. I’ll see you next week for a new topic…

 

Thanks for reading!

 

 

Chords to study for future online classroom lessons:

• Major triads; see pg chapter 5 of 300pg course
• Minor triads; see pg chapter 8 of 300pg course
• Major sixth chords; see pg chapter 13 of 300pg course
• Minor sixth chords; see pg chapter 13 of 300pg course
• Seventh (dominant) chords; see pg chapter 10 of 300pg course
• Minor seventh chords; see pg chapter 10 of 300pg course
• Major ninth chords; see pg chapter 14 of 300pg course

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(Part one of a two week series on harmonizing melodies)

 

 

 

Harmonizing melodies is different than laying chords beneath a melody.

 

You may have heard of fake books and chord charts where you are given chords to play under various melodies. Jazz standards are usually notated this way.

 

For example, the chord chart may display a “Cmaj7″ over a particular bar with a melody line beneath it. To some extent, you have to know how to read sheet music (at least to read the melody line).

 

 

 

Harmonizing melodies, to me, is much easier. This is how hymns and popular music are played.

 

I’ll give you some songs in the next newsletter, but just to demonstrate my point, let’s take “Mary had a little lamb” since everyone knows this nursery rhyme (and its a lot easier to make my point clear with a simple song like this)…

 

With this method, if you can sit at your piano and pick out the one-note melody, then you’re 30 seconds from playing it as a full-sounding song.

 

Because the chords that harmonize notes NEVER change — only the notes themselves.

 

So if there are 8 notes in a major scale (really only 7 unique notes but the octave note makes 8) — and you know the “matching” chord for each one of those notes, then you have what it takes to play full-sounding chords in place of your one-note melodies.

 

Let me explain…

 

 

 

Say, after 10 minutes at the piano, you’ve managed to learn “Mary had a little lamb” (and believe me, it’s not that hard to pick out a melody — small children do it if you leave them at the piano long enough).

 

It’s not rocket science.

 

I believe everyone has the ear to sit down and pick out a melody (especially if you know your major scales because most melodies come directly from the scales). So if a major scale has eight notes and most melodies are formed with a combination of passing tones, upper and lower neighboring tones, and chord tones, then it shouldn’t take hours to learn melodies of popular songs.

 

Passing tones…? Upper neighboring tones…?

Lower neighboring tones? Chord tones?

 

You’re probably wondering what these are.

 

I discuss these things in detail in chapter 17 of my 300-pg course, but for now, I’ll explain them briefly:

 

 

Passing Tones

 

Melodies include tones that are not a part of the chord used for the harmony. These non-chord tones are called non-harmonic tones. When a melody passes from one chord tone to a different chord tone with a non-harmonic tone (a half or whole step) between, the non-harmonic tone is called a passing tone (pg 252, “The Secrets to Playing Piano by Ear”).

 

 

What does this mean?

 

Simply put, if you were playing the beginning of “Mary had a little lamb” (E - D - C - D - E - E - E) over a Cmaj chord, the ‘D’ notes in this sequence would be passing tones because they are not a part of the C major chord (C + E + G). Notice the ‘E’ and “C’ notes are a part of the C major chord so they are not called passing tones — they are called chord tones.

 

 

 

 

Neighboring Tones

 

When a melody passes from one chord tone back to the same chord tone with a non-harmonic tone (a half or whole step) between, the non-harmonic tone is called a neighboring tone.

 

 

What does this mean?

 

Basically, passing and neighboring tones function similarly but have one minor difference — the next note. If the melody is going to a different note and just “passing by” a non-harmonic note (again… simply a note that ISN’T a part of the major chord being used with the melody), then it’s called a passing tone. As simple as that.

 

 

If the melody is moving from one chord tone to a next door neighbor tone, then immediately back to the original chord tone, the “in-between” tone is called a neighboring tone. If you don’t get this, it’s better illustrated with pictures. I strongly recommend my course if you think this is interesting and want to learn more.

 

Whether you call them upper or lowering neighboring tones depends on which way the melody is going.

 

It is an upper neighboring tone when it is above the chord tone and a lower neighboring tone when it is below the chord tone.

 

Let’s see how well you understand this:

 

________________________________________________________

 

Is this an example of a passing tone or neighboring tone?

 

Chord: C maj (C+E+G)

 

Melody: C D C

 

 

Answer: This is an example of a neighboring tone relationship because the “D” is not a part of the notes of the chord AND because the melody is going from the “D” back to the original “C” chord tone. Whenever the melody uses a note to return back to a previous chord tone, then a neighboring tone relationship exists.

 

The “D” is specifically an upper neighboring tone because it is higher than the original “C” chord tone.

 

_________________________________________________________

 

Is this an example of a passing tone or neighboring tone?

 

Chord: D min (D+F+A)

 

Melody: D E F

 

Answer: This is an example of a passing tone relationship because the E is not a part of the Dmin chord (so it’s non-harmonic) AND because the melody is moving forward to a different chord tone (”F”). For example, if the melody was D E D, then a neighboring tone relationship would have been the correct answer. However, since the “E” is used to move forward to “F”, another chord tone, this creates a passing tone relationship between the “E” and the other chord tones.

 

 

How does knowing this information help you to determine melodies?

 

For starters, it helps you to understand that melodies aren’t just randomly played notes that you have to figure out… they generally use notes that are right next to each other.

 

Let’s analyze “Mary had a little lamb” to see what I’m talking about:

 

E D C D E E E (Ma-ry had a lit-tle lamb)

 

D D D (lit-tle lamb)

 

E G G (lit-tle lamb)

 

E D C D E E E E (Ma-ry had a lit-tle lamb, her)

 

D D E D C (fleece was white as snow)

 

 

Now… ask yourself a few questions?

 

Are these notes randomly spread out or do you see patterns here?

 

Do you see a bunch of passing and neighboring tones like I do?

 

Are the notes generally right next to each other (and not more than one note a part when there is a jump like from the E to G in the third line)?

 

 

Let’s analyze another easy nursery rhyme / lullaby:

 

“Are you sleeping”

 

C D E C (Are you sleep-ing)

 

C D E C (Are you sleep-ing)

 

E F G (Bro-ther John)

 

E F G (Bro-ther John)

 

G A G F E C (Morn-ing bells are ring-ing)

 

G A G F E C (Morn-ing bells are ring-ing)

 

C G C (Ding dong ding)

 

C G C (Ding dong ding)

 

 

So how do I harmonize these melodies … already?!!!

 

I’ll cover more popular (and non-nursery rhyme) songs in the next newsletter but for now, I will introduce the “harmonization” chart. But first, here are some rules to keep in mind:

 

1. Every note in a major scale has its own harmonizing chord

 

2. Whenever a note is played, simply replace it with its harmonizing chord

 

3. When all one-note melodies have been replaced with harmonizing chords, you have a full-sounding basic song.

 

 

Let’s take the C major scale (but keep in mind that every major scale has its own harmonizing chords).

 

When melody note is:	Simply play this chord:
C	E + G + C (played all at the same time)
D	F + A + D
E	G + C + E
F	A + C + F
G	C + E + G
A	C + F + A
B	D + G + B
C	E + G + C

 

 

Do you notice anything unique about the harmonizing chords?

 

 

If you noticed that the highest note of the chord always matches the melody note, then you are absolutely correct.

 

In essence, since you are replacing a melody note with a chord, in most cases, you’ll still want to preserve the melody (… you’ll want to hear the melody clearly) so by playing these particular chords, the highest note of each chord IS ALWAYS THE MELODY.

 

(This may all seem strange because I don’t have lots of room to explain myself with pictures and illustrations. Of course, some people will grasp on right away.

 

If you’re serious about learning harmonization, visit: http://www.hearandplay.com/special?harmonycourse to check out my course.

 

 

So, all you have to do is take the melodies above and replace them with the appropriate chords. I’ll copy the melodies to “Mary had a little lamb” and “Are you sleeping” so that you can try it on your own below.

 

The answers will be in next week’s newsletter so make sure to have this completed so that we can move on from there.

 

Mary had a little lamb

 

I’ll do the first one for you.

 

E D C D E E E (Ma-ry had a lit-tle lamb)

_____________________________________

 

G+C+E (Ma)

 

F+A+D (ry)

 

E+G+C (had)

 

F+A+D (a)

 

G+C+E (lit)

 

G+C+E (tle)

 

G+C+E (lamb)

 

Notice that the original melody note is still on top! That’s the whole point of using the harmonizing chart I’ve created for you above. The song still sounds like “Mary had a little lamb”, the melody is still obvious, but with the addition of full-sounding harmony!

 

 

 

D D D (lit-tle lamb)

_____________________________________

 

________ (lit)

 

________ (tle)

 

________ (lamb)

 

 

 

E G G (lit-tle lamb)

_____________________________________

 

________ (lit)

 

________ (tle)

 

________ (lamb)

 

 

 

E D C D E E E E (Ma-ry had a lit-tle lamb, her)

______________________________________

 

________ (Ma)

 

________ (ry)

 

________ (had)

 

________ (a)

 

________ (lit)

 

________ (tle)

 

________ (lamb)

 

________ (her)

 

 

 

D D E D C (fleece was white as snow)

______________________________________

 

________ (fleece)

 

________ (was)

 

________ (white)

 

________ (as)

 

________ (snow)

 

 

If you’ve chosen the right harmonizing chords, then you should have a nice full-sounding arrangement of Mary had a little lamb above. If not, just try it again until it works.

 

 

Lastly, try taking “Are you sleeping” and do the same thing you did above. This time, I won’t provide you with a template. You’ll have to do it all on your own:

 

 

“Are you sleeping”

 

C D E C (Are you sleep-ing)

 

C D E C (Are you sleep-ing)

 

E F G (Bro-ther John)

 

E F G (Bro-ther John)

 

G A G F E C (Morn-ing bells are ring-ing)

 

G A G F E C (Morn-ing bells are ring-ing)

 

C G C (Ding dong ding)

 

C G C (Ding dong ding)

 

 

 

Look for the answers in my next newsletter.

 

 

Meanwhile…

 

You now have a formula:

 

A) Determine a melody to any song

 

B) Replace the melody notes with harmonizing chords making sure to keep the melody note as the highest tone of each chord (see chart above)

 

C) Add bass (or left hand)  — We’ll cover this in another newsletter

 

 

 

There you have it. I hope you’ve benefited from this lesson. Let me know on my message board.

 

Chords to study for future online classroom lessons:

• Major triads; see pg chapter 5 of 300pg course
• Minor triads; see pg chapter 8 of 300pg course
• Major sixth chords; see pg chapter 13 of 300pg course
• Minor sixth chords; see pg chapter 13 of 300pg course
• Seventh (dominant) chords; see pg chapter 10 of 300pg course
• Minor seventh chords; see pg chapter 10 of 300pg course
• Major ninth chords; see pg chapter 14 of 300pg course

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In this lesson, we will learn how to take a melody and form various chords to accompany it. This is a common technique used especially by musicians who work with choirs.

For example, if one composed a melody which included the i, iii, iv, vi, vii, and viii tones of a scale, harmonizing this melody would mean playing a chord to accompany every note of the melody (either one chord or a combination of chords). The above melody in C major is:

C - E - F - A - B - C

Using a few techniques (as explained in my workbook; http://www.hearandplay.com/course), you can easily find the corresponding chords to each of those notes.

To HARMONIZE a melody means to create a chord accompaniment for it. Since the I, IV & V chords contain all the notes of the major scale, many melodies in a major key can be harmonized with just these three chords.

To determine the chords to be used, analyze the melody notes. Refer to the following chart to see which chord is generally used with each melody note of a major scale. When more than one chord can be chosen, your EAR should always be the final guide.

SCALE DEGREE —————— CHORD

1 , 3 , 5 ——————– I Chord (Major Chord)
2 , 4 , 5 , 7 —————– V Chord (Dominant Chord)
1 , 4 , 6 ——————— IV Chord (Major Chord)

There is also one scale degree which can be accompanied by a minor chord

SCALE DEGREE —————— CHORD

2 —————————- ii Chord (Minor Chord)

From personal experience, here are the most common chords that I play with the following scale tones:

SCALE DEGREE —————— CHORD

1 , 3 , 5 ——————– I Chord (Major Chord)
2 —————————- ii Chord (Minor Chord)
4 , 6 ————————- IV Chord (Dominant Chord)
7 —————————– V Chord (Major Chord)

Using the above table, here is an example in C major.

“Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee”

E — E — F — G — G — F — E — D — C — C — D — E — E — D — D

With this “one-fingered” melody, I am going to show you how I can turn each and every one of the notes above into 3-fingered chords. However, if you are REALLY serious about learning this technique, you owe it to yourself to at least read about my 300-pg course as it covers several techniques to harmonize melodies. For more information on how you can receive my course at over 50% off (If you order by tomorrow), visit: http://www.hearandplay.com/special.html?offer

…. Because I prefer the melody to always be the highest tone of my accompanying chords, I use different inversions of each chords. If you do not know what inversions are, please visit: http://www.hearandplay.com/course

Notice that the first 2 notes of the melody above is E (the 3rd scale degree of the C major chord). If you look on my chart above, I most commonly associate E with the (I) Major Chord. The (I) chord in the key of C major happens to be a C major chord! So, the first two chords are C major chords in the 2nd inversion (which makes E the highest tone).

REFERENCE:
If you do not fully understand inversions, you need to check out my 300-pg course as these FUNDAMENTALS are key to your success!

Root Position: The keynote will always be the lowest note (for example, C major = C - E - G in Root position).

1st Inversion: The keynote will always be the highest note (for example, C major = E - G - C in 1st inversion). Keep in mind that the notes are the same, but they are simply arranged differently with C on top instead of the bottom.

2nd Inversion: The keynote will always be embedded in the middle. This inversion will always put the third tone on top. (for example, C major = G - C - E in 2nd inversion). Notice that the “E” is on top.

More References: http://www.hearandplay.com/course — Chapter 4-6

… … Back to the lesson … Since we want E on top, we will choose a C major chord (2nd inversion) because it is this inversion which makes E the highest tone.

By simply following this same pattern, you can figure out all of the other chords. I have already done the work for you below.

“Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee”

E — E — F — G — G — F — E — D — C — C — D — E –

E — E — F — G — G — F — E — D — C — C — D — E –
C — C — C — E — E — C — C — A — G — G — A — C –
G — G — A — C — C — A — G — F — E — E — F — G –

E — D — D (end)

E — D — D
C — A — A
G — F — F

Above, you will find each melody / harmony combination (written vertically from highest tone to lowest tone). As we studied earlier, the first two chords are inverted C major chords. The third chord is an inverted F major chord. Try to figure out the other chords … HINT: There are only 3 different types of chords (different inversions however) used in this example and I have given you two of them already!

Until next time —

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From: Ms. Joanne Richardson

Dear Mr. Griggs (HearandPlay.com),

Let me first start by saying that I cannot thank you enough for your website and how you keep in touch with me from time to time. Your online material has been a great asset to my understanding of the piano and I hope to remain a member for as long as you continue to offer such great resources.

My reason for contacting you is because I really want to take my piano playing to the next level. I’m already skilled in sight reading but I just can’t grasp on to this new “train-your-ear” concept. Let me be the first to admit that I haven’t ordered your course, but as stated above, I have taken advantage of your online resources. I wouldn’t say that I cannot play by ear at all because that is not the case. I am able to play a few chords but there are still chords
that I can’t recognize without being in front of the piano. I am also able to play one-fingered melodies by ear (but I don’t know what to do after that). What are your recommendations for me? What will your course help me to do? Does it sound like this course is for me?

I appreciate your prompt response and look forward to ordering from you very soon. Thank you and again and may God bless you.

J. Richardson

(Note: Her e-mail address has been concealed for security purposes)

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This is the e-mail that Ms. Richardson received from us . . .

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Dear Joanne,

Thank you for contacting us. Let me cut straight to the point. Playing by ear is not something that you obtain over night. Of course, some people can do this easier than others, but I strongly believe that one can literally train their ear to recognize various sounds. Think about it … you recognize songs when they are being played even before a singer utters a word don’t you? You can
feel when something negative is going to happen during a movie when the music changes to a certain sound right? Well then … how different are the things that we do on a daily basis from recognizing a major scale or a minor chord in a song?

ANSWER … There shouldn’t be a big difference. The only reason you know when a scary scene is approaching is because you’ve been conditioned to associate spooky sounds with terror. The only reason you know the “intro” to a song is because you’ve heard the song so many times. Now let’s use these two examples in the context of playing the piano…

If you simply learn to associate certain chords with certain feelings, you’d know immediately when a certain chord is being played. That is, if you knew how a diminished or minor chord sounded, you’d be able to figure out that most of the chords played during “spooky” scenes of movies are some type of inversion
or alteration of these types of chords. Why? Because minor chords sound sad. Diminished chords sound spooky. Major Chords sound happy … and the list goes on!

Joanne, if you are able to play one-fingered melodies, than I strongly believe that you can be able to soon play fully-chorded songs. It’s not a matter of difficulty — it’s a matter of familiarity. If you familiarize yourself with the different techniques, principles, and concepts, then this process will be a
breeze. How do you do this?

First, you definitely need some written material. You cannot survive online throughout your whole musical career. You need something tangible that you can refer to … something that you can write on — answer questions — complete exercises — take chapter review tests (and don’t think I’m trying to put a sales pitch on you. Simply go to Yahoo.com and type in “piano books” and you should find a nice list of websites).

However, if you are looking for a complete system — a 300-pg workbook with a CD packed with tons of software, I will not discourage you from taking a look at my product. This just may be the tool that you’ve been looking for. If you are serious about learning the piano by ear, take a look at my newest workbook, “The Secrets to Playing Piano By Ear” v1.0. http://www.hearandplay.com/course

Because you mentioned playing one-fingered melodies, I just want to give you a preview of our 4-step process to learning songs by ear. This is covered in Chapters 18 and 19 of our course.

1) Determining the Melody

This is essentially what you already know how to do. It involves sitting down and simply figuring out the one-finger melody of a song. For “Joyful, Joyful,We Adore Thee”, the melody would look like this:

E - E - F - G - G - F - E - D - C - C - D - E - E - D - D

E - E - F - G - G - F - E - D - C - C - D - E - D - C - C

Keep in mind that there are different ways to determine the melody depending on what type of song you are trying to play. This is just the beginning of what I can show you in our 300-pg course. For more information, I recommend that you visit http://www.hearandplay.com/course

2) Harmonizing the melody

Joanne, once you have determined the melody, there is a process that we teach you which will allow you to take certain notes of your melody, and create chords to accompany them. Essentially (and I can’t tell you everything in this e-mail as I can go on forever), there are three types of tones that I discuss in this section (Ch 17) of the course:

a) neighboring tones (upper and lower)
b) passing tones
c) chord tones

Neighboring and passing tones are essentially tones that help the melody move from one chord tone to another. Passing tones utilize non-harmonic notes (also discussed in Ch 17) which help the melody move from one chord tone to another while neighboring tones use non-harmonic notes to move from one chord tone back to the same chord tone. Chord tones are just what they are called —- tones
that are apart of chords.

Now, if you could take your melody and determine which tones are neighboring, passing or chord tones, then you’d be able to figuring out where to put certain chords (because not all tones in your melody require chords to accompany them).

Believe me, this process is not hard and cannot be explained solely through this e-mail. That is why I am personally inviting you to check out my course at http://www.hearandplay.com/course

3) Altering Chords

After you have determined what chords go with what tones, you can then proceed to alter certain chords to suit your situation. If you are playing gospel music, you might want to replace some of the major chords with dominant chords. If you are playing jazz music, you might want to replace major triads with major sevenths (these are just examples — there are a countless number of ways to alter chords and progressions). Again, here’s the link … it’s your decision - http://www.hearandplay.com/course

4) Listening

This is one of the most important steps to playing piano by EAR. You must be able to listen — that is, you must be able to hear irregularities (in other words, things that don’t sound right!). Maybe a chord is out of place or the melody is not being played correctly. In the real world, this could be something like a vocalist singing in a key different than what you are accompanying him/her in. YOU MUST BE ABLE TO LISTEN — For more information on our course and how we can help you to build your listening skills, visit http://www.hearandplay.com/course

Well, Joanne, I don’t want to bore you any longer. However, I do believe in taking the time to help my members. Feel free to e-mail me personally (anytime) at webmaster@hearandplay.com if you have any questions or concerns. I hope that something I’ve said has been helpful and look forward to hearing your testimonial real soon! Take Care and update me soon.

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