If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you’ve seen several lessons on “inversions.”

For those of you who don’t know, an inversion is simply a different way to play a chord.

And here’s a simple rule to remember…

The number of ways to “invert” a chord is equal to the number of notes in the chord!

Got that?

Basically, if the chord has 3 notes, there are 3 different inversions or ways to play that chord.

If the chord has 4 notes in it, there are 4 inversions for that chord.

Pretty simple.

But it doesn’t end there.

That rule just applies to inversions, not voicings. There are tons more ways to “voice” a 3-tone major chord… not just 3.

So don’t mix inversions up with voicings. A voicing is a particular representation of a chord.

Here’s the difference.

C major

Since it has 3 notes, you can invert it three different ways:

Root

First Inversion (has the 3rd degree of the chord on the bottom)

Second Inversion (has the 5th degree of the chord on the bottom)

But let’s look at other “voicings” for the chord.

See… you can double up on notes — you can leave notes out — you can rearrange notes… that’s the difference between inversions and voicings (at least the way I teach it).

C major
C on bass (not shown)

(big sound)

And if you want to get fancier and turn this regular C major triad into a C major 7, it gives you even more “voicings” to experiment with…

C on bass (not shown)

C on bass (not shown)

As you can see, there’s a lot you can do.

So remember that just because it’s written a certain way in the “textbooks” doesn’t mean you have to play it that way!

Until next time —

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Most people just classify chords by name and chord quality (major vs minor, augmented vs diminished).

But today, I want to show you another world. Here’s how to think of chords by the number of notes they contain.

This will be short and to the point.

 

Triads

Music theorists still argue over whether a chord officially starts with 2 or 3 tones played at the same time. It seems like 3 is more accepted. But for the sake of knowing, I’ll give you the name of a two-note combination at the end of this post.

But, for now, let’s start with the popular “triad.”

Any time you have a collection of three notes played together, you’re playing a triad.

Most basic chords fall under this category.

• major triad (e.g. - C major: C + E + G)
• minor triad (e.g. - C minor: C + Eb + G)
• diminished triad (e.g. - C diminished: C + Eb + Gb)
• augmented triad (e.g. - C augmented: C + E + G#)

So any time you hear, “give me a _______ triad,” that’s only asking for a 3-toned chord. Don’t give the composer or music director more than that! After all, in some arrangements, less is better.

 

Tetrads

Then next, there is what we call “tetrads.”

These are chords using four notes. Seventh chords are essentially tetrads.

• major seventh (e.g. - C major 7: C + E + G + B)
• minor seventh (e.g. - C minor 7: C + Eb + G + Bb)
• diminished seventh (e.g. - C diminished 7: C + Eb + Gb + Bbb)
• augmented seventh (e.g. - C augmented 7: C + E + G# + Bb)

 

Pentads

Chords using five notes are called “pentads.” Yes, that sounds like the pentatonic scale from this lesson (5-tone scale).

(In fact, there’s such a thing as tritonic and tetratonic scales too! But let’s save that for another lesson.)

Ninths are a form of pentads.

For example, C major 9 is C + E + G + B + D. Five notes!

Again, it’s just a general term for a chord with 5 notes.

Hexads and Heptads

And lastly, “hexads” and “heptads” are the names given to 6 and 7-toned chords, respectively.

An example of a hexad is an eleventh chord and an example of a heptad is a thirteenth chord.

 

Other classifications

I also promised to give you the name of a 2-toned combination, even though its merit as a chord is questionable…

We call those “dyads.” Others choose to just reference them as “intervals.” Power chords and tritones fall under this category.

And for extra credit, a “monad” is a single note. The “chromatic scale” comes to mind, which is basically composed of twelve monads.

So there you have it! A really fact-filled, reference post for today!

So if you ever hear me referencing any of these, you should now know what they mean!

Until next time —

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For the last week or so, we’ve gotten deeper and deeper into minor scales.

From the natural minor scale to the harmonic and melodic minor scales, we’ve covered a lot.

We even delved into the corresponding chords that come from these scales (I’ll continue with the triads and sevenths of the melodic minor shortly).

Today, though, I want to slow down and go the other direction.

I wanna talk to my straight beginners in this post! I want to give you guys some hope that if you know just two chords, you can actually sit around the piano or keyboard and have fun with your kids.

And if you don’t know already, those two chords are the 1-chord and the 5-chord.

Let me briefly explain…

Every major key can be looked at using numbers.

For example, the C major scale:

C D E F G A B C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

(For my newbies… these are played separately, one after the other.)

But the scale has a ton of other usages.

And I’ll help you to understand one of them today.

See those numbers?

If you take the 1st, 4th, and 5th tones out of this scale, you’d get:

C F G
1 4 5

And what we do is play major chords on each of these tones:

C major = C + E + G
F major = F + A + C
G major = G + B + D

(For my new readers, when you see me using the plus + sign to connect notes, that means to play them all together. Just my own way of breaking up each note of a chord. So the “C + E + G” would mean to sound all three of those notes at the same time, creating a C major chord. If you don’t know your major chords, click here).

Moving on…

These are what we call “primary chords.”

These chords will appear the most in your songs. In fact, most songs could be written with JUST these chords.

Composers use other tones of the scale to make the music more interesting. For example, I could have a progression that just goes from C major to G major and that would be fine. But if I wanted to add more variety, I’d employ maybe the 2nd tone of the scale to push me to the G major chord (…but that’s another lesson).

Now, primary chords are in every key. Just take the 1st, 4th, and 5th tones of any major scale and there you have it, the primary chords of that key.

So you’ve got three chords and they’re found in just about every song.

Let’s explore them:

The 1-chord

The 1-chord is basically the same as the title of your major scale and key signature. If you’re in the key of C, obviously the first tone of the scale is C — therefore, the first chord is C major (since primary triads are major chords). This chord is most likely to begin your songs. It’s also most likely to end your songs. Even in the middle of songs when they tend to go back to the beginning (like the second half of “Mary Had a Little Lamb”), 1-chords are used. So when you feel like the song is at a permanent “home base” or even a temporary one (as in the middle of the song), most likely, you’re looking for the 1-chord… in this case, C major.

The 4-chord

The 4-chord usually comes right after the 1-chord. The 1-chord finds itself always progressing to the 4-chord. It doesn’t happen all the time (of course) but it’s pretty frequent. And like I said above, if the composer doesn’t choose to go directly from the 1-chord (C major) to the 4-chord (F major), she’s probably using other tones of the scale that will eventually lead to the 4-chord.

An example of this is in the beginning of “Amazing Grace.”

“A-ma-zing grace how”
C major ~~~~~~~
(C + E + G)

“Sweet the”
F major ~~
(F + A + C)

“Sound.”
C major ~
(C + E + G)

“That saved a wretch like”
C major ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(C + E + G)

“Me”
_______________

(What chord might you guess here?)

You see how that works? We basically played the whole beginning part of Amazing grace with just the 1 and 4-chords. And where I left you off, the 5-chord would have come next…

The 5-chord

The 5-chord tends to come in the middle of the song or verse. It’s that thing that connects you back to the 1-chord. But if you think about it, the 1-chord usually comes in the beginning of a song or at the end of the song (or in the middle of the song when it appears to have start all over). So, if that’s the case, the 5-chord is that feeling that tells you the song is about to end or about to go back to the beginning.

Don’t you feel that in the middle of Amazing Grace?

“A-ma-zing grace how”
C major ~~~~~~~
(C + E + G)

“Sweet the”
F major ~~
(F + A + C)

“Sound.”
C major ~
(C + E + G)

“That saved a wretch like”
C major ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(C + E + G)

“Me”
G major ~~~
(G + B + D)

When you sing “me,” that is the the middle area I’m talking about. That is the part that lets you know something is about to repeat.

That is where the 5-chord is best used. Of course at the end of songs too.

But you know what?

Most songs you can play with just the 1 and 5 chords. Here’s an example:

“Mary Had A Little Lamb”

“Ma-ry had a lit-tle lamb”
C major ~~~~~~~~
(C+E+G)

“Lit-tle lamb”
G major ~~~~~~~~
(G+B+D)

“Lit-tle lamb”
C major
(C+E+G)

“Ma-ry had a lit-tle lamb, her”
C major ~~~~~~~~
(C+E+G)

“Fleece was white as”
G major ~~~~~~~~
(G+B+D)

“Snow”
C major
(C+E+G)

“The Wheels On The Bus”

“The”
G major (either you can play a G major here or you can play no chord here and come in on “wheels”).

“Wheels on the bus go round and round”
C major ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Round and round”
G major ~~~~

“Round and round. The”
C major ~~~~
(note: you can play a Gmaj chord on “the” if you want or you can leave it alone)

“Wheels on the bus go round and round”
C major ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“All through the”
G major ~~~

“Town”
C major

Until next time!

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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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