HearandPlay.com Weekly Newsletter --- July 25, 2005
http://www.Hearandplay.com
Serving 193,631 Musicians
Worldwide!
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Contents:
I. Welcome
II. Announcements
III. Online Classroom:
"How to Harmonize Melodies to Create Full-Sounding Songs"
Part 2
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Dear Member,
Welcome to this week's
newsletter on harmonizing melodies. As promised, this is the second half of
the lesson I started last week. If you haven't read it, feel free to visit
https://www.hearandplay.com/newsletters to catch up!
I have to be honest with
you...
At first, I didn't know
what to expect when I finally announced my plans for a weekly newsletter.
"Perhaps, some would get tired of hearing from me every week," I thought at
times.
...But to my surprise, the
idea of weekly newsletters was welcomed with opened arms. Immediately, I received
hundreds of thank you e-mails and
message board posts stating how
great new and fresh weekly content is going to be.
So welcome to week two's
newsletter!
If you've read last week's
newsletter already, then you know the basics of harmonizing a melody.
We've covered:
-
The difference between
harmonization of melodies and
accompaniment of melodies.
-
Passing tones,
neighboring tones (upper and lower), and chord tones and how they apply to
determining melodies.
-
Harmonization chart:
Simple triad chords that harmonize each tone of any given major scale.
-
The 3-step formula to
playing basic songs (determine melody, replace melody notes with harmonizing
chords, add bass).
Now, it's time to take it
a step further.
Enjoy!
"The
Secrets to Playing Piano By Ear"
300pg Course - Learn the secrets to playing literally any song
on the piano with a few simple, "easy-to-understand" techniques and
principles! Join Jermaine Griggs in learning tons of music theory,
concepts, and tricks that will help you to learn piano by ear! Thousands
of musicians have already taken advantage of this excellent program ...
why not you?
"The Secrets to Playing Piano By Ear" is
full of easy-to-understand tricks, tips, techniques and secrets to playing
piano by ear! For this month only, I've also been able to throw in a few
bonus items (3 additional piano software programs).
Click here to learn the secrets to playing absolutely any song on the
piano in virtually minutes! You won't regret it!
GospelKeys101.com - The
GospelKeysTM 101 Series video course will teach you
everything you need to know to get started playing
basic hymns and congregational songs. I will show you,
step-by-step, how to
harmonize every single tone of the major scale. AND
since songs are based on melodies (and melodies are based on major
scales), you'll be able to harmonize MOST songs.
Click here to visit www.GospelKeys101.com ...
Click image above for short video clip. (low / medium quality for
fast loading) |
|
2004/05 Newsletter Archive Available at
https://www.hearandplay.com/newsletters
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Online
Classroom:
"How to Harmonize Melodies to Create Full-Sounding Songs"
Part Two
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: You might want to
print this lesson out for easier
reading...
(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:
Well, I hope you enjoyed this week's newsletter and
I'll be back soon! Practice hard until then!
This
concludes this week's Online Classroom Lesson
If you were intrigued by
the online classroom lesson above,
then you would definitely
benefit from my
course!
Enjoy this edition? Visit
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NEWSLETTER TO YOUR ENTIRE E-MAIL ADDRESS BOOK.
Yours Truly,
Jermaine Griggs
www.HearandPlay.com
www.GospelKeys.com
Newsletter Archive -
Click here or visit
https://www.hearandplay.com/newsletters.html
Further References
"The Secrets to Playing
Piano By Ear" 300-pg Course
[5] Chords
&
Progressions:
pgs 65-78, 105-130, 147-165, 182-227.
Do you know what a
“2-5-1” or "3-6-2-5-1"
progression is? Or perhaps the famous
12-bar blues chord
progression? In
this piano course, you will not only learn how to play gospel, blues,
and
jazz progressions, but how to recognize them in songs. In addition, you
will learn the simple techniques to playing these progressions, hymns, and
songs in all 12 major
keys! ... Enjoy learning:
The famous "2-5-1" Chord Progression:
pgs 114-120, 153-156, 208,
235-236.
I - IV - I - V - I Chord Progressions:
pgs 66-70.
I - IV - V - IV - I Chord Progressions:
pgs 77-78.
Techniques behind the famous "5-->1" progression:
pgs 68-72.
I --> IV, I --> V Chord Progressions:
pgs 74-75.
"Circle of Fifths" Chord Exercises:
pg 78.
Major and Minor Chord Progressions:
pgs 105-130.
"6 - 2 - 5 - 1" Chord Progressions:
pgs 121-122, 157-159.
"3 - 6 - 2 - 5 - 1" Chord Progressions:
pgs 122-123, 160-162.
"7 - 3 - 6 - 2 - 5 - 1" Chord Progressions:
pgs 124-125, 190-191.
Gospel Chord Progressions ... ranging from "up-tempo praise"
chord Progressions to "worship-oriented" chord progressions:
pgs
65-78, 105-130, 147-165, 182-227.
Various Blues Progressions ... 12-bar, seventh chords, diminished
chords ... and others: pgs 163-165, 192.
Jazz Chord Progressions ... using dominant ninth, eleventh and
thirteenth chords: pgs 193-240
Study the different types of Root Progressions --- closing,
opening, circular and other types of progressions:
pgs 121-122.
Study how chord tones and scale degrees relate to each other [which
chord progressions are most likely to be compatible]:
pgs 122-130.
Learn various "turn-around" progressions [used in gospel music]:
pg 213-214.
If you don't have the
300-pg Course,
click here to read
more about it.
|
"The
Secrets to Playing Piano By Ear"
300pg Course - Learn the secrets to playing literally any song
on the piano with a few simple, "easy-to-understand" techniques and
principles! Join Jermaine Griggs in learning tons of music theory,
concepts, and tricks that will help you to learn piano by ear! Thousands
of musicians have already taken advantage of this excellent program ...
why not you?
"The Secrets to Playing Piano By Ear" is
full of easy-to-understand tricks, tips, techniques and secrets to playing
piano by ear! For this month only, I've also been able to throw in a few
bonus items (3 additional piano software programs).
Click here to learn the secrets to playing absolutely any song on the
piano in virtually minutes! You won't regret it! |
Newsletter Archive -
Click here or visit
https://www.hearandplay.com/newsletters.html
|