• The first step to playing songs by ear

    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 […]

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    The third and fourth steps to playing a song

    Step Three & Four: Altering Chords and Listening for Final Changes Depending on the style of music you are trying to produce, step three will allow you to alter the harmonizing chords used in step two. To "alter" a chord simply means to modify it. There are several ways to alter a chord: You can […]

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    The second step to playing songs by ear

    Step Two: Harmonizing the Melody Step two is a continuation of the first step. Once you have determined the melody, you must NOW find the right chords to accompany your melody. For example, if your melody was C – D – E – F – G, you’d need chords to accompany "C", "D", "E", "F" […]

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    How to Harmonize Melodies to Create Full-Sounding Songs Part 2

    (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 […]

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    How to Harmonize Melodies to Create Full-Sounding Songs Part 1

    (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 […]

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    Harmonizing Melodies

    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…

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    Conversation With Students #3 (Melody & Harmony)

    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 […]

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