How to Harmonize Chords to Melody

By Lawrence A. Buckler

Any musician who composes or transcribes music or who plays accompaniment to a soloist will have a need to know what the chords are for the accompaniment. There are also occasions when the published chords to a piece are in error, and there is a need to know how to recognize and correct them.

Simply put, the process of harmonizing chords to melody is all about identifying chord tones and intervals in a melody and determining the chords they imply.

The decision to survey the literature on harmonizing chords was made because no single textbook on harmony could be found that extensively treated the subject. Of the scores of textbooks referenced herein, each one would touch upon or tell only part of the story. What was obviously needed was a book that gathered all the relevant materials in one place and outlined a practical procedure for harmonizing a melody. This document attempts to do this.

The word harmonization as used here refers to the process of finding appropriate chords to accompany a melody. Hence, when we harmonize a melody, we create a chord accompaniment for it. The most beautiful melody may be ruined by a poor and inappropriate chord accompaniment, or a poor melody can be made interesting by an apt chord accompaniment.

The intended purpose of this work is to provide suitable accompaniment chords only to a given melody in lead sheet format. The piece could then be performed by musicians playing the melody and chords together. This could be done either by two musicians, a soloist, and an accompanist or by a keyboard player who would play both melody and chords. It is not intended that a harmonizing bass line or other harmonizing voices be added to the given melody.

It is also a primary purpose of this work to enable the transformation of raw melody into diatonic music by harmonizing only diatonic chords to it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 28, 2012
• ISBN: 9781469142029

Book preview

Copyright © 2012 by Lawrence A. Buckler.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011963197

ISBN: Hardcover 978-1-4691-4201-2

Softcover 978-1-4691-4200-5

Ebook 978-1-4691-4202-9

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

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Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Prerequisites

Chapter 1  Fundamentals

1.1 Major Scale

1.2 Minor Scale

1.3 Intervals

1.4 Chords

1.5 Chords in a Key

1.6 Chords in Inversion

1.7 Seventh Chords

1.8 Primary and Secondary Chords in a Key

1.9 Consonance and Dissonance

1.10 The Beat

1.11 Cadences, Phrases, and Periods

1.12 The Double Period

1.13 Phrasing a Melody

1.14 Diminished Chords

1.15 Nonharmonic Tones

1.16 Determining the Key

1.17 The Role of Accidentals in a Melody

Chapter 2

  The Vertical Aspect of Harmonization

2.1 What Is Meant by the Vertical Aspect of Harmonization

2.2 Basic Notes of a Melody

2.3 Basic Intervals of a Melody

2.4 Chords Outlined in the Melody

Chapter 3

  The Horizontal Aspect of Harmonization

3.1 What Is Meant by the Horizontal Aspect of Harmonization

3.2 Common Chord Progressions

3.3 Scale Harmonizations

3.4 Chord Root Movement

3.5 Harmonic Rhythm

3.6 Harmonic Tonality

3.7 The Sequence

Chapter 4

  Harmonization Embellishments

4.1 The Semitone Clash

4.2 Precadential Chords

4.3 Secondary Dominant Alterations

4.4 Chord Substitution / Other Chord Alterations

Chapter 5

  Elementary Modulation

5.1 What Is Meant by Modulation

5.2 Keys of Close Relationship

5.3 Pivot Chords

5.4 Modulating Tones and Modulating Chords

5.5 Direct Modulation

5.6 Pivot Modulation

5.7 Modulation by Sequence

5.8 Most Common Modulations

5.9 Recognition of a Modulating Melody

5.10 Recognition of the Pivot Chord and its Location

5.11 Harmonization of Modulating Melodies

Chapter 6

  Harmonization Summary

6.1 Harmonization Overview

6.2 To Slash or not to Slash—The Harmonizer vs. the Improvisor

6.3 Review of Harmonization Tools for the Vertical Aspect

6.4 Review of Harmonization Tools for the Horizontal Aspect

6.5 Preparation for Harmonization

6.6 Harmonization Procedure

Chapter 7

  Harmonization Example

7.1 Choice of Tune to Harmonize

7.2 Steps 1 and 2 of Section 6.6

7.3 Steps 3 and 4 of Section 6.6

7.4 Anacrustic Phrasing: To Harmonize or Not to Harmonize the Upbeat

7.5 Steps 5 and 6 of Section 6.6

7.6 Steps 7 to 9 of Section 6.6

7.7 Steps 10 to 13 of Section 6.6

7.8 Concluding Steps 14 and 15 of Section 6.6

Chapter 8

  Harmonization Materials, Major Keys

Chart 8-1: Summary of Scale/Chord Relationships, Major Keys

Chart 8-2(a) : Cadences in Major keys (Perfect and Imperfect Authentic, and Half)

Chart 8-2(b): Cadences in Major Keys (Plagal Perfect, Imperfect and Half, and Deceptive)

Chart 8-3: Chords Implied from Basic Intervals, Major Keys

Chart 8-4: Scale Degree of Melody Notes, Major Keys

Chart 8-5: Chord Outlines, Major Keys

Chart 8-6: Common Progressions in Major Keys

Chart 8-7: Major Scale Harmonization

Chart 8-8: Root Movement Strengths, Major Keys

Chart 8-9: Common Harmonic Sequence Progressions,

Major Keys

Chart 8-10: Common Precadential Chords, Major Keys

Chart 8-11: Secondary Dominant Progressions/Tonicizations, Major Keys

Chart 8-12: Common Substitute Chords in Major Keys

Chart 8-13: Keys of Close Relationship to Some Major Keys

Chart 8-14: Pivot Chords, Modulating Tones and Chords for Modulating from Major to Closely Related Keys: Illustrated for Home Key of I = C Major

Chart 8-15: Modulation from Major to Closely Related Keys—Approach by Step from above to the New Tonic

Chapter 9

  Harmonization Materials, Minor Keys

Chart 9-1: Summary of Scale / Chord Relationships,

Minor Keys

Chart 9-2(a): Cadences in Minor Keys (Perfect and Imperfect Authentic, and Half)

Chart 9-2(b): Cadences in Minor Keys (Plagal Perfect, Imperfect and Half, and Deceptive)

Chart 9-3: Chords Implied from Basic Intervals,

Minor Keys

Chart 9-4: Scale Degree of Melody Notes, Minor Keys

Chart 9-5: Chord Outlines, Minor Keys

Chart 9-6: Common Progressions in Minor Keys

Chart 9-7: Minor Scale Harmonization

Chart 9-8: Root Movement Strengths, Minor Keys

Chart 9-9: Common Harmonic Sequence Progressions,

Minor Keys

Chart 9-10: Common Precadential Chords, Minor Keys

Chart 9-11: Secondary Dominant Progressions / Tonicizations, Minor Keys

Chart 9-12: Common Substitute Chords in Minor Keys

Chart 9-13: Keys of Close Relationship to Some Minor Keys

Chart 9-14: Pivot Chords, Modulating Tones and Chords, for Modulating from Minor to Closely Related Keys: Illustrated for Home Key of i = A Minor

References

Acknowledgments

None of the basic principles of music outlined in this document were originated by the author. All detailed music principles and laws of harmony presented and applied herein were selected from the works of the many referenced authors. Readers seeking more details on these principles are advised to consult the cited references. The importance of these referenced works is hereby duly acknowledged. Many thanks to each and every author whose valuable works on harmonizing melody have enabled this music literature survey to take place.

Lawrence A. Buckler,

Dartmouth, Nova Scotia,

Canada B2W 2H1

January 1, 2012.

Introduction

Any musician who composes or transcribes music or who plays accompaniment to a soloist will have a need to know what the chords are for the accompaniment. There are also occasions when the published chords to a piece are in error, and there is a need to know how to recognize and correct them.

Simply put, the process of harmonizing chords to melody is all about identifying chord tones and intervals in a melody and determining the chords they imply.

The decision to survey the literature on harmonizing chords was made because no single textbook on harmony could be found that extensively treated the subject. Of the scores of textbooks referenced herein, each one would touch upon or tell only part of the story. What was obviously needed was a book that gathered all the relevant materials in one place and outlined a practical procedure for harmonizing a melody. This document attempts to do this.

The word harmonization as used here refers to the process of finding appropriate chords to accompany a melody. Hence, when we harmonize a melody, we create a chord accompaniment for it. The most beautiful melody may be ruined by a poor and inappropriate chord accompaniment, or a poor melody can be made interesting by an apt chord accompaniment [1, p50].

The intended purpose of this work is to provide suitable accompaniment chords only to a given melody in lead sheet format. The piece could then be performed by musicians playing the melody and chords together. This could be done either by two musicians, a soloist, and an accompanist or by a keyboard player who would play both melody and chords. It is not intended that a harmonizing bass line or other harmonizing voices be added to the given melody.

It is also a primary purpose of this work to enable the transformation of raw melody into diatonic music by harmonizing only diatonic chords to it. That is, all harmonizing chords would belong to the key in which the passage is written. The introduction of chromatic or altered chords is only considered as a secondary function to accommodate accidentals in the melody or to add variety or interest.

A lead sheet provides just the melody and the symbols for the accompanying chords. It does not describe chord voicings, voice leading, bass line, or other aspects of the accompaniment. These are improvised by the accompanist.

It is the single function of the harmonizer to take a raw melody and harmonize chords to it, forming a lead sheet. It is not the function of the harmonizer to dictate every last detail about how the piece of music is to be played. The actual playing of the lead sheet with full accompaniment is meant to be improvised or stylized by the performers. Therefore, in this document, all harmonized chords will be shown in root position with the understanding that the accompanist is free to improvise or invert these chords any way that sounds good.

The information for this document was obtained primarily from books on harmony used in universities since 1900. The surveyed material is extensively referenced throughout so that the reader can go directly to any of the references to learn more or to check the validity of the information. It is addressed to the musician who must rely on the harmonic structure of the melody to determine the chords rather than on his ear.

Two important aims in the harmonization of chords to melody are the following :

• The ability to choose effective chords implied by the melody, and

• The ability to connect these chords into progressions which will make the melody sound musical and performable.

Both these skills are required simultaneously when setting harmonizations to existing melodies. But first, it is desirable to learn each skill separately, putting them together only after each technique is satisfactorily established.

The intention is to provide an abundance of guides, rules, charts, etc., that can be used in the harmonization process so that a suitable chord progression can be found for a given melody, whether you play a chording instrument or not.

The harmonization procedure that will be outlined is intended for application to simple style music such as found in folk tunes, traditional or popular music or instrumental melodies. A chapter on elementary modulation is included.

Only diatonic chords are considered in the initial harmonization process where chords larger than seventh chords are neglected. In the latter stages of a harmonization, consideration is given to the use of chord substitutions or the introduction of altered chords including secondary dominants for the sake of added interest.

The procedure outlined should be applicable to melodies that contain any of the diatonic primary or secondary chords of a key. An attempt is made to provide sufficient material that harmonizations can be made to melodies in either major or minor keys.

The process of finding suitable chords to accompany a melody can be mystifying, to say the least, particularly if you are a singer or you play an instrument intended primarily for melody, such as a violin. Generally, no single unique solution exists for chord structure to a given piece of music. A thorough analysis will yield several equally valid solutions [2, p171]. It is characteristic of the nature of music that any melody is capable of suggesting more than one choice of chords [3, p71]. However, if the steps outlined herein are followed, a satisfactory harmonization will usually result. After a melody has been analyzed from theory, it should be played with accompaniment to hear the musical result and to choose among chords that may be equally correct from the theoretical point of view. The final result will be the one you feel is the most effective musically.

Prerequisites

The assumption is made that the reader will have some fundamental knowledge of the basic theory of music. It would be helpful if the reader’s skills included the following:

• A knowledge of key signatures.

• Ability to identify notes by letter name and scale degree number for a given key on the treble clef.

• Ability to spell all the regular major, minor, diminished, and augmented triads as well as seventh chords.

• Ability to calculate and recognize all the intervals of an octave or less.

• Ability to convert back and forth between roman numeral symbols for chords and their letter names for a given key.

• A knowledge of the major and melodic minor scales, both ascending and descending, and how chords are formed on each step of these scales.

Some of these topics are reviewed or summarized herein to facilitate understanding of the harmonization process.

Chapter 1

Fundamentals

1.1 Major Scale

A scale is a series of pitches using, in order, the seven letter names of the musical alphabet, beginning on any one letter. In figure 1.1, in the key of C major, we have:

Fig. 1.1 Major Scale—C Major

mock-up.pdf

* A semitone is the smallest intervallic unit used in western music. It is the interval found on the piano keyboard between any two adjacent keys [4, p3]. An interval of two semitones is often called a step and one semitone a half step.

Arabic numerals 1, 2, 3, etc., are used to indicate scale step or degree. Note that only one semitone exists between scale steps 3 and 4 and between steps 7 and 8. All other adjacent scale steps have the interval of two semitones or one step between them. This relationship between scale step and step size remains the same for all major keys.

The name of each scale step or degree, in a major scale, is given in figure 1.2.

Fig. 1.2 Scale Degree Names, Major Scale

Scale Degree Scale Degree Name

1 Tonic

2 Supertonic

3 Mediant

4 Subdominant

5 Dominant

6 Submediant

7 Leading tone

1.2 Minor Scale

There are three forms of the minor scale. They are the pure or natural minor scale, the harmonic minor scale, and the melodic minor scale.

In elementary chord harmonization work, texts on harmony recommend use of the harmonic minor scale [5, p7], [6, p22]. However, the melodic minor scale is more generally applicable because it includes many of the characteristics of the pure and harmonic minor scales and offers a wider selection of chords from which to choose [7, p18], [8, p22+].

The melodic form of the minor scale is considered merely an altered form of the harmonic minor scale, which is used in order to avoid the awkward interval of the augmented second (three semitones) between the sixth and seventh scale steps of the harmonic minor scale [9, p38+].

Melody from harmonic and melodic minor scales is often found intermingled, sometimes even in the same phrase. Harmonic and melodic minor are not two different scales, but two different pathways through the upper tetra-chord in minor. The pure or natural minor scale may also be intermingled with harmonic and melodic minor in a melody [2, p335].

For these reasons, we shall choose the melodic minor scale and the chords derived from it as the basis for harmonizing chords to melody in the minor mode. In addition, we shall drop the words pure or natural, harmonic or melodic when referring to keys or melody in the minor mode. It will be understood, however, that chords will be chosen from the melodic minor scale during the melody harmonization process.

The melodic minor scale, both ascending and descending, is shown in figure 1.3, using the key of A minor to illustrate the scale.

Fig. 1.3 Melodic Minor Scale—A Minor

mock-up.pdf

In figure 1.3, scale degrees #6 and #7 refer to scale degrees 6 and 7 that are raised a semitone above their key signature values. Note that both the sixth and seventh scale degrees are raised in the ascending form of the scale. This avoids the awkward interval of an augmented second (three semitones), found in the harmonic minor scale, where only the seventh scale degree is raised.

In the descending form of the melodic minor scale, the sixth and seventh scale degrees are not raised. Again, the relationship between scale degree and step size shown here, both ascending and descending, remains the same for all minor keys.

The name of each scale step or degree, in the melodic minor scale, is given in figure 1.4.

Fig. 1.4 Scale Degree Names, Melodic Minor Scale

Scale Degree Scale Degree Name

1 Tonic

2 Supertonic

3 Mediant

4 Subdominant

5 Dominant

6 Submediant

#6 Raised submediant

7 Subtonic

#7 Leading tone

where #6 and #7 are scale degrees 6 and 7 raised a semitone above their key signature values.

1.3 Intervals

Two notes sounding together, either simultaneously or in close succession, is generally referred to