[koide]

I've always been a melodic instrument player and have never had formal theory training - I'm trying to play the piano and I can't figure out how to harmonize (is this the right term?) a melody, this is, how to find or decide which chords go naturally with a specific melodic line. I know there are many alternatives and that the music sheets usually have the matching chords.

I want to write my own and I struggle to find proper chords to melodic lines. Can anyone recommend resources to learn this (and tell me if harmonization is the proper term)?

[asimpletune]

Well you’re in luck because I am going to tell you.

1. Identify what key you’re in (I.e what scale you want to use to build the harmonies from) 2. Start with the note you’re looking to harmonize, and play that note and every other note from the scale in step 1. 3. Do some final touch up work:

eg the chord you made in step 2, should probably be inverted to space the notes out more

eg playing a chord for “every” note in your melody will be too much. So choose the chords that work best over all, but you can always add chords back in as passing chords

eg once you’ve plaid the first three notes of the harmonization (root, third, fifth) you can be more liberal with the next notes and leave the pattern I described. So for example you can flatten/sharpen the next note in the sequence, or even play an entirely different note. Having the first 3 notes will ground the chord strong enough harmonically to let you do whatever you want with the rest and still retain the character of the chord. This helps you create more interesting and tense sounds and also let’s you harmonize notes in less traditional ways than before.

I typed this on my phone but I hope that helps. Last thing is just try harmonization of the c major scale. It will sound like you’re playing the scale with “chords”. Then try harmonizing Mary had a little lamb and so on. You can basically play anything by ear once you get a hang of this.

[interpenetrate]

I can't recommend any particular resources, but yes it's called harmonization and I'm sure you can get started by searching "how to harmonize a melody." YouTube has a billion videos on this sort of thing. You may also find it fun to play around with reharmonization, which is where you take an existing tune and find a new harmonization to match its melody.

[zozbot234]

> I'm trying to play the piano and I can't figure out how to harmonize (is this the right term?) a melody, this is, how to find or decide which chords go naturally with a specific melodic line

This is a challenging task, almost as hard as composition itself! It's easier if you have a matching baseline to go with the melody, since there are often idiomatic chords that can be played with a given bass note. (Such as the famous "rule of the octave", that has you playing root-position chords on the tonic and dominant, and first inversion chords (i.e. harmonizing with thirds and sixths over the bass) in all other scale degrees.)

Of course you could improvise a baseline for your melody and then harmonize that, but this requires a lot of familiarity with the rules of counterpoint.

[malingo]

Harmonization is the proper term. For a simple set of harmonization rules, check out https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four-part_harmony Old hymnals are a wealth of examples. Take a listen to this guy's YouTube channel: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC6BRCej5GRFLlovfZrNswqw

[dragonwriter]

> Can anyone recommend resources to learn this (and tell me if harmonization is the proper term)?

Harmonization is the right word.

http://openmusictheory.com/

(But, as the name suggests, it's not a shortcut rules-of-thumb bypassing the theory kind of resource.)

[parenthesis]

Take some existing simple melodies that you know (like nursery rhymes and hymn tunes) and try to work out by ear what the chords are. They are probably all chords I, IV, V, and maybe VI of the key. For example, in C major: I is C major, IV is F major, V is G major (often with an added 7th), VI is A minor.

When you think you've got it right, look up the `official' chords in a book or online (be careful online, I've found some hilariously wrong chords for pop songs).

Developing your ear is the most important thing. `Rules' for harmony just summarise what many people have thought sounds good. Theory also provides a language for talking about what the music is doing (whether or not the music is conventional).

Work the other way around too: take a chord progression (whether from an existing song, or of your own creation), and improvise singing a melody over the top. The singing is important because it forces you to just use the natural notes that come into your head against each chord.

Also, investigate different notes against a given chord. While just keeping on playing the same chord, taking each of the twelve chromatic notes in turn, play it over the chord: does it sound `resolved' or `normal', or `unresolved' / `weird' / `tense', if the latter try using it in a melodic phrase between two `normal' sounding notes.

The chord for a given bit of melody often contains most or all of the melody notes. It often contains all of the stronger notes in the melody. A melody note can be `stronger' by being on a strong beat, by lasting longer, by being first or last in a phrase, etc.

Although, in a given key, every chord contains all the notes of the scale. For example, in C major, chord I fully extended is: C (root), E (major third), G (perfect fifth), B (major seventh), D (major ninth), F (perfect eleventh), A (major thirteenth). But that's all the notes of the scale, just organised in a particular way (in scale-wise thirds, starting on C). So any bit of a C major melody contains `only' notes from a (fully extended) C major chord. (Fully extending the C major chord in another key which contains it will give different extended notes, for example, in G major, the C major chord is chord IV and will have F# as the (augmented or sharp) eleventh.)

But each note of the scale has a different `sound' or `meaning' in the context of a given chord. A melody using Cs, Es and Gs over a C major chord will sound `grounded' and `normal'. A melody using Ds, Fs and As over a C major chord will sound `jazzy' or `floaty'. A melody using Cs, Es and Gs over a Bb major chord will sound `jazzy' or `floaty. A melody using Ds, Fs and As over a D minor chord will sound `grounded' and 'normal'.

But you can't look at each part of the melody and a chord for it in isolation. You probably want the chord progression on its own to have some sense to it: to feel like its going somewhere, telling a story, sometimes unsurprising, sometimes surprising.

Different styles of music harmonise their melodies in different ways. A hymn tune, versus a jazz bebop tune, versus a Joni Mitchell song. Within the same style, different harmonisations are possible. E.g. here is Chick Corea reharmonising his own Spain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsQRFgU2fz4 .