harmonizing melodies

Harmonizing melodies is a fascinating and potentially limitless process for the creators of really any of the styles of American music. The only real limitations in how we choose to harmonically support a melodic line is perhaps more based more in style than anything else. And given that the various musical styles are being continuously reinvented as new players emerge, even these "stylistic limitations" become rather transparent. Suffice to say again that perhaps we are only limited by our own imaginations. Thinking major tonality, the simplest harmonization of the major scale could very well be as follows. Example 1.

Sound familiar? Simply running a major scale in 3rd's. Early English composers were among the first to dig this sound, in some cases predating the emergence of equal temper. Chords are built in 3rd's right? Exactly. So, just pairing up each pitch of the major scale with it's diatonic 3rd? Yep. Sounds cool eh? Ideas in 3rd's are very common. Does harmonizing melodies mean creating chords for the pitches of a melody? Would reharmonization be using a different chord or two from the original chords chosen? Yep and yep.

So why would we want to harmonize a melody? Well, over the last 500 years or so the harmony chosen to support a melody is an integral part of creating a particular musical style. We could perhaps extend this thought to an "era of time", such as the Ragtime era of American jass, where certain chord colors and chord progressions were new and innovative for that time period, thus perhaps becoming a part of popular songs, eventually as the years go by becoming a trait or character of a particular period, within the evolution of a style.

So why would we want to reharmonize a melody? Well for a number of reasons. Reharmonization allows for variety in the harmony. Helps to reinterpret and evolve a song written in one style into another. Allows the creative artist a larger palette of colors when balancing the tension / release dynamic of their music. And over a period of years of artistic exploration, reharmonizing melodies can become a great source of joy and an integral component of one's artistic signature.

Harmonizing melodies basically involves finding a chord to support a given pitch or melody note within a tonal environment. The chord can be diatonic to the key of the music or non-diatonic, i.e., pitches or chords borrowed from another key. The harmonizing chord can be further developed by adding color tones. These color tones are also diatonically generated or borrowed from other keys, creating the non-diatonic color tones. To these pitch possibilities, we can further expand our resource by creating various inversions of the chords and by using various voicings, usually come up with a few reharmonizations regardless of style. If there ever was a mix and match situation based on personal preference in the theory of American music, then this harmonizing of melodies is surely one of them.

Let's create a popular holiday melody from the pitches of the C major scale to begin the process of harmonizing a melodic line. Example 1a.

Sound familiar? Cool, it's been around for a while, Lowell Mason's "Joy To The World." Perhaps the most basic of harmonization's is created by simply harmonizing the pitches of the major scale with 3rd's, as done above. Here we harmonize our melody in "block" like fashion using diatonic 3rd's. When each of the melody pitches gets a chord, Example 1a.

Perhaps the most basic of triadic harmonization's is created by simply harmonizing the pitches of the major scale withsome of the diatonic triads created from this group of pitches. American folk, country and lot's of rock music use this type of triadic or three note harmonization. Using C major as our tonal center, all of the following chords used are said to be diatonically generated, in that only the pitches of the key of C major are used in building the chords. In the following idea, the first and last melody pitches are also the root of the harmonizing chord, creating a rather solidly diatonic major tonal environment. Example 1a.

Sound familiar? Basically the One / Four / Five chord progression, used for so many good tunes and the principle chords of the 12 bar blues. Let's harmonize the rest of the pitches in the line with diatonic triads. Example 1b.

Sounds terrible huh? Too many chord changes? Maybe? Do we usually harmonize a melody this way? No, not usually, and the voice leading does leave a bit to be desired, pretty uninteresting that is. Should each of the voices create a melody? Well, that's the idea. So, artistically we must choose which chords to harmonize our lines. After making these choices for a while, our chord picks becomes part of one's style and artistic signature. Maybe just harmonize every other pitch of our melody, thin down the harmony a bit? Example 1c.

That's a bit better yes? Can we take this line into the minor tonality? Of course, we do it all here right? Example 1d.

Notice how the melody pitch C of bar 20 is now the 3rd chord degree of the A minor chord? Referred to as "the 3rd in the lead", tis a common way to create the deceptive cadence as done above. Was moving to the minor tonality a bit of a surprise for you? That's one of the reasons we often reharmonize a line, to play with where the line is expected to go. Really? of course, is there a master of musical disguise lurking? So, can any pitch be a part of any chord? Well... Adding a non diatonic color to our progression, we can move back into a different major tonality. Example 1e.

In this last idea, we simply made the melody pitch C the major 7th of the Db major 7th chord? Exactly. Using the color tones is also a potentially important component in harmonizing melodies. Again the idea that trying to recreate a particular style tends to choose which of the color tones we utilize.

We can easily create diatonic harmonizations in the minor tonality. Here we harmonize the same melody created from the pitches of what is now the A natural minor scale, the relative minor to C major. In the following idea, we add a bit of upper structure color to each of the principle minor triads. Example 2.

This next idea simply slips in a few diatonic passing chords. Example 2a.

Building a non-diatonic chord underneath the final pitch creates the more modern, flat Two cool surprise. Theoretically, the minor third C of the melody becomes the major 9th of the flat Two chord, Bb major 9. Sense how the tonal gravity sort of disappears in the above idea? One of the reasons we reharmonize a melody is to shift the cadential motion or placement of the tension / resolution aspects to the melody. We often hear this b 2 coolness extracted from a chord progression and morphed into a two chord vamp, pairing the minor tonic with flat Two major 9. Example 2b.

Dig the groove? Very common for the modern jazz player of today. It's modal in a sense, and is created by simply moving back and forth between two environments, say Dorian and Lydian? To create the tonic minor 9 color we lean on the pitch B natural, which is a little too close to Bb major without being Bb, know what I mean? Minor 9 can really define one very cool and important shade of the minor tonal environment.

From the way distant European Baroque era, the Picardy third brightens the close of the minor cadence. This kind of motion was said to bring the "light after dark." Example 2c.

Thought we started in A minor? We did. Start in minor, end in major? Sure why not? What? Yeh, hard to set up in four bars, it is kind of "popish" huh? Oh well, just an idea. We hear blues and jazz players do this occasionally, use some sort of major chord to end a tune in the minor tonality, perhaps a bit more happening and better surprise when done live. The Picardy third simply subs a major third for the minor in the last chord of the section, tune whatever. Try adding the Picardy third, in one of your own arrangement in the minor tonality. Might want to let everyone else in the band know beforehand. The B Ø 7 motion to the major One chord in measure 39 above is a very slick and deceptive way to converge towards the tonic in the major tonality.

So, earlier we asked can any pitch potentially be any degree in any chord? That is pretty much the case, although keeping track of it keywise or in regards to a tonal center might be a bit tricky. The following chart places the pitch C in each position of the chromatic scale and examines the chords created. Example 5.

Pretty cool huh? Where do we use these chords? Well, oftentimes in creating neat and interesting arrangements of melodies we love. Which one's? Your call, viewed this way, it really is a big harmonic resource. Sounds we discover and dig, become part of our own, individual artistic signature. Knowing the theory does help to expand the choices a bit eh? Here are the sounds of the above chord colors that use the pitch C in the various intervalic capacities as outlined in the chart above. Example 5a.

An interesting sort of progression in and of itself yes? So, in a rather expanded musical reality, anytime our melody pitch is C, then any of the above chords might work in reharmonizing the melody? Well... Yes. Oh, does the reharmonization of melodies have anything to do with the evolution of musical styles?

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