Basic Harmony

The first thing we need to do when creating a harmony is figure out the key of the song. The reason this is so important is there are certain notes that are automatically stronger than others in the scale, and these will be the basis for creating our harmony. Lets take a look at the key of C Major (C D E F G A B C). In the key of C, the root note is C, the major third is E, and the dominant note (or the perfect 5^th) is G. An easy way to start off harmonies is to pair these notes together in a combination that blends well with the lead notes in the melody. For example, if our melody is C E G G E G C, we can see that all of these notes are the strong, base notes of our scale. Because of this, we know we will be safe pairing any of these notes together with the melody without having to worry about conflict between the two. For this melody we could create a harmony that simply stays one note behind in the sequence. This would look something like this:

Melody: C  E  G  G  E  G  C

Harmony: G  C  E  E  C  E  G

This way, we are using parallel motion to mimic the melody with our harmony, and ensuring the two will work well with each other. What do we do when the melody is more complex and employs the use of the strongest notes as well as the transitional notes in between? A general rule of thumb that will keep you safe is to stay within a 3^rd of the note in the melody. Lets take a look at another melody, and this time we’ll make it slightly more complex. With a melody of C  E  G  F  E  F  C, you’ll notice we have added the 4^th note of the scale, F, and we can play it safe by staying a 3^rd below the note in the melody by using the 2^nd note, D. For this melody, the harmony would look like this:

Melody: C  E  G  F  E  F  C

Harmony: G  C  E  D C  D G

Here we can see whenever we hit a transitional note, we can use a note within a 3^rd of that note in order to create a harmony that works well with the melody without butting up against it. Of course this is not a rule that is set in stone by any means, but merely one simple way to ensure the harmony will not conflict with the melody. Now that we have discovered how to choose the right notes for our harmony, lets take a look how to support our melody without overpowering it.