Simple Harmonies (lesson)

Today we are going to look at how we can put the knowledge we have so far to good use and learn a little about harmonization. This is a fascinating subject, and we are going to look at the basics in this lesson, and then some more complex ideas in a later lesson.

What is Harmony?

A lot of you probably know what harmonization is when you hear it but how to explain what it actually is? Well, in simple terms it is enhancing a melody line by playing notes at the same time either higher or lower than the melody note itself. OK, that is a simple explanation and not exact by any means, but it gets us started. The next question is which notes? Will any notes do? For harmonization, no, we have some specific ways of picking out the notes we use - they all have a very definite relationship to the melody we are harmonizing. If we are less careful, we could end up with counterpoint, which is different to harmony, and a useful concept in its own right but not what we are looking for.

So lets qualify what notes we are looking for. Harmonies are generally notes that are picked to be an offset within the scale from the melody note. That offset often remains fixed throughout the harmonized passage, and in this lesson we will make the assumption that they do stay fixed - a future lesson will address more complex harmonic movement in which the intervals shift throughout the passage.

Now it has probably occurred to you that harmonies sound a little similar to chords. You'd be right - harmonies are really a way of adding chordal concepts to an unadorned melody line, and we will be using some chord based concepts to put this together. I bet you are also wondering which offsets we should be using - the answer is that it varies depending upon the effect you are looking for, just as you would use different intervals to create different chord types.

Scales & Intervals

Not surprisingly, scales are the foundation to all of this. A melody that you are trying to harmonize will be based on a particular scale. Any harmonies you create will also be based on that same scale, and there will be a offset between the melody notes and harmonies, based on degrees of that particular scale.

Different offsets have different effects - the most commonly used are probably 3rds - these usually give a very melodic feel to the harmony. Another common one is 6ths. Since a 6th interval is really just an inverted 3rd, we again get a melodic effect, but there is a greater sense of space between the notes giving a different feel to a 6th harmony. Also common are 5ths - a more harsh type of harmony, but well suited to metal, as a 5th is also a power chord and has that same kind of feel. Dissonant intervals such as 2nds and 7ths are rarely used except as a transitory move in more complex harmonies, leaving 4ths, which can be used to great effect but are a little strange sounding.

This all sounds a little dry, so it is time for an example!.

Our First Example

Ok, lets look at a simple melody line, and harmonize it in 3rds (thats harmony speak for using a fixed 3rd offset for the harmony).

We'll pick a simple example - a scale of C major. Our notes as everyone knows are:

C D E F G A B C

Now, to harmonize this sequence of notes in 3rds, all we have to do is move 2 degrees up the scale for each of our harmony notes.

So, if we start with the first note, C, our 3rd interval is an E, which is 2 degrees up the scale. To play our harmony we would play the note of C and a note of E at the same time - easy huh? Our second pair are D, and the note 2 steps up from D which is an F. To carry on up the scale we just use the same rule for each pair of notes, to get the following pairs (harmonies in red):

C E
D F
E G
F A
G B
A C
B D
C E

Or in tab:
E||----------------------|-----------------0----||
B||----------------------|--0----1----0----1----||
G||------------0----2----|--0----2----7---------||
D||--2----0----2----3----|----------------------||
A||--3----8--------------|----------------------||
E||----------------------|----------------------||
Now lets look at how that works with a minor scale - C minor. Our notes are:

C D Eb F G Ab Bb C

Again, if we use the same rule and stay in 3rds, we get the pairs as follows:

C Eb
D F
Eb G
F Ab
G Bb
Ab C
Bb D
C Eb

Or in tab:
E||----------------------|----------------------||
B||----------------------|-------1----3----1----||
G||------------0----1----|--0----1----3----8----||
D||--1----0----1----3----|--8-------------------||
A||--3----8--------------|----------------------||
E||----------------------|----------------------||

Now, lets take a moment to think about what we have done here. Since we have followed the notes of the base scale in both cases, the real intervals between the notes have changed as we went along. In the major scale example, the first 2 notes C and E are a Major 3rd apart. However, the second 2 notes, D and F are actually a minor 3rd. In the minor scale, our first pair, C and Eb were a minor 3rd, the second pair, D and F were also a minor 3rd. This falls naturally out of the way the scales are constructed, and happens to be the exact right shifting in the intervals to make everything sound correct. To put this another way, the intervals change between each pair to accommodate the fact that both notes in each case are taken out of the same scale. What this means in practice is that although we talk about harmonizing in 3rds, we are not using a fixed interval, we are really talking about the offset of the notes in degrees of the scale.

Lets look at another example - 6ths. At this point we can introduce another concept of harmonies - it is possible to harmonize either above or below the melody line. What we did in the previous example was to harmonize a 3rd above. In this example, lets harmonize a 6th below:

C D E F G A B C

C E
D F
E G
F A
G B
A C
B D
C E

Or in tab:
E||----------------------|----------------------||
B||----------------------|------------0----1----||
G||----------------------|--0----2--------------||
D||-------0----2----3----|------------0----2----||
A||--3--------------0----|--2----3--------------||
E||--0----1----3---------|----------------------||
Hang on, that looks identical to our first example! Well spotted - it is, except in this case, each harmonized note (the ones in red) would be an octave lower than the harmonized notes in the previous examples as you can see from the tab. This is because as I mentioned earlier, an inverted 6th is a 3rd, so if we go a 6th down, it gives us the same note as if we went a 3rd up - that is why 6ths work well as harmonies, if they are 6ths below. That same example using a 6th above would give us:

C A
D B
E C
F D
G E
A F
B G
C A

Or in tab:
E||----------------------|--0----1----3----5----||
B||-------0----1----3----|------------0----1----||
G||--2-------------------|--0----2--------------||
D||-------0----2----3----|----------------------||
A||--3-------------------|----------------------||
E||----------------------|----------------------||
This will sound a little less melodic as the 6th notes tend to sound unresolved when you end on a strong note on the melody. Resolved notes tend to be roots and 5ths, also 3rds. As you can see here, the last note is a root which would normally resolve well, but the harmonized note is a 6th, making the ending sound unresolved.

In Practice

In practice, harmonization is a great way to thicken up a vocal or guitar lead line and give the whole melody a different feel. Pick your favorite lead line and experiment with adding harmonies above and below it and see how it sounds - you can make a huge difference by adding just a few harmonies in selected places!

Thats it for now - questions and comments in the forum!