II : Chords and Harmonizing Notes

A) The I, IV, and V7 patterns

Make sure all of section one leaks into your brain and stays there permanently, because we’re moving fast here. Okay, before we move on, you must know that a chord is two or more notes played at the same time. A triad is three notes played at the same time. Sometimes I will call a triad a chord, because a triad is basically a special type of chord. (Just like how a dog is a type of mammal, or how music is a form of noise.)

Each major key has three primary chords. These are three triads that sound beautiful and are absolutely essential to harmonics. (try not to confuse harmonics with harmonica...) The first primary chord is the I chord. This is the first note of the scale, the third note, and the fifth note. So the I chord for the C scale is consisted of the notes C, E, and G played at the same time. Go ahead, try it. Play those three notes at the same time. Don’t it just sound heavenly?

The IV chord consists of the first note, the fourth note, and the sixth note played at the same time. For the C scale, those notes would be C, F, and A. Finally, the V7 chord consists of the fourth note, the fifth note, and (pay attention to this one now.) the note one note below the first note. So for the C scale, those notes would be B(the one below the first note, not the one before the last note), F, and G. Got it? Now you can make up your own happy song with these chords. Go ahead, try it. Try playing the chords in this order:

I, IV, V7, I

The same basic rules apply to minor keys. So for the C minor key, the I triad would be C, Eb, and G. The IV triad would be C, F, and Ab. Finally, the V7 triad would be B(B natural, the one below the first note.), F, and G.

Now, if you want to become the best you can be on this subject, read on. If you’re late for a date with some hot music composer named John Licato, then you can stop reading now, because basically, you know everything you need to know if you want to make some songs. Still, who would you hire to write your music: A person who knows a little bit about composing, or one that knows a lot? Make your choice now, because I’m moving on.

B) Patterns and broken chords

If you’ve decided to move on, I love you!

Basically all songs and harmonics are based on the chords. This is probably the hardest part I’ve ever had to explain. Okay, each note on the scale except for the second-to-last one has at least one chord that it "matches" with. A chord "matches" with a note if that note is in the chord. So notes that match with the I chord in the C scale are C, E, and G. (Since those are the notes that make up the chord.) Try it. Sit on a piano, and with your right hand, play either one of the notes I mentioned, and with your left hand, at the same time, but one octave lower, play a I chord in the C scale. Sounds beautiful, yeah? Now try playing the same thing, but with the right hand, play one of the notes that are not part of the scale, like D, or F. It gives you a completely different sound.

Now, like I said earlier, each note has at least one chord it matches with. So let’s stick with the C scale again. Let’s look at the note C, first. What chords have the note C in them? The I chord, and the IV chord. (The I chord is C, E, and G, and the IV chord is C, F, and A.) Now let’s look at the note A. Unlike the note C, the note A has only one chord that matches with it, and that is the IV chord. (Actually, there are lots of more chords that match with these notes, but you don’t know all of the chords yet.) Go ahead, try it. Sit at the piano, and explore. By the way, you might think that the note D in the C major scale has no chord that it matches with. For now, just play the V7 chord with that note.

Now here’s a song that consists of two different instruments playing at the same time. The one on the top is playing the melody, and the one on the bottom is playing the harmony. It is also the file midi2.mid, which you can download by clicking here. Here’s what the music looks like:

Love it yet?

Now, I must say, what if you decide to do it differently? for example, in the second measure, instead of having four quarter note chords on the bottom staff, we could put one half note IV chord and then one V7 half note chord after that.

But wait, if we do that, (pay attention to this one now:) then the second note on the second measure of the top staff wouldn’t match with the harmony chord that is playing at that time! The answer: Who cares. If you play it, it still sounds okay, and that’s all that matters. Many times, as long as the note of the main theme that is playing when the harmony chord first starts playing matches the chord, then it will sound alright. Sometimes, you don’t even have to follow that rule. It all depends on the composer and his/her style, which you will develop if you play and write music long enough.(confusing paragraph, eh? It was the simplest I could put it.)

Okay. The rythym in the song above was one where the harmony plays quarter notes, straight. Now let’s change the rythym into a different one. To do that, let’s make some broken chords. These are chords which have been broken up and played as separate notes. For example, instead of playing one dotted quarter note I triad in the key of C, I could play C, E, and G, each one of them eighth notes. Here’s the song above again. Except this time, the bottom staff (the harmony) has been changed into a bunch of broken chords.

And if you want to listen to it, just click here to listen to midi3.mid.

Now try looking at all the broken chords and finding out which chords those are. Extra credit!

So far, you’ve only learned two patterns. There are many different patterns you can use, you can even make up your own. Here is the theme we’ve been playing above, but with three different patterns.

My, I do believe that’s the biggest picture I’ve used so far.

If you’re lazy and want me to do everything for you, then click here to download midi4.mid. this plays the three rythyms you see above.

Let’s look at those three rythyms. The first one is usually used when the song is played fast, when you need a fast, exciting song. (Like a battle song, a chasing scene, etc.) The second rythym, I usually use it when I want to make a town music. Like, if you enter a town, that rythym matches the background because it sounds peaceful. If the time signature is 3/4 and you use a ryhym like that, it would sound like a kind of waltz or dance. The third rythym could be used for some kind of melody. I’ve usually used that pattern when I’ve had a theme with a drum set playing in the background. With a drum set playing a beat, and the bass playing that rythym, it usually sounds pretty cool. Like I said earlier though, try these rythyms for different things and use whatever you think matches.

Now let’s go on to writing variations. Actually, you know most of the things you need to know to write variations, so the next section might be kind of short...

Writing Variations