Harmony is important. Why?

well… lots of reasons, but I’m going to try: ‘because it gives a sense of mood, emotion and character.’ Whatever the character of the songs you’re working on, you’ll need to decide what kind o harmony you need.

Even an unnacompanied solo vocal song will have an implied harmony, so it’s a musical idea that’s vital to songwriters. Even a one chord song has a harmony.

What is harmony?

We’re used to thinking of vocal harmony – Beach Boys-esque intertwining voices singing different notes at the same time. But harmony is more than that. It’s the choice of notes – the group of pitches you use to write your sng.

What harmonic options do you have? Lots. Here are just a few:

Major – the major scale, for example G major (G A B C D E F# G) characterised by the dominant to tonic chord relationship. Try playing a D7 chord, then a G chord.

Harmonic Minor – The dominant 7th chord to tonic or ‘home’ chord relationship in the major scale was so important that it worked its way into the minor scale – Try playing an A minor chord, then an E7 chord. Maybe try working in an F chord as well

Natural Minor – The standard minor ‘flavour’ try an A minor chord as your ‘Home’ and a G as your ‘Away’ chord.

Home and Away?

Although some 20th century composers tried to escape it, most Western music  has a ‘Home’ note, and by extension a home chord. For example in C major, the chord of C is home. By changing chord we create a tension, by moving back we release that tension.

Different harmonies have different flavours of Home and Away.

Eg.

• E phrygian might have E minor as ‘Home’ and F or Dminor as an ‘away’ chord
• G Mixolydian might have G major as home, F as away.

Phrygian? Mixolydian?

Modes – different scales, different moods and flavours of harmony.

There are a lot of other harmonies ideas , but in summary I would say that the important thing is to experiment and explore, to try out as many different flavours to find the harmony that best suits your song.

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