How to HARMONIZE A Melody With Just 3 Chords [Music Theory Tutorial]
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- Опубликовано: 3 июл 2024
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(At 4:32 and at 7:02 in the video are the examples you want to hear)
00:00 Intro
00:46 3 chords cover a diatonic scale
02:30 Major scale harmonized example
03:00 Melody harmonized example 1
03:23 Melody harmonized example 2
03:49 Example 2 transcribed for brass (because why not)
05:00 Minor scale harmonization & example
06:18 Melodic idea
07:00 Melodic idea in a string piece (because why not)
08:53 Guitar as a sketching instrument
You know the old adage on how to write Blues (or Rock. Or Country... depends how you ask):
"Three chords and the truth"
That was fine and dandy for a while... and then we got inundated with 3-chords and 4-chords cheesy pop songs and now everybody is tired of the same old same old 3 chords.
Which is a pity.
Because honestly, I love well-made 3-chords harmonizations. And I think that all musicians should know how to do one.
(Harmonization: "put chords to a melody")
For two reasons:
1. They sound great, and
2. They are a great 'first harmonization' that you can do in seconds, and then you can always add more complex ideas if need be.
If you've never harmonized a melody before... this is exactly where you want to get started. Watch the video, try it with your guitar, start having more fun than you ever had with music :-)
If you like this video, share, like, comment & don't forget to subscribe for more content!
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*i would buy this man a beer under any circumstances*
I would even buy him a bear!
@@andr31245 buy* him a bear. It was a weird autocorrect...
@Jack Willis I bet he would still do it.
Jack Willis what if he serenaded you’re wife and your bear 🐻 👧 oh well I would buy myself a beer 🤘🏻🕶🤘🏻🎸🍺🍺🍺🍺
Definitely. 🍻
Bro by watching RUclips videos around this subject now i know 99.9 percent of teachers and you tube musicians have no idea what is harmonizing im talking about pianists, theorists etc, they just have that thing we call it wasting people's time and making money of it. thanx Man at least i have found that 0.1 percent who knows what he's talking about ✌🏻
This video has changed my life. I am 3 times the producer I was before. All my melodies prior to this was just the root note. :-) Song I just wrote sounds amazeballs.
That string piece moved me. The Snow & the Plague... touching, man. Very touching.
What software was that?
You pretty much just described my current approach for writing, harmonizing, and arranging songs. Working primarily in Folk and Americana, my search for chords to fit a new song almost always starts with Harlan Howard's "three chords and the truth". I come up with the words and melody first and then look for which combination of I, IV, and V chords fits the melody. A lot of times in the past, I just left it at that. Then, I started looking for where a IIm or VIm would fit for variety. Now, after watching your videos, I started adding diminished chords and applying voice leading to see what kind of altered chords might fit the arrangement.
This makes the songs much more harmonically interesting and for the listener, and more interesting for me to arrange on the guitar. A win win!
Thank you very much.
Thanks Tommaso. I know all my “musician” friends would have been through this doorway before but I’m not sure many of my “guitar player” friends have even grabbed the doorknob. A new lightbulb turned on for me.
I'm learning the keyboard and I love his lessons. The negative harmony changed my playing 😂
That's a beautiful piece you wrote!
Thank you very much!
Nice to see you too
This was one of the best explanations I have followed for harmony. Thanks for the video
"Snow and the Plague" was a peak moment of unity in a European winter landscape with the one I love.
0:46 3 chords cover a diatonic scale
2:30 Major scale harmonized example
3:00 Melody harmonized example 1
3:23 Melody harmonized example 2
3:49 Example 2 transcribed for brass (because why not)
5:00 Minor scale harmonization & example
6:18 Melodic idea
7:00 Melodic idea in a string piece (because why not)
8:53 Guitar as a sketching instrument
Mistake: at 2:40 the last chord should be a G, not an E!
Software used for the orchestral parts: Staffpad.
If you pin this it will be at too
😄👍🏻useful!!
Thanks for this vid.
I knew all the concepts beforehand, but it still helps *a lot* to see you use the most 'basic' examples to demonstrate the *practicality* of it.
The Snow and the Plague - nice!
the second harmonization has a "Mahler" minor melancholic feel to it.
Love your videos.
A great teacher, but especially a great wizard. Thank you Tomasso 🙂
7:02 Because it's worth much more than one listen.
Beautifully composed Tommaso. ^-^
Thank you! :)
Sir Tommaso Zillio, you are a genius!
Within 10 minutes my life has changed.
This man is a genius.
Thanks ! I would love to see a full analysis if the final piece, or a beginner tutorial on how to arrange a melody for a string quartet ! Cheers and love from France !
Extremely useful as usual!
Thanks for sharing this.
great stuff! thanks!
"The Snow and the Plague", I like the modulation to A minor in bar 20.
So excellent, THANK YOU
Loving the inclusion of whatever software you're using for the sheet music. It would be awesome to see you do more of that.
“Give me three chords and I’ll give you rock and roll” -Lou Reed
Anything more than 3 chords is jazz!
@@wideyxyz2271 shit, i've been writing jazz for years
Widey xyz Ah yes! My favorite Jazz song is Despacito.
Excellent lessons here! Thank you for sharing.
Thank you! Interesting and simple to understand!!
Good lesson
This is SO EASY to understand and apply!
This is some good stuff 👏👏👏
Thank You!
Every one of your videos helps me understand music that much more! You are a fantastic instructor! Thanks Tommaso.
Great video. Thanks.
Beautiful!
This is instantly one of your best and most valuable lessons. Thanks Tommy!
Wow. What an incredible concept explained so easily. The maestro is amazing
Brilliant as it is compréhensible for me.
Thank you for your simple lessons.
THANK YOU FOR THIS LESSON........VERY NICE
Great presentation
Unbelievable! Less is more! Thank you again for the great lesson 👏🙏😃
Thanks very much for your lesson sir.
What a beautiful way of teaching. Very impressive! 👌
Meet Gaurav, Gaurav melody and solo were very lovely and sad, Gaurav was looking for way to make his solos and melody more interesting, Gaurav never tried this before, so Gaurav search about it on RUclips and Gaurav got confused and then suddenly Gaurav sees a post by music theory for guitar and Gaurav totally gets how to start making some good harmonies without frying off his head.... Gaurav thanks the wonderful creator...be like Gaurav, watch music theory for guitar.... good day
I just discovered your channel today, and WOW!! You are amazing. Thank you so much for these wonderful videos!!!
OMG, this is so simple! 👍
grande tommaso 😎
fantastico! (come sempre...☺️)
Powerfully informative video. Watched it twice. Once without guitar, another with guitar. Thank you.
The snow and the plague sounds amazing!! Could you do a video on some of the ideas you used while composing it? You mentioned that you “put more music theory trickery in it”. If you could do a video explaining and talking about the ideas used in this piece, that would be wonderful. Thanks! Cheers!
Perfect!
I have studied a lot of music theory (to which you referred) but I was looking exactly for this - an explanation of how you arrived at the solution. Bravo!
Best explanation ever....
Creative way of presenting 👍
Quantum theory of harmony??!! What a great title of a book....
Muy buen trabajo, me costará entender todo porque estoy traduciendo al Español, pero es muy grande tu sabiduría y tu explicación, gracias Tomasso
Very cool stuff......
Tommaso, this is perfect!
Thanks :)
Excellent
While I've only strummed a guitar a few times and a pretty much a newbie to music, but your video hit me like an OH DUH moment which has opened a door of understanding which was previously blocked.
I started with a harmonica about a year and a half ago and then began playing the piano to make sure I was getting the right notes on the harp. Long story short, I not only like replicating the songs others make, but also love making my own. My first songs are mainly based on going up and down several different scales, so it's not rocket science, but it gives me a more interesting way to practice and play my scales.
I could never figure out how to match the harmony on the right hand of a piano with some kind of rhythm on the left hand, other than just repeating what I was doing with the right, which also good, but not what I was needing. You my friend, gave me the key!!
As soon as I figured out that all I need is a 3 chords, as you say, and with a couple of inversions to make fingering easier, I've already started putting harmonies together with my melodies. The craziest part is this "OH DUH" moment is that it made me realize that your explanation is exactly why the HARMONICA is such an excellent instrument to start on. It takes care of all the theory in the design of the instument. Simply by blowing and drawing on several holes at a time, suddently we are making music! As long as you have the right key in a diatonic harp, you will always harmonize, unless of course, you draw on 6 and 7 together, which can be unpleasant for anyone within earshot lol.
Thanks so much, your innovative and fresh approach to teaching is incredible!
Wow that string piece was beautiful 👌👏❤
Thank you!
Very enjoyable video and practical too!! A lot of the music has been written with 3 or 4 chords ( specially Rock & Roll, some music in the Hispanic world, etc..) the complicated harmonizing is mainly done by Piano 🎹 players!! Not guitar 🎸 players!! Thanks for sharing!! Take care!! 👍 👍 🎸 🎸
I've played guitar by ear for over 50 years and for the first time, you have me both interested in and understanding the "why" of what I do on the guitar. Ironically, I had set my guitar aside to learn piano. Obviously your amazing lessons cross over beautifully to both.
I love this lesson, I'll start practicing as soon as possible. THANK YOU!
Hey Tomasso, I just had some wonderful hours of practice thanks to this video. Thank you again! What's the next step to harmonize even better, what resources do you suggest?
This: www.musictheoryforguitar.com/howtoharmonizeamelody.html
Then this: www.musictheoryforguitar.com/chords-and-harmony-guitar-lessons.html ;-)
I’m a student of his guitar chord course. I’m into my second month. I could write all day about how powerful the course is and how I’ve gained a lot of knowledge. That said, to reiterate what Tomasso said it’s not a quick fix. It’s daily work but I love it. It’s writing out chord progressions in a key and mapping out the notes in the scale and using that to solo or use functional substitutions to add color to your harmony. This is a great video as I’m trying to understand how to write a melody and then harmonize to it. I suspect the inverse of this process works as well. Write your chords and then from that write a melody? Thanks for the video. Rick. “Wow that’s a long post”
Thank you Rick. And yes, going in the opposite direction (chords-->melody) works too even if it's less intuitive at first.
Hi. I see it's a monthly subscription so : how many 'sessions' are there in the course ?
@@CharlesHx Please direct all questions about the courses to tommaso@musictheoryforguitar.com
Your composition made me realize that I want to be a composer. Thank you
Gracias nuevamente Tomasso y cuando puedas te pido que hagas otro video donde muestres como transportas la armonía de la guitarra a la orquesta, es un enfoque muy bueno el tuyo que no había visto en otros videos
Genius.
Beautiful: 😻
Simple = Great!
Thank you ever so much , for these beautiful tricks and theory, i am not a guitarist and i Never even played , i am more in piano and electronic music, but your channel really helped me alot ,
You are one of the best music teachers on RUclips imo. Can you plz explain coltrane intervals and changes. All of us would be grateful to you. Thanx in advance.
Great content and good video. Would be awesome a part2 with a bit more complex chords.
The more of your videos I watch the more degraded I feel about myself, seeing how much more there is that I don’t know than I know I don’t know.
BUT!!!!!
for the first time in my life Im beginning to understand it.
Ive kind of been doing this by ear by accident. Now not only do I have an idea of whats going on I also have other options available. Im going to need to rewatch this a few times to get a grip on it.
Thank you so much
Don't worry about where you are. We all start from zero. One step at a time you will become better and better.
Another major puzzle piece added ... and a big dark hole filled with lots of light! Thank you for sharing your great knowledge Tommaso 😎✌️!
At 2:48 ... isn't the last chord a G ... instead of E?
Yes it is. Typo!
Damn I really like your musical piece. Bravo!!!👏
Thank you!
good lesson but the composition at the end was so beautiful 😭
Thanks for having thegood sense to use trombones.
You're welcome. Out of curiosity, what you were afraid I was going to use instead?
I actually like all the instruments. I can't say I always like the way they are used. I use caution when it comes to vibraphones.
Vibraphones can be obnoxious yes :)
its the same for II-V-I a common progress in jazzzz
Yes, and that's another reason why II-V-I is so popular.
On every street main riff by dire straits is exactly that
Excellent ! Bravo ! Il love your accent too, so easy to understand when you are french ; )
... Italian ;-) EDIT: Oh wait you mean that you are French? I should finish my coffee before I answer comments...
@@MusicTheoryForGuitar Italie : Best coffee ! : )
Guru ji namaste 🙏
This is a well done video, but the quantum theory of harmony does sound pretty cool 👀
I'll have to come up with one then... ;-)
@@MusicTheoryForGuitar but a quantum harmony shall not be listen to because observation would change the wave of the sound into micro particles, hence destroying the musical result and sending it through space and time ? Might want to use an harmony generator and never look at the result XD
Another way to explain how to harmonize any song is to play the melodic notes on the strong beats as note 1, 3, or 5 of your basic chord. I find this re-wording, bare-boned, and simplified expression of the commonly shared basic rule of thumb (play the chords that carry the melodic notes) to be much more concrete and easier to apply in real time when playing or improvising songs extemporaneously on piano by ear, and playing the songs without having to know in advance what key you are playing the song (songs with any number of chords in its chord progression, not just 3 chords).
Good introduction to harmonization and beautiful scoring work, sir. Well done!
Very inspiring Thank you.
With staff pad what orchestral sounds were used.....very beautiful.
Thank you. The libraries are Cinebrass and Berlin strings.
Damn ,this is great 🕶🤘🏻🕶🎸🍺🍺🍺🍺
Great! And you can make with only 2 chords like Imaj7 and IIm7, or IIm7 and IIIm7, or IIIm7 and IVmaj 7... Just pic two following chords with the 7th
Halleluja! Grazie....
Depends on STYLE, even if one wants simplicity some styles makes simplicity complicated.
Sir: Can we use the same theory for piano. Great Great Video Bravo
Could I add the 2nd and 6th too using this method,this is really cool
This is amazing and you are awesome, and I will be watching many more of your videos and hopefully getting the book. Thank you!
I have a question: If I want to vary it up and use a chord that does not contain the note in the melody, is my reasoning on track that some general guidelines would be to 1) if a seventh / extended chord is created, the extension is not in the bass? 2) The melody should not clash harshly with any of the chord voices (tri tone, minor ninths etc unless the dissonance is desired)? The function of the chord should be the same, or otherwise a subdominant should not follow a dominant, or a mediant should not follow a subdominant for example?
Thanks for sharing! What about: I, II, VII? Or even: I7, II7?
You can use them as well by applying the same rules.
Also he did use the I
Great video. Really helped me understand why a lot of genres (blues, rock, pop) use this progression
By the way, what software is that?
You are an amazing musical genius. That orchestral work, writing from the guitar like that is what I hope to be able to do as I learn how to play. What kind of software did you write that on? Those strings sound very realistic, and genuinely like a film score. I've learned a lot by watching your videos and have been taking notes, I've learned quite a lot about orchestration through all the videos I've watched. Your videos have been helping me to clear up, or connect thoughts and ideas that I hadn't understood prior. Thank you for all of the videos you've made, I always watch them and its one of the few things keeping me on the internet anymore. I really hope to be able to write for strings, brass, and woodwinds like that in the near future.
Thank you! The software I use is called StaffPad. The basic library is decent, but what you hear here are the CineBrass and the Berlin Strings libraries (that you purchase in-app).
Great Job Thomaso.
Have you done a video on Quartal Voicings?
If not then that topic might be a good one for the future.
I think I've also requested this. One of the advantages of quartal chords is that they're so easy to play on the guitar in standard tuning!
Now that you mentioned guitar tunings,
What is the most sonically pleasing tuning for the 12 string Guitar?
@@dennisdavidson4271 I'm not sure about "sonically pleasing", but the usual tuning of a 12-string guitar is to have the top two strings (B and E) in unison, and the rest an octave apart.
I've asked this same question before, to one of your similar videos and never got an answer, so here we go again. I'll try phrase it better this time.
You present harmony as if for every note in the melody you have to harmonise with a chord that includes that note in its DNA. You present that as if it's a rule. You've got the flexibility to choose any chord to harmonise, it simply has to have the melody note in it.
So previously I used as an example Bob Marley's Exodus, but lets start this time with something I have the sheet music to here in front of me, The Beatles Hey Jude. Let's look at the fifth bar as that's where it gets a bit more notey. The Chord to harmonise with is Bb, which by the convention you have demonstrated means that only the notes Bb, D and F should occur in that bar of music. That's simply not the case as the bar includes, both G, & E neither of which is in the DNA of Bb. So should the Beatles not have used some Bb chord with a 13th and an augmented 11th? Does that chord even exist?
Back to the Bob Marley tune which is played the whole way through with one chord Am, harmonising. So by your logic only three notes should be in the melody of the whole song. (A,C & E). A quick look at the sheet music for that tune and again that's not the case.
Now don't get me wrong, I have not got the faintest idea about harmony, I'm here to learn which is why I watched the video, but I've seen that simplistic idea presented as the basic rules of harmony and anybody who just goes and looks at some sheet music can see that if it is a rule everybody is breaking it. And given how frequently it's broken in sheet music it's not a rule, or even a guide line, nor a convention.
I've no idea the rules or conventions of harmony but this ain't it. OK I've got a small sample size, the first two songs I picked up. But in either case thank the Gods that The Beatles didn't try to use Bb 13 11+ and that Bob Marley used more then three notes in the melody of Exodus. I think the alternatives might not have had the gravitas of those two songs.
It's easily solved: a melody CAN use notes that are not in the chord. They are called non-harmonic tones. In Classical music you then have to 'resolve' them (it's done also in most modern music). Remember that I say more than once in this video that I am making the theory as simple as possible - music theory contains much more than what I can explain in 10 minutes ;-)
@@MusicTheoryForGuitar thank you. I really enjoy your videos and when I get to a level for your course I'll be joining, but I've a ways to go. Biggest hurdle is ears.
Go through this, and then you're ready: www.musictheoryforguitar.com/beginningmusictheoryguide.html
John Whitmore - see my post on this thread re: his course. TBH I’ve been following his channel for a year bc I learn best by his logical explanations and I love and use whiteboards 😀-so instant connection. I “waited” to enroll in his course. For me it was mistake. I should have enrolled 6 months earlier. TZ stresses repeatedly there are no rules in theory just suggestions. I viewed this particular video on harmonization as a “I, IV, V framework” not a rule set. Great 👍🏻 question you asked and an informative response.
Just in time for my lunch break.
Timing is everything :)
@@MusicTheoryForGuitar That's why there are so many comedians who are also drummers (or vice versa); timing plays a big part in both.
Ba-bump. Pshhhh.
Great lesson friend. How we could harmonize the pentatonic scale in a simple way like this? Greetings