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JNJ - Practical Guide To Harmony - Jameson Nathan Jones

This guide addresses common issues in music composition related to harmony, emphasizing its impact on chord progressions, melodies, and overall structure. It discusses the importance of harmonic consistency and the relationship between linear and vertical approaches to harmony, providing practical examples and techniques. The guide aims to enhance understanding of harmony for artists, regardless of their musical theory knowledge.

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126 views11 pages

JNJ - Practical Guide To Harmony - Jameson Nathan Jones

This guide addresses common issues in music composition related to harmony, emphasizing its impact on chord progressions, melodies, and overall structure. It discusses the importance of harmonic consistency and the relationship between linear and vertical approaches to harmony, providing practical examples and techniques. The guide aims to enhance understanding of harmony for artists, regardless of their musical theory knowledge.

Uploaded by

adaline
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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A PRACTICAL

GUIDE TO
HARMONY
For Artists

JAMESON NATHAN JONES


"I have a catchy melody that works really well, but then I have no idea
how to harmonize it. The chords I put with it all sound cliche and weak."

"I can come up with cool chords, but can't figure out a melody to go
with it that doesn't sound cheesy..."

"My arrangements are all over the place. I can come up with a cool
loop, but then when I try to add something to it, it feels completely
disjointed and out of place."

These may seem like three separate problems, but they are all variations
of the same root issue: HARMONY

It's pretty obvious how this relates to chord progressions. That may be
the first thing that comes to mind when we think of harmony.

But harmony is simply how notes - any notes - relate to each other.

Therefore, harmony directly impacts our chord progressions, melodies,


and overall musical form/structure.

So, do I have to know any Theory


or be able to read music?

More familiarity with musical language and terminology is never a bad


thing. However, today there are many tools that can help you visualize
and refine your ideas even if you don't read music, such as midi roll
(piano roll).

With that in mind, I will supply midi roll examples as well as traditional
notation, so these concepts are more accessible to everyone.

jamesonnathanjones.com
In my eBook, Practical Guide to
Composition, I talk a bit about
"thinking linearly instead of
vertically."

When we approach a chord

I. Linear progression this way, each chord is


made up of individual parts which act

Harmony
like individual melodies.

Those individual parts work together


to create the vertical harmonies
(chords).

This can be achieved by taking a simple


progression of blocked triads...

....and using inversions and redistribution. This is a


complicated way of saying we can take all the same
notes and re-order them so that the transitions
between chords are smooth and linear.

So the simple progression above becomes this:

The notes haven’t changed; only how they’re arranged.

In this guide, we’ll see how the linear and vertical relate to
one another in more detail.

jamesonnathanjones.com
Melodies have their own
harmonic identity. II. Melodies
Are Harmony
Here’s a simple melody with some chords
accompanying it in the LH.

You may be noticing that the "chords" appear to only contain two
notes. But what if I stacked all the notes of the melody vertically
along with those LH intervals?

jamesonnathanjones.com
Now we can see that the melody has a
harmonic identity of its own. It relates to the
chords below, but is also independent.

It's also worth noting that wherever possible,


I've avoided doubling. This means I try not to
have the same notes in the melody as the
chord or interval underneath. This makes
both parts feel more independent, and
produces richer vertical harmonies with
fewer notes.

I don't love that last chord change though:

Why? Notice how many notes these two


chords share. If we were thinking of them as
colors, the first chord might be blue and the
second chord pale blue. The first chord spoils
the surprise of the second. We generally
don't want to follow a strong harmonic color
with a weaker one.

jamesonnathanjones.com
What if we tried to find a "fresh"
color to follow that first chord.

This final chord doesn't "belong" in our current key. Music theorists would
call it a "borrowed chord." These were the beginnings of Non-Functional
Harmony, when composers started to grow restless or bored of the
common resolutions dictated by Functional Harmony.

Once we break free from being locked into a given key signature, we now
have much more freedom.

But with that freedom comes another potential issue.

jamesonnathanjones.com
III. Harmonic
Consistency
The examples I've shown so far are all forms
of Tertian Harmony (based on thirds).

Once we start exploring non-functional


harmony, there are many different
harmonic languages (extended tertian,
quartal, serial, polychordal, etc.)

I called these "languages" intentionally.

Even though I've gone to an unexpected,


non-functional, borrowed chord in the last
example, it is still tertian. The entire phrase
is consistently in the same harmonic
language.

But what if I were to do something like this:

jamesonnathanjones.com
Now the phrase lacks harmonic consistency. It
would be the same if I started this sentence in
English and switched to German halfway through.
Unless this is your intention, it will only confuse the
listener.

To make a literary comparison: we love fiction


writers who create rules for the worlds they build
and then adhere to them. It's what makes stories
like The Lord of the Rings so immersive, coherent,
and memorable. But if Tolkien had decided Frodo
and Sam should fly to Mordor in something like
the Ornithopters from Dune, that would break our
immersion, and everyone would take to Twitter to
complain about it.

The same thing can happen in music, but for


some reason it's almost never discussed.

This is how harmony directly affects our entire


arrangement in terms of form and structure.
Harmonic consistency can glue even the most
complex pieces together, and lack of harmonic
consistency can cause the most simple pieces to
fall apart.

The last bar of the previous example isn’t


“wrong” or incorrect - it just doesn’t fit in
context with the opening. It suddenly shifts to
quartal and polychordal harmony after we had
established ourselves in tertian harmony.

jamesonnathanjones.com
Let’s create a context in which
that last bar belongs.

Don't be put off by the language. It may be more dissonant


and angular than you're used to.

What's important is that it can work and feel cohesive


IF we stick to the same harmonic language throughout
the phrase.

jamesonnathanjones.com
Let’s use all we’ve talked about today to make another melody
and progression.

This time I’m going to start with stacked verticals to ensure


the harmony for each part is independent but
complementary.

There is NO doubling between the chords in the RH and the


intervals in the LH.

No chord spoils the next by telegraphing which notes are


coming.

The chords are all extended tertian.

jamesonnathanjones.com
The notes in the RH chords are my available choices for the melody.

I hope this short guide has given you some new ideas and new
ways to think about harmony in your own compositions.

If you’d like to dig even deeper into harmony and see more
examples, I’ve built something else for you. You can click here to
learn more.

jamesonnathanjones.com

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