Composing Using Chords & Harmony

Composing techniques…

There are SO MANY:

• Chord progressions • The use of pedal notes/drones • Balanced phrases within melodic writing • The use of riffs and ostinatos • The use of dotted rhythms, triplets and syncopation • Tonality: major / minor / modal / pentatonic • Techniques specific to a musical period or style, i.e. Club

Dance, Waltz • Sequence • Imitation • Call and response • Modulation • Use of major, minor and dominant seventh.

Intended Outcomesutcomes

ALL MUST: Understand what the PRIMARY and SECONDARY chords are

SOME SHOULD: Understand how to compose a chord progression using PRIMARY and SECONDARY chords

SOME COULD: Understand how to harmonise a melody with appropriate PRIMARY and SECONDARY chords.

Chords & Harmony

You can either START with a set of chords and write your melody afterwards

OR….

Write your melody and ADD your chords afterwards

Starting with chords and adding a melody afterwards….

1. Decide on a key or scale (notes you will use in your piece).

- Assume we choose C major for this. It uses all the white notes from C C.

C D E F G A B C

2. Work out what the chords are for each note of the scale.

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

Starting with chords and adding a melody afterwards….

3. Find the PRIMARY chords (chords 1, 4 & 5)

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

These are usually always MAJOR chords (in a major key)

Starting with chords and adding a melody afterwards….

4. Find the SECONDARY chords (chords 2, 3 & 6)

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

These are usually always MINOR chords (in a major key) and they add

SPICE AND FLAVOUR!

Starting with chords and adding a melody afterwards….

5. Create a set of chords (4 is a good number) from these …

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

C Dm Em F G Am

Starting with chords and adding a melody afterwards….

5. Use the notes in the chords to create a simple melody which changes with the chords.

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

C Em F G

Starting with chords and adding a melody afterwards….

5. Create a set of chords (4 is a good number) from these …

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

C Em F G

Starting with chords and adding a melody afterwards….

Starting with a MELODY and adding chords afterwards

Make sure your melody has a key and you have used notes from the key to compose your melody

We will assume you have used C major for this – all the white notes from C C.

Starting with a MELODY and adding chords afterwards

1. Write your melody, making sure it starts and ends on the tonic (first note of the key):

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

Starting with a MELODY and adding chords afterwards

2. Check what the PRIMARY and SECONDARY chords are for your key:

Starting with a MELODY and adding chords afterwards

3. Look at the notes of your melody and match them with the notes of your chords. Play them to check they fit together.

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

Starting with a MELODY and adding chords afterwards

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

How To Make Chords More Interesting

And Impress The Examiner

Basic Chords

Here are the chords added to the melody

C chord =C E G

G chord =G B D

F chord =F A C

G7 chord =G B D F

Varying the accompaniment

Instead of chords try creating a single note bass-line

This is a good idea to use but on its own it is very boring

Try using it at the same time as another accompaniment

Try varying the rhythm

Bass line

Try using the other notes of the chords to vary your single note bass-line

E.g. C chord is made up of the notes C E and G

C chord = notes C E GG chord =

G B DF chord =

F A CG chord =

G B D

F= F A

C

G=

GB

DF

C chord =C E G

Developing the basic chords

Once you have worked out the basic chords there are many ways of changing them to make them more interesting

Broken ChordsBreak up the chords so that the notes are

played one at a time instead of all at once

Try breaking them up in different directions- ascending and descending

Ascending Descending

Chord Inversions

If you like the sound of block chords try varying the order of the notes to make them more interesting

GEC

ECG

CGE

ECGC

GEC

ECGC

ECG

DBG

GDB

CAF

FCA

DBG

GDB

CAF

FDBG

Varying the Rhythm

Dotted rhythms make the accompaniment more interesting

Because the rhythm of the melody is different to the rhythm of the accompaniment we call this a cross-rhythm

Pedal NoteA long, low, sustained note is called a

pedal note

Try adding a pedal note underneath the chords

Arranging chords and a pedal note on one stave

Condensing the pedal note onto the same stave as the chords look like this

Altering the rhythm

Try changing the rhythm of the accompaniment to triplets

This creates more cross-rhythms

Changing the broken chords

If you change the broken chords to semiquaver (quarter) notes the accompaniment sounds much busier and more detail can be added to them

Try varying the direction of the notes

(ascending, descending, mixed)

Ascending

Descending

Mixed

Semiquaver Accompaniment

Here is an example of a semiquaver accompaniment using ascending, descending and mixed patterns