5

Harmonization

Adding an accompaniment to a melody is called harmonization. Every diatonic melody (melodies that include only notes of a major or minor scale) can be harmonized using the primary triads I, IV and V. Notice in the following example that all the notes of a diatonic scale are found in at least one of the primary triads.

The following guidelines are very general, but will help you determine which chord or chords to use as you harmonize a melody.

1.	Establish the key and mode of the melody:
	a.	Look at the key signature.
	b.	Look at the first and the last tones of the melody.
	c.	See if the implied chords at the beginning of the first full measure and at the end of the last measure are the same. Generally they are, and this chord is the tonic (I).
2.	Once you have established the key and mode, determine the primary triads (I, IV, V) in that key and write them down..
3.	The accompaniment chords you choose should contain most of the tones found in the melody. Tones on strong beats are generally more important than tones on weaker beats.
4.	Some pitches in the melody may not belong to the chord chosen for the accompaniment. For the most part, these will be the nonharmonic tones that were discussed in the previous topic.

An accompaniment consisting of only root position chords is dull to listen to and awkward to play at the keyboard. For these reasons, the most common accompaniment progression involving only the primary triads is:

Harmonizing a melody

On a separate sheet of paper, harmonize the following melody using only primary triads. Determine the key and then write the primary triads for that key as shown above. Notice there is a blank in each position where a chord should be provided. Except in the penultimate measure, there is one chord per measure. Label each chord you use with the appropriate Roman numeral symbol. Make sure you take into consideration the time signature when writing your chords. Remember that most of the notes of the melody should be a member of the accompanying chord. Circle each nonchord tone in the melody and label it (PT or NT).

			Harmonize a melody