judyhawkins Posted August 7, 2013 Share Posted August 7, 2013 (edited) Chapter eight of Judy's harum scarum Hayden tutorial---------------- Section One -----------------Ok, finally on to harmonization.There's no one right way to harmonize anything: just what sounds bestto you. But that's hard to figure out, so you have to beginsomewhere.The easiest starting point is just to play the root note of the key --G -- in the left hand, on the first note of every measure. That wayyou are keeping the rhythm very clear (dancers like that!) and gettingsome practice with your left hand operating in a different pattern fromyour right hand.While you're doing that, listen to what you are playing and thinkabout when it sounds good, when it doesn't sound so good, and how itgets pretty tedious after a while. Either on paper, or in your head, make a map of the tune to keep trackof when "G" sounded good and when it didn't. Having learned the tuneall broken up into tunelets can help you to have a map in your head--"I liked G with the first tunelet, but not the second... "--------------------------Now that you have a bit of an idea of where you like the G, and whereyou don't, here's some ideas for other notes besides G. The easiestway is to get ideas from someone else. In the Waltz Book, thereare chords written -- just the letter names. A straight forwardstarting point is to play the letters written (ignoring all puzzlingqualifiers like "7" and "6" and /B and m, which I'll get into later).Here's the abc:X:1T:Tombigbee WaltzS:The Waltz Book, Bill MatthiesonM:3/4L:1/4K:GB/A/ || "G"GBB | "(GM7)"d2 B/A/| "(G6)"GBB | "G"d2 B |\ "Am"BAA | ABd | "C"e2 d | "D7"B>c B/A/ | "G"GBB | "(GM7)"d2 B/A/| "(G6)"GBB | "G"d2 B |\ "Am"BAA | ABd | "C"ed "D"F | "G"G2 d || "G"g2d | "G/B"g2 d | "C"e>dc | "G"d2 B |\ "Am"BAA | ABd | "C"e2 d | "D"B2 d | "G"g2d | "G/B"g2 d | "C"e>dc | "G"d2 B |\ "Am"BAA | ABd | "C"ed "D"F | "G"G2 ||Get really comfortable with using the letter names of the chords tocreate a left hand. As you play, listen for which left-hand notessound really good, and which ones don't sound as good.Once you've gotten comfortable with that, try this: for thoseleft-hand notes which DON'T sound so good to you, substitute adifferent note IN THE SAME CHORD......what's a chord?.....the most BASIC definition of a chord is any group of notessounding at the same time.... kind of like "a word is a group ofletters" (but not just any random group of letters!)So: there's groups of letters which mean something; and there's groupsof specific notes that have a good sound, and have names.For example: the G major chord is GBD all sounded at once.Similarly, the C major chord is CEG all sounded at once.Play the G chord. Play the C chord. Observe how they are the samepattern, just shifted to a different part of the button map.Back to the tune: if it says "C" over the melody, but if you'vedecided you don't particularly like how the C sounds with that part ofthe melody, try the E.As you experiment with that, notice how easy it is to find the 'nextnote up" in the chord.Here's a list of chords used with Tombigbee, spelled out:"G" G B D"GM7" G B D F#"G6" G B D E"Am" A C E"C" C E G"D7" D F# A C "G/B" means either a G major chord, or a B chord, which would be B D# F#I think you have plenty to work with at this point.If it feels overwhelmingly too many notes to deal with, go back abit: play just the note names as written in the sheet music, or even just the G. Move back and forth between what's comfortable, and what's more difficult.Keep building up that map in your mind, the map that helps you remember where G (or C, or F# ) in the left hand sounds goodand where it doesn't sound so good.-------------------------------------------------------------All of the above -- all the way back to breaking up the tune intotunelets and learning them -- is stuff you can apply on your own toany tune out there.Try it!Next few chapters I'll get into some more different possiblities withchords in the left hand. Edited August 19, 2013 by judyhawkins Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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