Melody and Harmony
Hold one note and change the chord underneath it. The pitch never moves and the feeling changes four times, because a note has no meaning of its own. The harmony hands it one.
- 1 note
- 4 chords
- 4 different feelings
Where you run into this
- Jazz
- Pop
- Arranging
- Songwriting
- Film music
In short
Hold a C in the melody. Over a C chord it is the root: neutral, closed, home. Over an A minor it is the third: warm, and suddenly the colour is minor. Over an F it is the fifth: open and floating, as if the note is no longer the centre. Over a D minor seventh it is the seventh: leaning, unfinished, asking for something next. Four identical pitches, four different jobs.
That is why reharmonising is so powerful. You can change what a melody means without touching a single note of it, which is the standard move in jazz arranging and in any second chorus that needs to feel different without being different.
How it works
Not every note works over every chord. Play a Cmaj7 and sing an F above it and it grates, because the F sits a half step above the E in the chord, and stretched over an octave that is a minor ninth, the roughest interval there is. In jazz that is called an avoid note. The rule of thumb: a tension note needs to be at least a whole step above a chord tone. On a minor chord the problem disappears, which is why Cm11 sounds natural and Cmaj11 does not.
Where you run into this
- A second chorus where the tune is identical and the chords underneath are not
- A held vocal note that seems to change colour without moving
- A melody note that clashes on one chord and sits perfectly on the next
Our own examples
One held note with four chords under it, playable in any key, plus the avoid-note demonstration so you can hear the minor ninth that causes the clash rather than read about it.
Keep going
Everything in melody and form
- Writing a Melody
- Motifs and Phrasing
- Melody and Harmony
- Non-Chord Tones