Musical Harmony

Harmony definition: Harmony in music can be defined as the structure, relationship and progression of chords within a song. With the three basic elements of a song being harmony, melody and lyrics, you can see just how important harmony is.

So what exactly is a chord and how do you construct one?

 

Chord Structure

A chord is a combination of three or more notes sounded simultaneously. In order to construct a chord we use a formula. The formula for constructing the different types of chords is measured in intervals.

An interval is the distance between two notes and the basic unit of measuring intervals in music is a semitone (a.k.a. Half step).

If you have a piano you can find a semitone (half step) easily by going up or down on the keyboard to the next note, whether it is a black key or a white key.

To the left is a handy table for teaching you the names and distances of the different intervals.

For some more info on learning music theory check out this great beginners guide to music theory.

Chord Construction

Now that you know the different intervals it's easy to start constructing your own chords. Below is a table that shows the intervals used to make a particular chord.

For Example: If you wanted to make a minor 7th chord you would use the intervals 1,b3,5,b7. In the key of C the notes would be C,Eb,G,Bb.

The overall feel and mood of a song is influenced heavily the types of chords used; major chords giving it an upbeat, happy sound; minor chords giving it a more moody, sad feel; 7th chords giving it a fuller, more polished sound. Harmony is what gives your plain black and white picture a bit of color and life.

 

Chord Progressions

A chord progression is simply a series of chords sounding one after the other but in order to make a chord progression we first need to know what chords we can use.

Below is a table of the chords that can be used to represent each degree while still only using the notes within the key.



Musical harmony is what adds colour and texture to your songs, without musical harmony your canvas would be black and white.