Harmonizing Melody With Chords PART 1: Using Triads on First Set of 3 Adjacent Strings

Introduction

In this segment, we are going to cover some basic techniques in harmonizing melody by voicing chords(in this case, triads) underneath our melody notes. A familiarity with triads, major scales, and the notes on your strings can be very helpful in comprehending and applying this concept. I recommend familiarizing yourself with the single-string approach and the triad lessons in this blog first so that you can grasp this material more easily.

For the sake of practice, we will start by limiting ourselves to 3 things:

1.) Notes of the C major scale on the 1st string. These will be designated for melody

2.) The 7 diatonic triads within the key of C major ( C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am, Bdim)

3.) Just the first 3 adjacent strings on the guitar (1st, 2nd, and 3rd) in standard tuning.

In Ex.1, is a C major scale played on the 1st string from the open string to the 12 fret from the "E" to "E". Play the scale tones in Ex. 1,  ascending and descending, until you are comfortable with the locations and the names of the tones. Sing them so that you get a good aural feel for them.We are going to take these scale tones and harmonize them in a few variations using basic diatonic triads. Eventually, we will use these scale tones to build melodies and harmonize them with chords.

 

Ok, so now that we have our scale tones on the 1st string under our fingers and in our ears, lets take a look at how they can be harmonized using basic diatonic triad voicings in Examples 2-4. Notice how the scale tones in Ex.1 are the top notes of the triad voicings in all the examples. With this technique, we are harmonizing below the melody.
As you work through each example, you should do two things to make yourself aware of what's happening in this process: 1.) Sing the scale tones that you are harmonizing and 2.) Always be aware of what chord (Dm, F, Am, etc.) you are harmonizing with. Practice each example until you can play them comfortably, ascending and descending.
 

Another way of perceiving this material is to look at one scale tone and harmonize it with all 3 diatonic triads shown in Ex. 5 and Ex.6 below. Sing the top tone and play through each harmonization. What do you notice?

Alright, so now that we have some familiarity with the scale tones, chord shapes, and the harmonizations from the above examples, let's look at some examples of how we can take a melody and harmonize it in a couple different ways by using the material from above

We are going to use this short melodic phrase in Ex. 7 as our guinea pig . Play this phrase, sing it, and get it in your ear. In Ex. 8, I harmonized the phrase only using the three major chords in the key (C, F, G). In Ex.9, I used only the 3 minor chords in the key. For Ex.10 and Ex.11, I used a mix of the two.

Exercise: Now try your own. Compose a simple melody using 3 or 4 notes in Ex.1. Once you have your melody/note choices down, try harmonizing each of your notes with any of their three options provided in Ex.2 - Ex.4. Practice playing your melody as chords and singing the melody as you play. Notice how the "color" or character of your melody changes as you use different chord options.
Remember, their is plenty more possibilities for harmonizing these melody notes but for now, we will limit ourselves to these until they are internalized in our musical minds.