Harmony
Harmonizing a Melody: How to Choose the Chords
Harmonizing a melody means choosing a chord for each strong beat that contains the melody note. This worked example uses the opening of Ode to Joy in C.
The archive
Articles
100 pieces on how music is built and how it is written down — with playable examples, tables you can check, and no filler.
♮ intro · ♯♯ intermediate · ♯♯♯♯ advanced — like key signatures, more marks means more to hold in mind
Harmony
Pedal Point and Ostinato Explained: Holding and Repeating a Bass
Pedal point holds one bass note while the harmony above it changes. An ostinato repeats a short pattern. This covers the kinds of pedal, how clashes resolve, and the ground bass.
Harmony
Chromatic Mediants Explained: Major Chords a Third Away
A chromatic mediant is a triad a third from the tonic that lies outside the key. For C major the four are E♭, E, A♭ and A major, and each one shares a note with the C triad.
Harmony
Diminished and Half-Diminished Sevenths Explained
The fully diminished seventh is four notes stacked in minor thirds, and the half-diminished seventh is a diminished triad with a minor seventh. This is how each one spells and resolves in C.
Harmony
The Tonnetz Explained: Euler's Lattice and Chord Moves
The Tonnetz is a lattice of fifths and major thirds whose triangles are triads. Leonhard Euler described it in 1739, and this is how to read it.
Harmony
Chord Symbols Explained: Major, Minor, Seventh and Slash Chords
A chord symbol names the root, the quality, the extra notes and the bass. Here is how to read Cmaj7, C7, Cm7, C/E and C7b9, and the notes each one contains.
Harmony
Diatonic Chords in Major and Minor Keys Explained
Diatonic chords are the triads built on each scale degree from the key's own notes. Here are their qualities in major and minor, worked out in C and A.
Harmony
Non-Chord Tones: Passing, Neighbour, Suspension and More
A non-chord tone is a note that sounds over a chord without belonging to it. Here are the main types, how each is approached and left, and how to write them.
Harmony
Roman Numeral Analysis: How to Label a Chord Progression
Roman numerals label each chord by the scale degree of its root and its quality. Here is a step-by-step method, with I vi IV V worked in C and G.
Harmony
Suspended Chords: Sus2 and Sus4 Explained
A sus chord swaps the third of a triad for the second or fourth. Here is what Csus2 and Csus4 contain, why neither is major or minor, and how they resolve.
Harmony
Augmented Sixth Chords: Italian, French and German Types
Italian, French and German sixth chords: how each type is built, how they resolve to V, and their use in enharmonic modulation.
Harmony
The ii V I Progression in Major, Minor and Jazz Styles
Why ii V I is the backbone of tonal music: voice leading, turnarounds, minor-key forms, and the jazz reharm toolkit.
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The site's working library as a structured ebook: intervals, keys, harmony, counterpoint, rhythm, form, tuning, orchestration and the history behind them.
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