Chords for How to Find Harmony (The Easy Way)

People talk about harmony like it's this mythical creature that you have to stumble around and hope you're lucky enough to find.
But finding harmony is actually pretty simple.
I don't just want to help you hear the harmony, but I want you to visualize it too.
Most of the time all you're looking for is one harmony part, which gives you some room to move around.
But keep in mind that as you add more harmonies, the parts have to be a little [Gm] more precise in order to sound good,
and you might have to change a few notes.
But we'll work our way up to that.
So let's start with finding just one harmony.
Before you can find the harmony, you have to start with the melody.
Here's a simple melody many of you should be familiar with. _ _ _ _
[D] _ _ [E] _ _ _ _ [D] _ _
_ [Em] _ _ _ _ _ So [E] the first harmony we're going to find is the high harmony.
All you have to do is start with the first note of the melody, _ and go up two notes in scale.
[F] _ [Em] _ _ _ _ Not just two [F] notes, _ [Gb] _ _ _ [F] but two notes in scale.
_ _ [Em] _ _ _ _
So since we're playing in the key of [F] C, _ _
_ [C] _ [E] which uses just all the white notes, we can bypass the black notes.
So starting on the melody, and going up two notes in [Bb] scale.
[Em] _ _ _
_ Once you've found that note, _ all you have to do is lock on to the melody.
If the melody goes down, the harmony goes down.
If the melody goes up, the harmony goes up.
_ _ [Dm] _
[Am] _ [Bb] _ [Em] _ _ _ _ _ _
Let's look at another melody and do the same thing. _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _ _
[D] _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ [G] So we start on the first note of the melody, _ go [Em] up two notes [A] in scale, [G] _ _ _ and then we lock on to the melody.
_ [C] _ _ _ _
_ _ [F] _ _ [Am] _ _ _
[E] So that's the high harmony.
Now let's find the low harmony.
We're going to start with the first note of the melody, _ but [D] instead of going up two notes in scale,
we're going to go down [C] _ two notes in scale. _
Once you're there, the same rules apply.
If the melody goes up, the harmony goes up.
If it goes down, the harmony follows.
_ _ [Bm] _ [Am] _ [Bm] _ [Am] _ _ _
_ _ _ So for the most part, this is all you have to do if you're just looking for one harmony part.
Now [Em] from these two parts, we can actually find two more.
Just because the high harmony _ _ is above the melody doesn't mean you have to sing it there.
If [Bb] it's too high, [G] you could sing it an [Em] octave lower. _
_ _ [C] And just because the low harmony _ is below the melody doesn't mean you have to sing it that low.
You could sing it _ an octave higher.
_ Usually if I'm singing along with a female vocalist, I like to sing the higher harmony an octave lower.
_ _ _ _ [F] _ _
_ [Em] _ _ _ _ _ You can add these parts together too.
It's basically three vocal parts, [C] but if you have every part on a different octave, you could have up to six parts.
However, if you're going to add parts together, you might have to make a few adjustments.
Let's listen to that first example with the high and low harmony together.
_ _ _ [B] _ [Am] _ _ [B] _
[C] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
It almost sounds good, but something's a little off.
This is where chords come in.
Now that we have three different notes, together they create a chord.
There are four basic types of chords.
_ Major, minor, diminished, and augmented.
_ You might be familiar with major sounding happy, _ _ _ and [Cm] minor sounding sad. _ _ _
[C] But that's not why they get their name.
They get their name because of their shape.
Let's look at the C major chord.
_ _ You'll notice that there are three notes in between the first and the third note. _
And there are two notes between the third and the fifth note. _
_ If [A] we look at a G major [G] chord, _ you'll notice the same shape.
Three notes between the first and third, [E] two notes between the third and fifth.
Now, if we look at a minor [C] chord, [Cm] _ _ _
it's the opposite.
There are two notes [Ab] between the first and the third, and there are three notes between the third and the [Am] fifth.
Here's an A minor.
_ _ Same shape.
Two, three. _ _ _
The reason our harmony sounded [C] weird was because we created a diminished chord in there.
_ _ [B] _
_ _ And you'll notice the diminished chord has two notes between the first and the third,
and two notes between the third and the fifth.
This is a common problem.
It's more likely to happen with a diminished chord [G] than an augmented [Bb] chord.
_ _ _ Now, I'm not saying it's wrong to sing harmonies in a diminished or [C] augmented chord,
but in most songs, it's going to sound off.
To make it work, you would have to intentionally craft a song to work with those chords.
The fix is fairly simple, though.
You just have to move one of the harmony notes up or down one note.
_ _ _ _ [B] _ _
_ _ [Dm] _ _ _ _ _ [C] _
[Dm] _ [C] _ _ [Dm] _ [C] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ Sometimes this can make the harmony [B] part sound kind of jumpy because you're having to skip notes,
and sometimes it can make it sound monotone because you're having to stay on one note.
Sometimes harmonies will sound fine on their own, but sound weird once you sing them over top a chord progression.
You want to make sure your part doesn't clash awkwardly with the chord played underneath it.
Usually this means only one note will work, but sometimes harmonies give you the choice between two notes.
Neither one is right or wrong, it's just whatever sounds best to you.
Notice when we play with the low [Am] harmony, [Bm] _
[Am] _ [Bm] _ [Am] _ _ _ [C] it sounds fine on its own,
but once we add the left hand playing the bass notes, you'll hear a clash. _ _ _
[G] _ [C] _ _ _ _ You hear that clash?
[Bm] _ _ [A] _ _ That's because our harmony is singing an A, while our bass [G] is playing a G.
_ [A] _ _ [G] _ _ So all you would have to do to correct this is to move your note from an [Am] A to a G.
_ _ _ _ [C] _ [Dm] _ [C] _
_ _ _ _ _ Because you're basically just creating [Ab] chords with your voice,
you can create some pretty unique [E] harmonies with 7ths, 9ths, and 5ths.
_ _ _ [A] _ _ _ [B] _ _
[C] _ _ _ _ _ _ [A] _ _
_ [B] _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _
_ [A] _ _ [B] _ _ _ [C] _ _
_ _ _ [Am] _ _ _ [Bm] _ _
_ [C] _ _ _ _ _ [B] _ _
_ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _
_ [A] _ _ _ [Bm] _ _ [C] _ _
_ _ _ [B] _ _ [A] _ _ [E] _
_ [C] _ _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _
_ [E] _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _
_ [A] _ _ _ _ _ [E] When it comes to harmony, just keep things simple,
and as you become more familiar with how it works, you can experiment with more parts.
_ Anyway, I hope that was helpful.