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ti: fl| {l li ' lli i; Chapter VI FITTING CHORDS TO A GIVENMELODIC LINE Oneofthe mostdiffrculttasks facingthe jazzaranger-composer is thatofascertainingtheharmonizationto a given melody line. The ananger-composer might encounter the problemwhen: l. He attempts to harmonizeur original melody of his orvn. 2. He attempts to harmonize someone else'smelody, le., standard, jazz hrne, etc. 3. He attempts to check the harmonization in a "fake" book(oftenwrong)or on a piece of sheet music (often pedestrian). This chapterwill concern itself with somegeneral and specific rules for dealing with these situations. l. Make sure thatyou knowthemelody, that you areable to sing or play it correctly. Very oftenwehave only a vague impression of a melodyculled from a record or some other source. It is absolutely necessary to be able to reproduce the melody conectly beforeproceeding to the next steps. 2. Try to ascertain the key. a. Check key sigrature if possible. b. Play or singthe melody,stoppingat phrase ends to check resolving tendencies.Frcm eachof these points of rest try to sing or play to the tonic of the key. (example l) 3. Reduce themelody to its essentials; simplify themelodic line,getting rid of embellishing tones, appoggiatura and other decorative material. (example 2) 4. Find a bassline that sounds good against the melodythen fill in the chorrds. 5. Checkto see if thetuneis subsumed underanother stnrchrral and/orharmonic type. (Blues,I Got Rhythm, etc.) Many bebop tunesare basedon the changes to standard tunes. 6. Generally,the slowerthe tempo the fasterthe harmonicrhythm andconversely the faster the tempo the slowerthe harmonic rhythn (example 3) 7. Checkthepossibilitiesfortheuseofharmonicformulae. Dosectionsofthetunelendthemselvestocertain established formulae suchas: II V, or M tr V, etc.?(example 4) Checkthose sections of thehrne where turnarounds of certain typeswould normally be found ( Last two measures of sections, etc.) (example 5) . 8. Work bachrards from ends of phrases or points of rest placeswhere the chord is known or at least suspected For instance, ifthe last chordis a tonic chord, check to see ifit is preceded by aII V, progression or one of its substitutions.(example 6) a- Check for Vr's or II Vr's leadingto each new key area. (example 7) b. Look for logical root movement (refer to the chart of root progressions on page5l). 9. Look for cadence and semi-cadence points with their traditionally-implied chords. 10. Look for resolving tendencies of the melodynotes, for instance o7's down a half stepto the 3rd of another chord" (example8) I l. Test seemingly logical formulaeagainst melody notes for discrepancies or verification (example9) 12. Look for obviousformulaebut don't close your mind to other possibilities. 13. Within the bar, assigt as many notesas possible to the same chord,particularly at fast tempos. (example l0) a. Lok for chord outlines(explicit or implicit); (obviousor disguised). (cxamplc I l) b. Look for scales, scalefragrnents that suggest certain chordsor tonal areas. (example 12) 14. Harmonic changes usually follow the bar line or the normaldivision of the bar. For example, n a 4/4 measure theharmonic changes would occuron the first or thethird beat as opposed to the second andfourth or a fraction of the beal (example 13) Avoid carrying a change acrossthe bar line. 15. With the exceptionof the dominant 7th chord, avoid having stings of chords of the samequality in succession, i.b., major ?th, minor 7th, etc. (example 14) The problem is not so acute in chromatic situations. (example 15) 16. Try to recall similar melodiesand how they are harmonized 17. Set up sure harmonies and fill in all the 'Jigpaw" ptuzle. (example 16) 18. AvoidtheBachchoraleapproachexceptforsubstibrtionorvariation TheBachchoraleapproachissimply a chord changefor each note. Obviously this kind of harmonization will pose great problems in compositions that will serveas improvisational vehicles. (example l7) 45
