In the April/May 2006 issue of MET (see “Tips and Techniques: Controlling the Elements”), I emphasized the need for students to learn to identify and manipulate musical elements such as melody, harmony, rhythm, tempo, and dynamics. In this article, we'll focus on harmony.

FIG. 1: One way to generate interest in a chordal harmony track is to vary the track's volume. This example, shown in Propellerhead Reason software, shows the volume level changes for Web Example 1.

Harmony is usually the most difficult musical element for beginning music students to understand. But students of almost any age can use the following simple editing techniques to create interesting harmony parts.

One of the easiest ways to generate interest in a chordal-harmony track is to vary the track's volume. Fig. 1 shows a two-measure phrase played three times. In the first two measures, the harmony track is played at normal volume. In the next two measures, the track's volume has been increased. The volume change in just this one track helps to focus the listener's attention on the harmony.

In the final two measures, the harmony track is muted. Muting individual tracks at different points in a song is an easy and effective way to vary the sound of an arrangement. In this example, the music sounds thinner, but our ears recall the repeated chord progression and fill in the missing harmony (see Web Example 1).

Another easy technique to vary the sound of a chordal harmony track is to play the track up or down an octave at various points in the song. Web Example 2 is another two-measure phrase played three times. In the first two measures, the harmony part is played at its original pitch. In the next two measures, the harmony part is transposed down one octave, giving the harmony part a heavier, thicker sound. In the final two measures, the harmony part is transposed up one octave from its original pitch, giving the harmony part a lighter, thinner sound.

Each of these transpositions produces a dramatic change in the song's texture. This technique is easier to perform with MIDI data than with audio files. If the distortion produced by transposing the audio file doesn't work in a song, try substituting an audio file recorded in a different octave.

You can also vary a chordal-harmony track by changing the sound used for the part. The instrument used for a MIDI track can be changed by inserting Program Change commands. While you can't change the instrument in an audio track, its timbre can be greatly altered using signal processors, such as equalizers, delays, and flangers. Audio processors are available in hardware and software form.

The first two measures of Web Example 3 use the same pad sound heard in the previous examples. In the third and fourth measures, the sound is filtered with an equalizer, producing a sound like a megaphone. Notice how that effect thins out the sound.

FIG. 2: The top line shows the chords used in Web Examples 1, 2, and 3. The bottom line shows the melodic line created by deleting the root and fifth of each chord. This melody can be heard in Web Example 4.

In the final two measures, the filtered sound is processed through a flanger, which gives the track a sense of motion and fluidity. Flanging is usually accomplished by splitting an audio signal into two identical signals, applying a constantly varying 2 to 15 ms delay to one signal, and mixing the processed signal with the unaltered signal. This results in a swept, swooshy-sounding effect.

If the chordal-harmony track consists of MIDI data, here is a great way to vary the harmony for part of a song. The first line of Fig. 2 shows the triads used in the Web examples. You can create a countermelody that provides harmonic support by deleting some of the notes in the chords. The second line shows a melodic phrase created by deleting the root and the fifth of each chord. (The root is already provided by the bass part, and the less important fifth is implied in most of the melody line.) The countermelody created from the chords adds another melodic element to the song while still providing harmony.

Web Example 4 demonstrates this effect. The first two measures include the original chords, and the next two measures demonstrate the countermelody played in its original octave. The final two measures go a step further by using a different sound and transposing the notes up two octaves.

All of the techniques discussed here can be used to vary the sound of a chordal-harmony track without reharmonizing. In this way, even beginning students struggling with the concepts of harmony can learn to create effective harmonic variations. There are no hard-and-fast rules for applying these techniques, but they can often help students produce more interesting music.

Don Muro (www.donmuro.com) is a member the NYSSMA Technology Committee and the TI:ME Board of Directors.