What is Harmony ?

Musical Harmony

Harmony is a unison of multiple differently pitched notes played together at the same time. A combination of simultaneously sounded musical notes to produce a soothing effect. A musical line that harmonically complements the melody.

Harmony , Chord & Intervals

Harmony brings another important thing in mind, called Chord. Chord is a group of notes sounded together. It is sometimes the arrangement of the individual pitches in a chord. It is the extensively developed system of chords .

The difference in the pitch between two notes is called their interval. Two-note harmonies have one interval.  Three-note harmonies have three intervals, between each note and each other & so on.

•  Notes blend naturally, all instruments together create a pleasing or consonant sound. Here some intervals applied. Consonance makes it easy to listen to. Consonant sounds may be little dull without much variation.
•  Dissonant chord creates, when the instruments does not fit with each other, with more intervals added than consonant chord. Dissonance sometimes unintentionally created by the musicians, it has lots of variations. Smoothness of music is somehow misses in this version according to some review says.

How harmony works

It is represented by roman numerals. It describes  what harmonic category a chord belongs to. In tonal music, there are three functional categories:

• Tonic chord is resting places where the harmonic action of a song feels the most stable.
• Dominant chord is the next most important. It is almost the opposite of tonic chords.
• Predominant chord used to bridge the gap between I and V.

Harmonic Theories

Counterpoint refers to the relationship between melodic lines, largely went out of style in the early 1700s. It develops by creating another melody line on top of the original. Two voices or instruments playing different notes at different times.

• Parallel motion is when two voices move while keeping the same interval  relationship.
• Similar motion is when two voices move according to the same.
• Oblique motion is where one voice moves while the other stays in place.
• Contrary motion is when two voices move in opposite directions.

Different Types of Musical Harmony

• Diatonic harmony is the study of how notes within a key relate to one another. Here the notes and chords all trace back to a master scale. It’s found ancient Greek instrumentals to Renaissance chorales to contemporary pop hits.
• Non-diatonic harmony introduces notes that aren’t all part of the same master scale. This form of harmony is completely idiomatic to jazz, but it appears in all forms of music.
• Atonal harmony doesn’t have a tonal center. It’s away from tonality, with a fixed pitch center, to freely associated harmony.