Harmony

Harmony vs. Melody

When you play a series of notes by yourself, you are playing a melody.

Listen below to hear a very classical sounding melody.

When two or more different notes occur at the same time, it creates harmony. Harmony can produce a happy sound (MAJOR Harmony). Or a sad sound (MINOR Harmony). Click on the player below, to hear the same classical melody with harmony. Listen for the places is sounds happy (major) or sad (minor).

Let’s try it.

In this song, the saxophone will play the harmony part.

This song uses the note C which appears in black. The other notes are color coded as before. Each note is a half note, meaning they all get two beats of sound. There are no rests in this song, so it is OK to sometimes cut a note short in order to take a quick breath.

This song is based on a famous classical piece called Cannon in D by Johan Pachelbel.

Now try to perform the song by yourself.