Nothing groundbreaking here, just follow your ear and learn to listen, before you learn a bunch of reharmonization techniques and apply them like a robot.
You know when, sometimes, you see a pair of jeans and think “those would look pretty cool if they were slightly worn here and had some tears and patches here.” Ok fine, if that’s not your style, how about when you look around your house and think “yeah, maybe we should put some fresh paint on the walls and get a vibe going between all the furniture and décor”. That’s the stuff jazz musicians were thinking, about tunes from musicals. Many of the jazz standards we know and love today, come from musicals such as “Guys and Dolls”, “The Sound of Music”, “My Fair Lady”, etc. And jazz musicians made the songs their own right away, changing the harmonies to create more movement in the chord structure, tweaking the songs so they would be more interesting to improvise over and so on. They were reharmonizing the songs.
Reharmonization means to take away the existing harmony in a song and write new harmony to the melody. “Re” because it already had a harmony, and you decide to re-do the harmony or re-harmonize. Usually though, you would work on a few chords, or on a section, you would not just get rid of all of the chords and write new ones. Usually, a musician would choose “boring” parts of a song to reharmonize, or add chord movement to. Moments when the melody note is the root of the chord for example. They would find an alternative chord that would give the melody note more colour against the root. Like placing a bright, red lamp in the middle of a white room; it stands out, it adds colour. Sometimes, when you change one chord, you might get an idea to change the chords that are before that chord, or the chords that follow the new chord, to create a more connected sound, to create flow in the harmony, or to give the song even more of a unique taste.
Before starting to reharmonize a song, think of why you want to do it, which parts you would change, and the feelings you want to create with the new harmony. Think of the purpose that your reharmonization needs to serve or can serve. How your reharmonization can change the vibe of the song. If you add a descending bass line on a slow ballad for example, you would be creating an intimate mood, longing, but at the same time something that has direction. And what about if you add a pedal note on the bridge of a fast swing? Could be a cool way to build tension!
Like with everything, the best way to learn something is by doing. Start by reharmonizing something short and simple that you know really well. Maybe “O Christmas Tree”, a children’s song, or a simple pop song. Play it first at the piano with only the melody and the roots. Then find places you think you could make “better”. For example, when the melody is the same as the root. Try to pick out a different root for that part of the melody. Something maybe that gives a nice colour to the melody note, or flows from the previous root, or flows well into the next root. Remember, you can also change the previous chord or the next, if you want, or feel that it would create better voice leading- chromatic motion of notes moving from one chord to the next, resolving tensions. When you have decided on the new root, figure out what the chord would be, based on the root and melody note/s you have in that measure or section of the song. Basically, you are trying to figure out what scales or modes your notes could represent, and based on the root, name the chord. Check out my lesson on modes to learn how to do this.
This discovery method of reharmonization is more freeing and creative than going through a list of reharmonization techniques and choosing to use #2 in measure 5 and #4 in measure 13 for example. By trying different options without thinking about theory first, you are using your ears and your tastes to make your reharmonization, not your knowledge.
Here is an example of a reharmonization I did of the song “When You’re Smiling”. I followed my ears, and tried to get as close as I could to the sounds I heard in my head. Later I analyzed the choices I made so that we could make sense of the reharmonization theoretically. Take a look and listen, to the differences between the way the song is usually played and my reharm of it. I labeled the techniques so that next week we can dive into each, and see what they are all about.
Here's a link to the way the song is usually done: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNp7dCmbNXA
And here's my reharmonization: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MKYngYqVM72hucvqElnStsxEy5ZYL_ZA/view?usp=share_link
In the meantime, if you have any questions or want to take lessons with me, you can reach me at tetyanahar@gmail.com.
Comments