Melodic Writing & Harmony

This lesson is part of the Melodic Techniques category.

Objectives

• Students will be able to analyze a melodic phrase for shape and intervallic composition
• Students will be familiar with the pentatonic scale and other subsets of the major scale.
• Students will be able to compose a simple piano or guitar accompaniment to a vocal melody.
• Students will be familiar with how melody and harmony influence one another.
• Students will be able to analyze a melody for implied basic diatonic harmony.

Class Activities

• Discussions and definitions of melodic shape, intervallic composition (steps, skips, leaps)
• Shape and interval analysis of melodies from music of multiple genres and time periods
• Activity where students improvise a short melody given a shape, an intervallic descriptor (“stepwise,” “disjunct,” etc.), and a grammatical descriptor (“final,” “energetic,” etc.)
• Discussion of implied harmony in melody
• Demonstration of writing an accompaniment for a melody and various accompaniment techniques
• Composition of an accompaniment for a given or student-composed vocal melody
• Analysis of harmonic accompaniment of different styles of melody

Assignments

• “Error” identification in written melodies or their harmonic accompaniments
• Analysis of melodies for intervallic composition
• Composition of well-formed melodies
• Creating a harmonic accompaniment for a given melody