Worship Musician Magazine September 2020 | Page 131

creating a solo line, consider harmonizing it
with a sixth below. It’s a beautiful sound and, as
expected, works very well for vocal harmonies.
THIRD. How convenient! My third tip for you is
a third! Yep. One of the foundational concepts
in music theory is inversions. In its simplest
definition, any interval can be inverted. The
bottom note becomes the top note. In other
words, the sixth that started this chorus, F on
top with A below, can be inverted. Move the
bottom note to the top. Now you have A with
an F below. That interval is a third. Here are
thirds stacked above the chorus melody. Note
that the melody of the song is now the lower
note, and the harmony note is on top.
A A A A A A G G
F F F F F F E E
What a beau-ti-ful name it is,
G G G G G G F F
E E E E E E D D
What a beau-ti-ful name it is,
A A A A G F E C
F F F F E D C A
The name of Je-sus Christ, my King
FOUR. Master this sixth/third interval in any key
and you’ll discover that you can play a great
sounding harmony for any melody. You may
be thinking that vocal harmonies have to have
three parts. That definitely isn’t the case. Two
part harmonies, like this melody harmonized
with either a sixth or a third, or very common
in modern worship music, so you’ll definitely
benefit from being comfortable with playing
these notes above your song’s melody.
FIFTH. Using a sixth below your melody will
generally work well with most notes of your
melody. Sometimes though, you may need
to harmonize with the fifth below the melody
rather than the sixth. Let your ear be the judge.
And let your understanding of chord spellings
grow so you can be confident about whether
the fifth or sixth is a better sounding harmony
for a given note.
For example, as the chorus continues and the
melody/lyric is:
E G G G C D
Noth- ing com- pares to this
Here I’ll show the note that is a sixth below
each melody note.
E G G G C D
G B B B E F
Noth- ing com- pares to this
If you play this melody with these sixths below
each note you may feel that sixths harmonizing
the “ -ing compares to” and “this” feel a little
funny. That’s because they don’t fit within
the chord used at this point of the chorus. In
situations like this, move from playing the sixth
below the melody to playing the fifth instead.
The resulting note will fit the chord better. Like
this:
E G G G C D
G C C C E G
Noth- ing com- pares to this
Does all of this talk of intervals and inversions
feel overwhelming? Think back to the first time
you tried to play from a chord chart or used
a pad sound on your keyboard. You’ve made
progress in many areas of your musical abilities
over time. Put some effort into learning to build
appropriate harmonies below the melodies of
your songs, and with time you’ll find that your
fingers naturally go to notes that sound great
below any melody.
In next month’s article I’ll give you tips on how to
find a second harmony note for those moments
when you want more than a vocal duet.
Ed Kerr
Ed Kerr lives in Seattle with his family. He serves as
worship arts director at First Free Methodist Church,
teaches keyboards in Paul Baloche’s leadworship
workshops and is a clinician with Yamaha’s House
of Worship. He also manages the Yamaha Worship
Facebook group and invites you to join the group.
www.KerrTunes.com
September 2020
Subscribe for Free...
131