Should I Start With the Melody or the Harmony?
This is a common question when learning to compose music. The answer is a simple one. You need to start with both.
How Do I Start with Both Melody and Harmony?
Let me stat out by asking you a question. If you were to write a simple melody as follows:
Are you writing the melody first? Yes. But you are also writing the harmony first. Let me explain.
The Melody Should Outline The Harmony
As a beginner composer, it is important to be specific about what you write. The reason for this is you are still learning the craft. Practicing specificity in the music you compose teaches you an important thing, how not to be ambiguous.
Ambiguity is an effect that could be used deliberately for certain effects, but we are not concerned about that here. For our purposes in learning how to compose music, ambiguity is our enemy. We do not gain any experience from just throwing down notes on a piece of paper.
So back to the above example.
You will notice in the first bar, three specific notes are played.
C 
E 
and G 
With just these three notes, it is very clear what the harmony is, the tonic, especially as they are at the beginning of the composition. But after these notes, there is another, very specific figure that helps us outline the harmony as well.
If we call these two notes by their scale degree name, the leading tone, then it is also very clear what the harmony should be, V or dominant.
And then of course, it goes back to the tonic scale degree after this.
So we end up with this:
The point I am trying to make is you can approach a composition horizontally, writing a melody first, or you can approach it vertically, writing the harmony first. But, if you really want to make leaps and bounds in your composing, you should practice composing non-ambiguous music, that takes into account both melody and harmony at the same time. This will help you hone your skills and give you the resources to flesh out what you hear in your head.
As an exercise, see if you can fill out the harmony in this melody below.
Let me know what you think.
Jon
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About Jon
On this lesson along with the Start composing, I am curious how the note B in the C Major scale can be the V . I believe it should be the vii diminished. G is the V, isn’t it?
Hey Michelle,
The melody can be any of the chord tones in a specific harmony. So in this case, the melody being B, is the 3rd of V. You are correct though in saying it could be a diminished vii. Either one will work.
Of course Jon is quite correct. V is probably a more common harmonisation of the leading note in a melodic situation like this, but vii (especially in first inversion, i.e. vii6 (or viib, if you prefer)) is possible, and frequently occurs in Baroque music (especially Handel).
hi
i think that the harmony for the first line should be like this:
Am ,F ,E ,Am since the melody is writen in a minor key
i ,VI ,VII,i
but regarding the second line i didnt know what to do cause i dont know the proper harmony for melodic minor .
my problems began with F sharp.
can you explain pls.
im sorry i mmean i,VI,V,i
Interesting that you heard this as a minor melody. In that case, your harmonization would be fine. The best thing you could do for the second phrase, would be to have a D7 or V/VII as a pivot chord, and then end on a G.
I originally composed this as a major melody.
The harmony being I – IV – III# (V/vi) – vi.
The second phrase was still V/V – V – I.
Thanks for the different viewpoint.
thanks dude.
Hi, I think it was
I – IV – III – vi
II – II – V – V
>//<
That is correct. I prefer to write the II as V/V to show that the V is being tonicized with it’s own dominant. Thanks.
Thanks, but I don’t know about “Write the II as V/V to show that the V is being tonicized with it’s own dominant”. I don’t understand what it means.
He means that the II chord can instead be rewritten as the V chord of the V chord. For example:
In the key of C, the II chord is d-minor, but you can flip it to a D-major if you instead treat D as the the V of G, which is normally the “dominant” or V chord of C. By playing the dominant V chord of G–i.e., the D-major–the G becomes more like the tonic.
Very well put. Thank you.
Using a C major scale (C,D,E,F,G,A,B,C), triads (3-note chords) built by superimposing 3rd intervals, can be built on each lettername. Each triad derived from a major scale has a major or minor quality with the exception of the triad built on the 7th step. For example C-E-G is major and D-F-A is minor. The triad built from step 7 is B-D-F (diminished). Since this triad is neither major or minor, it can’t represent a major or minor key. So, ignore that one for now.
The remaining major and minor triads built on top of D,E,F,G,A, can each be preceded by their own V (OR any form of V). Precede Dmi with A7, Emi with E7, F with C7, G with D7, Ami with E7. This applies to all and any of the major and minor chords of a key, both major and minor keys. These dominant chords strengthen the chord progressions into the non-tonic chords of the key. Since their destination is to a major or minor chord, they are also used to change the key into that destination chord quality (modulation). That is, you can continue writing in your original key after the progression or in the key of the destination chord. Of course, modulation depends on where you are in the structure of your work.