Harmonizing Tips Piano Pages   William Wieland
  • Play a chord on each downbeat.
  • You may need only one chord per bar. (Some melody notes will be nonharmonic tones.)
  • Most melodies end with the last two chords of the cadence pattern, an authentic cadence.
  • More than one good harmonization of a melody is possible. (There is more than one right answer.)
A descending 5-finger pattern can be harmonized by a cadence pattern.
Printed Music
Sol–la–ti–do can be harmonized by most of a cadence pattern.
Printed Music
Many notes of a diatonic melody sound good with a dominant chord.
Printed Music
1 and 3 sound good with the tonic triad while
4 and 6 sound good with the subdominant triad.
Printed Music
Here is an exercise to help you select appropriate chords for given melody notes.
Printed Music