Melody is the
main musical idea in a piece of music, a series of
notes that make sense together. The
singer often provides the melody in a song, but other instruments can as well.
Melodies are an organized series of musical tones of given pitches and
durations. Melodies are distinguished from one another by several traits, for
instance how the notes rise and fall, how far in pitch notes are apart and the
duration of notes. Melodies can be built by combining and varying several
motives, or short, recognizable groups of notes. Several motives can be combined
in a theme, or a longer melodic fragment used as part of a larger composition.
Harmony is more than one note played at the same time. The main note is the melody and the other notes are the harmony. They often make a song sound richer or more full. ‘Backing’ singers often are called harmony singers. The simplest harmony is two people singing the same notes - this is called singing in unison. Playing a chord on an instrument is also a harmony. Harmonies can be very complex, or very simple. The simplest harmony, called unison, is two people singing the same thing at the same time.
Listen to Happy Birthday and follow along with the music. Even if you're not sure what the notes mean, you should be able to hear the melody. You should also be able to see and hear low notes supporting the melody and some high harmony note moving around to keep things interesting.
Listen to some more examples of melody and harmony:
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U2 - Van Diemen's Land - Here a simple melody is accompanied by an electric guitar Beach Boys - Unreleased Backgrounds - First there is a simple melody followed by a multi-part harmony. Destiny's Child - Independent Woman pt. 1 - The lead vocalist provides the melody, but the other singers add harmony by singing different notes at the same and different times. The Beatles - Because - Classic three part harmony. Some of the voices provide extra notes to add interest to the song (called ornamentation). Billy Bragg & Wilco - Walt Whitman's Niece - This song features a technique known as 'call and response' where one part (in this case the lead vocal) calls and the other (here the backing vocalists) replies. It is also known as 'question and answer'. |
Here is another set of examples all drawn from the same piece of music, J. S. Bach's Invention #13 in A Minor
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Melody only - Played on the violin, this is the primary line of the song. Generally in Western music, we tend to assign the melody to the higher pitched instrument(s). Harmony only - Played on the double bass, this is the harmony line. By itself it could also be considered a melody, but since it is lower in pitch, we generally consider it to be a harmony when played with the other part. Both together - You can hear how both parts connect and go together as well as how they play off of each other. Rap Remix - How Dr. Dre might imagine the whole thing, only you add the rap. |
