From the course: Songwriting Techniques with Chords

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Variations on harmonic rhythm

Variations on harmonic rhythm - Sibelius Tutorial

From the course: Songwriting Techniques with Chords

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Variations on harmonic rhythm

- Now we're going to double it again. Instead of having a chord happen each bar, we're going to have two chords happen each bar. Since the melody of the song consists entirely of half notes, this means we will be playing a chord for every note of the melody. This isn't something I would normally recommend doing as it can make the harmony feel a bit relentless, especially at the brisk tempo of this song. Let me play our version of House You Call Home, with a harmonic rhythm of one chord every bar. You heard it in the last video. ♫ I worked hard for fifteen years ♫ I gave you my blood, ♫ sweat, and tears ♫ I Now I'm going to build upon this harmonization of the song by creating chords beneath the melody notes that happen on beats three and four, the second half of each bar. I'm going to try to smooth out the relentless chord shifting by voice leading between harmonies. By making the chords feel like they are moving to and from each other, we can downplay the constant changing of chords;…

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