polyphony

Chords, scales, harmony, melody, etc.
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I understand what it is, but how does one go about making it work?

In terms of creating a melody, where you want to add polyphony, how do you balance the use of the two or more instruments in such a way to make it sound as one coherent, musically pleasing unit? As in, is there any specific or general way of going about it that one can use based on their understanding of melody?
Last edited by Katelyn on Sun Dec 21, 2014 9:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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...in what context?

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work it, girl! :tu: get those fingers pumpin'!
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I'm sorry I guess I should of put more thought into the post.

In terms of creating a melody, where you want to add polyphony, how do you balance the use of the two or more instruments in such a way to make it sound as one coherent, musically pleasing unit? As in, is there any specific or general way of going about it that one can use based on their understanding of melody?

That's the best way I can think of to ask my question.

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People study it as a discipline and work from models

edit: see my subsequent reply
Last edited by jancivil on Tue Dec 23, 2014 7:00 am, edited 1 time in total.

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There are many techniques:

-- Melody + Chords + Bass --
The classic. Melody is just the melody. Bass plays chord roots (+ other chord notes if you have chord inversions in the progression) plus all sorts of embellishments (often using the jazz pentatonic scale, and chromatic approach notes). Chords play the chords, obviously, but notes that are in the bassline can be omitted (or, if you have very few voices to work with, even the ones that are in the melody).

The secret sauce is that the bass is essentially a second polyphonic melody line. It can simply play the chord roots, but it much more interesting if it plays in intelligible patterns, lines going up, down, doing pedals (playing the same note as chords over it change), going in the opposite direction as the melody, answering to the melody, doing a nice twiddle during section transition punch where all the other voices cut out.

And the chords have a top note that forms third melody line! You have to treat the highest voice of your chords right so that it doesn't just jump around aimlessly. It's best when it forms lines that have some intelligible pattern to it - maybe it keeps going up in steps, or it keeps going down, or it keeps playing the same note over and over (with the rest of the chord harmonized around it), or it answers to the melody, plays along with punches, etc...

-- Parallel harmonization (Jazz) --
For this technique, you keep the same bassline as in the Melody+Chords+Bass technique, but your Melody and Chords merge together. You turn each melody note into a 4 note chord, with the melody note on top. If your current chord is Am7, you should use inversions of Am7 if your note is A/C/E/G, and otherwise some other chord that runs well with Am7 like Bm7 or G#dim7 (dim7 chord that leads into Am7).

It's also good to use 6th chords like C6, especially if the chord would be Cmaj7 but the melody is playing C - it avoids the semitone B-C on the top (semitones are fine, just not on top). 9th chords also work (let the bass play the 1). Also you're trying to keep all voices moving (so one note staying the same while the top note and other notes move isn't too good).

Parallel harmonization can also be done with 3 voices - usually without the 7th chords. This gives it a much more 'pop' sound. It also works with 2 voices (so usually that's a run of 3rds and 6ths and a few 4ths/5ths to make it not too much always the same and help with some situations).

-- Choral harmonization (Classical) --
This is kindof the inverse of parallel harmonization. Basically you're arranging your song for a 4 part choir. The 4 parts are Soprano (~C4 to G5), Alto (~G3 to C5), Tenor (~C3 to G4) and Bass (~G2 to C4). This includes both the melody (usually on the soprano voice) and the bass (on the bass voice). Alto and Tenor are left with the "chords" par of the song - basically the notes of the chord that aren't already handled by the bass and the melody (3rds and 5ths).

Since you're writing for singers, you want to avoid big jumps (hard to sing!), too many jumps in the same direction (hard to sing and run out of range really fast), dissonant jumps (hard to sing!). Small steps are the best, and just keeping singing the same note is great as well (easy to sing, forms a short pedal which is nice, as long as you don't spend half an hour singing the same note).

You want to avoid having parallel 5ths (and parallel octaves) in your harmonization, as that's too regular and sounds actually kinda bad in this context. The best trick is to have the bass go more or less in the reverse direction of the melody (this is where chord inversions come in handy!). This prevents parallel 5ths between melody and bass. Often, one of your alto or tenor voice will keep the same note (= no parallel 5ths possible, yay!), and your remaining voice will probably move in a different number of steps so you'll be fine.

This is the base harmonization style for classical music and orchestration is often just an elaborate version of this. Exercises like the famous species counterpoint often are ultimately for getting the hang of the style, and the result is often basically 19th century-style music (note: I'm not a specialist, I tend to mix up all classical music and I only do a rough sound-alike).



Those are the most important techniques for taking your melody+chord sheet into a nice, dense polyphonic blend. Most other techniques tend to be a mix & match of these.

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Katelyn wrote:is there any specific or general way of going about it that one can use based on their understanding of melody?
Polyphony is essentially part-writing.

https://www.google.com/search?q=part-wr ... 8&oe=utf-8

My real impetus for taking a class in it - at community college - was that I was enthralled with the polyphony of JS Bach, particularly organ music. And I was about to go nowhere fast trying to look at scores and make anything of it on my own. At the time, I was a somewhat experienced rock, even progressive rock musician and had done some arranging for the studio both for a pop music record and our own band with original material. But this was certainly another level and I was not equipped to write like that, like at all really. I had some experience with melody and had a pretty good ear, having trained it through picking everything off of records that I could.

The upshot of that anecdotal stuff is that *my* understanding of melody didn't enter into it. I needed a structure, I mean a regimen of basically 'never do this', definite principles, in order to suss the most useful procedures. This can differ from individual to individual. Some advocate Fux, Gradus ad Parnassum. I'm happy to have not been put through it, but that is no argument against it. I had a church organist, and a gifted one, as the teacher of first year 'Theory of Harmony' and the main emphasis was writing four parts to either a top line tune or a bass line, or both. And given the intended harmony as Figured Bass.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Figured ... 8&oe=utf-8

Then I had more training by another gifted professional at music school, and most of that course was again, writing four parts to a figured bass, in a more advanced vocabulary.
I chose a Bach suite for 'jury' and I finagled a grad school 'Form und Analysis' course which was not more than being required to write a paper; it was all about that Bach composition and staying in school through an apt performance by this time.

Now, I am apt to wind up doing Bach type of moves as a matter of course, doing four parts; at least in that thrust of transparent, independence of parts, part-writing.
Slow pt. 2
But in any case, my preferred mode of moving through compositional ideas is linear, polyphonic writing, melody responding to melody essentially.
So what I do is informed through that experience.
I don't reckon canvassing the internet for tips is really the best use of one's time in this regard. You're at least as likely to encounter dross as opposed to knowledge and wisdom that applies to you and your actual endeavors.

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