some questions about harmonisation of a melody

[Harry_HH]

evidently the OP made an error I corrected, which changed the meaning how? "be" was in the wrong place.
the meaning is clear enough. you missed the operative 'must' and 'melody notes' in it, the reason why is not that interesting. if you're going to be bellicose about it, 'my logic', see if you can read the thing first, is all.

No, I didn't miss these words, I don't know how you have came to this conclusion.
The only thing in this discussion we could put a question mark to the definition "melody" in the context of "harmonizing". To me harmonizing line is also a melody. We have the "main/lead melody" which we often call just the tune, then
we possibly have line of notes which harmonize the main (lead) tune. Depending on the genre the melody lines in the polyphonic context can have different roles, e.g. in the Bach's fugue the main melody and the counterpoint melodie(s) which harmonize it can be "equal" important melodies, when e.g. in the pop music the harmonizing melody(melodies) often have a secondary role comparing the main lead melody. In the question #1 Michael1985 didn't mention when he means the "main/lead melody" and when the "melody" refers to the harmonizing melody. H.

[jancivil]

Fine, I don't know why there is an argument regarding this:

"if i harmonize a melody must be all melody notes, which start on a downbeat, part of the harmony chord?" which has the same meaning even with 'be' in a strange place as per English syntax.

I'll give you a concrete example, Stevie Wonder's Cause We've Ended as Lovers.



On The Downbeat, the melody note is a non-harmonic tone, which resolves; this is a structural feature of the melody throughout. The answer to the question in the original post is a simple NO.

[A.M. Gold]

This thread gets Fastest Trainwreck Award for the month, at least.

I think the answer to the OP's first question is what they didn't want to hear. And that answer is: .......maybe.


I don't know...what note did you use? Does it sound good? What chords come before and after it?

Using the "home" chord, or tonic note is the most closed kind of resolution. You definitely don't need to do this in every bar, and it would sound weird unless you were doing German Rococo (I'm exaggerating) or I suppose some other forms of very old music. You should probably do it at the end of every larger section---like say if your whole verse is divided into two repetitions of the same long phrase, you should do it at the end of each of those phrases.

As far as adding notes out of key, yes that's called an accidental. It's allowed, and can sometimes be quite amazing, but it is usually handled with care.

[jancivil]

The question has one answer: no. There is no requirement for a melody note to be part of the chord or harmony owing to its occurrence on the downbeat.

Note all the times the melody in this example is not a chord tone, & on the beat. It is a feature of the melody; it is a feature of Beck's solo...

if all melody notes had to be - "must be" - a chord tone (because it's on the beat?), we would have a very dull world. It can't be a question made by someone with a lot of trial and error behind them I don't think. This is a symptom of trying to grasp principles by merely reading them.

[vurt]

play it, if it sounds good use it. if it is good, let theorists worry where it fits in with theory.