Chord Exercise

Here’s an exercise. Take a simple melody (like a nursery rhyme) and reharmonize the it. What I mean is, replace the usual harmony (chords) with different chords that hopefully express a whole new feeling from the same melody. Then try to find yet another new set of chords that work with the same melody.

In classical music there’s a form called theme and variations, where they do just that. They’ll take a melody, like a well known folk song and create a new piece. The new piece starts with the song arranged in a simple, familiar way, followed by the same melody with a different accompaniment, such as different chords, feel, rhythms, tempo, or a combination. That’s followed by yet another version (or variation) and so on. They sometimes start sounding further and further from the original. Check out some by Brahms.

Tags: accompaniment, chords, harmonize, harmony