MELODIC MUSE by Andy Timmons
IN HARMONY.
This month, Andy Timmons takes a look at his song “That Day Came,” which he recorded for his 2016 album, Theme From a Perfect World, as a means for exploring how to present a melody while supporting it with small two-note chords, often referred to as dyads, and other chord voicings that serve to fill out the harmony.
IN HARMONY.
This month, Andy Timmons takes a look at his song “That Day Came,” which he recorded for his 2016 album, Theme From a Perfect World, as a means for exploring how to present a melody while supporting it with small two-note chords, often referred to as dyads, and other chord voicings that serve to fill out the harmony.
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MusicTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 Hey, everybody.
00:18 Andy Timmons here, and welcome back to Melodic Muse
00:20 for Guitar World.
00:21 Today, we're going to look at my tune, "That Day Came,"
00:24 as a means of exploring how to have a melody,
00:27 but to support it with dyads and chord voicings
00:30 to fill out the harmony.
00:32 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:35 [GUITAR PLAYING]
00:39 [GUITAR PLAYING]
00:42 [GUITAR PLAYING]
01:12 Looking at the melody of "That Day Came,"
01:14 it's very simple, quite honestly.
01:17 The overall tonality is F-sharp minor.
01:20 And I'm starting on the--
01:21 [GUITAR PLAYING]
01:24 It's a very, very kind of scalar, simple melody.
01:32 But actually, how I'm harmonizing it with the chords
01:35 and how I'm modulating it--
01:36 so a bit of songwriting discussion here,
01:39 as well as how I'm modulating keys within this first part
01:42 of this first verse.
01:44 But that first note is that C-sharp on top.
01:46 I'm just playing a full F-sharp minor chord.
01:48 [GUITAR PLAYING]
01:51 So let that chord ring, but making sure
01:54 that the melody sticks out on top.
01:56 And that's really the key to any kind of--
01:59 if you want to call this chord melody playing,
02:01 which it really is-- it's really how to get that melody to sing
02:04 and have it be the most prevalent voice
02:07 that you're hearing, because that is the singer.
02:09 That's the melody.
02:09 [GUITAR PLAYING]
02:13 So there's that melody.
02:16 I just kind of--
02:18 I even lead into that.
02:19 I even kind of--
02:20 I even support one of the melodic notes before the next chord
02:23 comes in.
02:23 I'm fingering a C to a C-sharp and then to the melody note.
02:30 So it's still kind of giving you that feeling of F-sharp minor.
02:33 But there, it's just a sixth.
02:34 [GUITAR PLAYING]
02:38 So that last-- where that melody is headed
02:43 is the seventh, the flat seventh of a C-sharp dominant chord.
02:48 So very classic just harmony of one minor to five dominant.
02:54 Kind of very, very classically influenced, I would say.
02:56 [GUITAR PLAYING]
03:02 And now, instead of a full chord,
03:04 I really don't need to play the full chord all the time
03:07 to give the listener the sense of the harmony.
03:09 And all I'm adding is, with that flat seventh,
03:11 I'm adding the C-sharp.
03:13 And I guess we're going to have to call it an E-sharp, which
03:16 is the root and the third of that chord.
03:19 So as long as you've got that, sometimes you just
03:22 need the root and the melody note,
03:24 or sometimes the root and the third.
03:27 But there you go.
03:27 You've got everything you need to know that it's--
03:30 [GUITAR PLAYING]
03:33 --instead of--
03:33 [GUITAR PLAYING]
03:36 Nothing wrong with that.
03:37 But these are the kind of editing choices
03:39 that I'll go through when I'm voicing a melody with chords.
03:43 I just try to find just the right amount of support
03:46 that it needs to get across the motion
03:48 that I'm trying to portray here.
03:49 [GUITAR PLAYING]
03:56 And if you recall, it sounds like I'm going back
04:00 to that F-sharp minor.
04:01 But what's going to happen is--
04:02 [GUITAR PLAYING]
04:04 Ah.
04:06 Now I've completely taken us out of that F-sharp minor tonality.
04:10 And I've played an F major with that A as the melody, right?
04:17 The A is the third of that F major chord.
04:21 And here I am just playing an F and a C,
04:25 and then skipping a string and playing that A melody.
04:27 So--
04:28 [GUITAR PLAYING]
04:31 And that's going to resolve--
04:35 [GUITAR PLAYING]
04:39 --to basically an A major.
04:40 So I've taken us out of the key of F-sharp minor
04:43 with that pivot chord of F major.
04:45 But then that leads back to A, which is going
04:47 to set up going back to F-sharp.
04:48 Another thing that I hope you'll notice
04:50 is that I'm really very carefully choosing
04:52 which finger I use for the melody,
04:55 because that's going to be really, really tantamount
04:59 to how that melody sustains and sings.
05:02 So--
05:02 [GUITAR PLAYING]
05:04 See, I can hold that note and add the harmony.
05:08 And I do the same thing when I'm going to the F major.
05:10 [GUITAR PLAYING]
05:13 You know, I lead in with that pinky again so I can--
05:16 [GUITAR PLAYING]
05:20 --add that harmony.
05:21 And here's a tricky one.
05:22 [GUITAR PLAYING]
05:25 Not too tricky.
05:26 [GUITAR PLAYING]
05:27 So the melody--
05:28 [GUITAR PLAYING]
05:30 --is sliding down to--
05:31 [GUITAR PLAYING]
05:32 --and then I've just got the open A string, A octave, and E.
05:35 [GUITAR PLAYING]
05:38 Then the melody finally kind of gives us the sense of,
05:42 oh, that is A major.
05:43 [GUITAR PLAYING]
05:46 Which is, of course, related to F-sharp minor.
05:48 I've kind of taken this to A major, AKA F-sharp minor.
05:52 But that's--
05:53 [GUITAR PLAYING]
05:56 So it's just scalar, except I lead into that top voice again.
06:04 This repeats.
06:05 [GUITAR PLAYING]
06:07 Same pivot chord with the F major coming up.
06:10 [GUITAR PLAYING]
06:13 Now, same melody.
06:14 [GUITAR PLAYING]
06:18 Right, but now I'm going to go to C major.
06:21 But I've got to also get the correct finger
06:24 to support with the voice.
06:25 [GUITAR PLAYING]
06:26 Now I'm going to use my middle finger because--
06:28 [GUITAR PLAYING]
06:29 --that's what I would normally use to play that little C major
06:32 triad there.
06:33 [GUITAR PLAYING]
06:36 So instead of using my ring finger, you see,
06:37 I make that choice.
06:38 [GUITAR PLAYING]
06:40 Because of where the melody is going, I can sustain that.
06:42 And if I did it with my third finger--
06:43 [GUITAR PLAYING]
06:47 --I'd have to break it up.
06:48 So--
06:48 [GUITAR PLAYING]
06:52 Those little details is really what
06:53 can give your melody that chance to sing and really
06:56 get to the heart of what you're trying to express here.
06:59 So--
06:59 [GUITAR PLAYING]
07:01 --and it walks down very beatily.
07:02 [GUITAR PLAYING]
07:05 So even though I went to C major, natural C major,
07:09 and then kind of a G over B idea, and then A major again.
07:14 So twice I've already taken us out
07:15 of the key that was established within that first bar.
07:20 Because to me, as a writer, and as somebody
07:24 that loves to play great melodies,
07:25 I'm looking for a place to take the listener.
07:27 I want something to move them.
07:29 And a lot of times, that can be created by taking them somewhere
07:33 they're not expecting to go.
07:34 [GUITAR PLAYING]
07:36 And the chords on their own can sound beautiful.
07:38 [GUITAR PLAYING]
07:42 [GUITAR PLAYING]
07:46 There we go.
07:48 Again, in getting into the next section,
07:50 I go to the melody of E, but it becomes the sharp 11
07:54 of that B flat for another time.
07:58 [MUSIC PLAYING]
08:01 (upbeat music)
08:04 you