Greetings Class,

As you know I've been having trouble with the posts for some reason. 

On Wednesday I put a melody up on the board. The exercise is the same as last week's except that I am giving you the melody.

First of all, don't confuse a melody with a "riff" or a "motive". A melody is generally sung, and it moves through a repetitive sequence that is predictable. To do that it must arrive at certain logical cadences, or "resting/pause" sections within the overall melody. These pauses are points of important harmonic tension or release.

Take the song "Yesterday" by the Beatles from the last century.


Yesterday.... (pause)

Life was such an easy game to play (.....)

Now I need a place to hide away  (....)

Oh I believe in yesterday....(...)


In the first line, if you listen to any original recording, you'll hear the harmony change AFTER the word "yesterday"

At the end of  line 2, you'll hear the harmonic tension rise. At the end of line 3 it resolves, but not completely. At line 4 there are chord changes, harmonic changes, on nearly every syllable that finally resolve to the Tonic I chord.

What I gave you was not really a melody, but a melodic idea, that could serve to build a melody around.

Harmonize the "melodicule" in at least two different ways. Look at harmonizing it as though it were  in Harmonic Minor (changing the next-to-last line in the melodicule to g#), or as in pure minor,(either leaving the note as g naatural, or using b above instead).

Explore the possibilities, it should be fun. It's short so you should be able to make several different versions. Keep the exercise in 6/8 and make sure and notate the chords rhythmically correct. 

Extra points taken off for any micro aggressions.