WHAT IS HARMONY IN MUSIC?

The term Harmony is used to refer to notes that "blend" nicely with the melody. The melody consists of the essential notes that form the basic structure of any tune. Harmony requires at least 2 tones or voices and can be done with any number of additional tones/voices. Most harmony is written for 3 to 6 voice parts. Some arrangements go to as many as 8 or more parts, but these are uncommon. A good step to harmonizing is to fully know the melody, and then sing to it in a slightly lower pitch not an octave low. If you have another person with you, it also helps to sing with a piano first, and then move on to singing and harmonizing more independently. Once you have some sense of the basic 1,3,5 major chord or 1,3,5,7 major 7th chord, you can harmonize by singing any of the notes. The 1 is the soprano or lead (Lead is singing soprano an octave low for a male or female with a lower alto voice). The more people you have the more of the notes you can sing. Once you have a sense of the basics of harmony in some key, you can experiment with other notes in other, such chords.