Color Score Melody Harmonization

System & User Guide

Melody Harmonization System
(Key of C Major) & User Guide
The Color Score Visual Chord System is available with the following bonues
for a limited time.

Instructional manual with approximately 85 Pages

packed with illustrations & just the essential
information that you need to know to get started
learning and playing like a professional right away!

The Color Score Melody Harmonization System: You get:

The Melody Harmonization System in all 12 keys!
The Instructional Guide!
The Instructional Video!
Play Hymns, Pop songs or any melody that comes into your
head!

Color Quiz is a numbering system training course that

gives you the tools to create chords and voicings the easy
way that only professionals know how to do!

25 Chord Voicing Secrets will show you little known

shortcuts on how to play pro sounding chords step by step!
You get:
The 25 Chord Voicing Secrets instructional guide!
The complete 25 Chord Voicing Secrets Video!

The Color Score Encyclopedia has all of the most

commonly used chords in popular music today and
they're also in the Keyshot format! You'll get to know
all of your chords in color!

The Color Score Journal helps you keep track of your studies as
you learn:
Major & minor chords
All 12 Major keys
Extended chords
Course songs
Melody Harmonization Study
Color Quiz
And More! 1

This product is soon to be part of a membership package so order yours now before it's discontinued.
Module 1 How Melodies Work
Melodies come from the key of music in which they reside in.
Think of a key of music as a menu.
A Major Key of music consists of 7 different notes.
Those 7 different notes are what you draw from to play a song.
Here is the key of C Major:

The key of C Major is not necessarily the easiest key to play in but it is the
easiest key to visualize because it consists of all white notes. It’s also
very easy to see the 5 different notes that are not in the key of C.
You can have notes in a song that are outside of the key.
These care called accidentals. They don’t show up very often and there’s
usually no more than one or two of them.

When a melody veers outside of the key it comes back because the
nature of popular western music as we know it moves along this path
that we know of as a key.

If you have too many accidentals in a song, then it’s likely in a different
key than the one that it’s thought to be in.

2
Module 2 The Numbering System (simplified)
Let’s look at the numbering system
Each Major Key of music has a numbering sequence. The numbering
sequence in a key of music is just as importance as the notes themselves.
Here are those 7 different notes again:
Knowing the numbering
sequence is absolutely key to
understanding how to create
and play chord voicings in any
and all keys.

You should know the numbered sequence of a key of music in and out
context. Not only should you know it while you’re sitting at the
keyboard, you should know it by heart and be able to reel off any tone by
memory.

For example:
What is the Root?
What is the 2nd? Be able to answer any of these
What is the 3rd? numbering system questions even
What is the 4th?
when you’re not sitting at the
What is the 5th?
What is the 6th? keyboard.
What is the 7th?

To correspond with Color Score we’ll show a graphic that is known as a

Keyshot. Each note in the key is represented by a different color.
3
 The Colors simplify the
numbering sequence by
representing them visually

The 1 is also referred to the

root

Module 3 Corresponding Chords

Each note in a Major Key has a corresponding chord.

These are combinations of

Major & minor chords

This collection of chords is

also known as diatonic
harmony. Diatonic is just
another way of saying “in the
key”

Major Chords have a bright Minor Chords have a sad

happy sound to them. dark sound to them.

4
Chords are also known as harmony. Harmonizing a melody is the process
of adding chords to it. At its most basic level you can take the 7 different
notes in a key and harmonize them with their corresponding chord.

Harmonizing each melody note

with its corresponding chord is
good way to illustrate how
harmony works but is not always a
good way to harmonize melodies.
It produces a very static overly
predictable sound.

Harmonizing melody notes with its corresponding chords doesn’t mean

playing a different chord with each and every melody note. Instead the
chords change on the strongest beats in the measure which is often on
beat 1. For songs where the harmonic rhythm is every two beats, it’s
common change chords on beats one and three of every measure.
The corresponding chords are combinations of Major and minor.

“Dim.” stands for diminished.

For now, think of a diminished
chord as a special kind of
minor chord.

Just as each note in a key of

music has a number, so does
Module 4 Primary Chords each corresponding chord. (1
chord, 2 chord etc.)
5
Module 4 Primary Chords
Even though there are 7 diatonic chords in a key of music, we’re only
going to be using 3 of them. These are known as the primary chords.
The primary chords consist of the 1, 4 and 5 chord.
(Here are the primary chords in the key of C)
1 Chord 4 Chord 5 Chord

The primary chords are all Major. One or more of them will harmonize
every note in a key of music. This is because every note in a key of music
can be found in one or more of these chords.

This diatonic pattern is the

same in every Major Key of
music

The Major chords are also

defined as “Major Triads”
simply because they contain 3
notes.

6
Module 5 Inversions
Chords can be constructed in any order. This is known as playing them in
inversions.

Root position of the primary chords:

1 Chord 4 Chord 5 Chord

1st inversion of the primary chords:

1 Chord 4 Chord 5 Chord

2nd inversion of the primary chords:

1 Chord 4 Chord 5 Chord

The key to building and recognizing

inverted chords is to identify the location
of the root in each inversion.

7
Module 6 Harmonizing Against the Melody

We’ve established that each note in the Major key can be harmonized by
the primary chords and that those chords can be inverted. Now we have
the possibility of harmonizing melody notes with the right hand.

This really fills out a melody and makes it sound professional as opposed
to just playing single melody notes in the right hand and chords in the left
hand.
Spreading a chord out
this way is also referred
to as an open voicing.
Also, by playing the root
of the chord an octave
lower, it adds more bass
to the chord than if it
were played in a higher
register.

You can also play the root of the chord in octaves for a fuller sound.

8
Module 7 Major to minor
By now the chords and voicing structure that we’ve covered up to this
point will make any melody that you play sound better than just a single
note with a chord.

However, there is a problem harmonizing exclusively with the primary

chords. Can you guess what it is? Popular music is a contrast of Major
and minor harmonies. That contrast is what makes any song sound
interesting.

In light of that fact, there is one simple trick you can use to turn a Major
chord into a minor chord and still stay in the key.

All you have to do is change 1 note to move from Major to minor

To create a minor harmony while still keeping the same melody note on
top of the chord, move the root down the keys. (three half steps) Every
note in the right hand remains exactly the same.

9
You then have a bass note that is different than the root of the triad that
you’re playing in your right hand. Instead of a Major chord, you now
have a minor 7 chord. (A minor 7 in this example)
Special Announcement: I Tricked You. But don’t be mad because I
tricked you in a good way. I implied that we weren’t going to be playing
any other chords but the primary chords. However every time that you
change the note in the bass to create a minor harmony that’s exactly
what you’re doing.

By playing the optional bass note instead of the root of the triad, you’re
playing one of the secondary chords. You’re also playing an added tone
called a 7th. Don’t be concerned if you’re not yet familiar with 7ths. Just
follow the principals that I’ve covered and any melody you play will sound
professional!

Module 8 How to Use the Melody Harmonization Guide

Here’s the breakdown of how to follow the melody harmonization guide:

Key of Music

10
 Key Signature

Melody note & number

Major & minor Bass options

Right Hand Primary & Optional Chords

11
Learn more about Color Score at
learncolorpiano.com/color-score

12