00:00Hey everybody, Andy Timmons here and welcome back to Melodic Muse for Guitar World.
00:22Today we're going to look at my tune, That Day Came, as a means of exploring how to have
00:27a melody but to support it with dyads and chord voicings to fill out the harmony.
00:57Looking at the melody of That Day Came, it's very simple, quite honestly.
01:16The overall tonality is F-sharp minor, and I'm starting on the...
01:23It's a very, very kind of, you know, scalar, simple melody, but actually how I'm harmonizing
01:34it with the chords and how I'm modulating it.
01:37So a bit of songwriting discussion here as well is how I'm kind of modulating keys within
01:41within this first part of this first verse.
01:44But that first note is that C-sharp on top, and I'm just playing a full F-sharp minor chord.
01:51So let that chord ring, but making sure that the melody sticks out on top, and that's really
01:57the key to any kind of, if you want to call this chord melody playing, which it really
02:01is, it's really how to get that melody to sing and have it be the most prevalent voice
02:06that you're hearing, because that is the singer, that's the melody.
02:15So there's that melody, I just kind of even lead into that.
02:19I even kind of, I even support one of the melodic notes before the next chord comes in.
02:24I'm fingering a C to a C-sharp, and then to the melody note.
02:28So it's still kind of giving you that feeling of F-sharp minor, but there it's just a sixth.
02:39So that last, where that melody is headed, is the seventh, the flat seventh of a C-sharp
02:46dominant chord.
02:48So very classic just harmony of one minor to five dominant.
02:52Kind of very, very classically influenced, I would say.
03:02And now instead of a full chord, I really don't need to play the full chord all the time
03:06to give the listener the sense of the harmony.
03:09And all I'm adding is, with that flat seventh, I'm adding the C-sharp, and I guess we're going
03:14to have to call it an E-sharp, which is the root and the third of that chord.
03:18So if you've, as long as you've got that, sometimes you just need the root and the melody
03:24note, or sometimes the root and the third.
03:27But there you go.
03:28You've got everything you need to know that it's, instead of, nothing wrong with that.
03:37But these are the, the kind of editing choices that I, you know, that I'll go through when
03:41I, when I'm voicing a melody with chords.
03:44I just try to find just the right amount of support that it needs to get across the motion
03:48that I'm trying to portray here.
03:56And if you recall it, it sounds like I'm going back to that F-sharp minor, but what's going
04:01to happen is, ah, now I've completely taken us out of that F-sharp minor tonality, and I've
04:10played an F major with that, with that A as the, as the, as the, as the melody, right?
04:17The A is, is the third of that F, of that F major chord.
04:21And here I am just playing an F and a C and the skipping a string and playing that A melody.
04:27So, and that's going to resolve to basically an A major.
04:40So I've taken us out of the key of F-sharp minor with that pivot chord of F major, but
04:45then that leads back to A, which is going to set up going back to F-sharp.
04:49Another thing that I hope you'll notice is that I've, I'm really very carefully choosing
04:52which finger I use for the melody, because that's going to be really, really, um, tantamount
04:59to how that melody sustains and sings.
05:02So, see, I can, I can, I can hold that note and add the harmony.
05:08And I do the same thing when I'm going to the F major.
05:14You know, I lead in with that pinky again, so I can, uh, add that harmony.
05:20And here's a tricky one, not too tricky.
05:27So the melody, and then sliding down to, and then I've just got the open A string, A octave,
05:35and E.
05:40Then the melody finally kind of gives us the sense of, oh, that is A major.
05:44Which is, of course, related to F-sharp minor.
05:49I've kind of taken this to A major, uh, a.k.a. F-sharp minor.
05:53But that's, uh.
05:58So it's just scalar.
06:01Except I lead into that top voice again.
06:04This repeats.
06:05Same pivot chord with the F major coming up.
06:13Now, same melody.
06:18Right?
06:18But now, I'm going to go to C major.
06:21But I, I gotta, I gotta also get the correct finger to support with the voice again.
06:26Now I'm going to use my middle finger because
06:28that's what I would normally use to play that little C major, uh, triad there, uh.
06:35So.
06:36So instead of using my ring finger, you see, I make that choice.
06:40Because of where the melody's going, I can sustain that.
06:42And if I did it with my third finger,
06:45I'd have to break it up.
06:48So.
06:52Those little details is really what can give your, your melody that chance to sing
06:56and really get to the heart of what you're trying to express here.
06:59Um, so.
07:01And it walks down very beatily.
07:05So even though I went to C major, natural C major.
07:09And then kind of a G over B idea.
07:11And then A major again.
07:12So twice, I've already taken us out of the, the key that was established within that first bar.
07:20Because to me, as a writer and as a, you know, as a, as somebody that loves to play great melodies,
07:25I'm looking for a place to take the listener.
07:28I want something to move them.
07:29And a lot of times that can be created by taking this somewhere they're not expecting to go.
07:36And the chords on their own can sound beautiful.
07:42There we go again.
07:48And getting into the, the next section, I, I go to the, the melody of E,
07:52but it becomes the, the sharp 11 of that B flat for another time.
07:57And, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and
