America (My Country 'Tis of Thee): Harmonization Project

Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman, and in this lesson we're going to do a harmonization project to a patriotic song "America." Harmonization is when you take a melody and add a harmony. On the piano we usually add harmony simply by adding chords to support the melody, but in this harmonization project we'll not just be adding chords, but by part two I'll also show you some fancier ways that you can harmonize melodies. Let's get started by checking out the lead sheet. Anytime in your sheet music that you see just the melody written out, we can call that a lead sheet. Remember, in piano music we usually have a treble staff and a bass staff joined in a grand staff where you see the right hand part and the left hand part, but on a lead sheet we just see the right hand melody line, and we're going to improvise the left hand part. Often on a lead sheet we'll see chord symbols up above, but today since this is a harmonization project, we're going to choose the chords that we want to use to harmonize this melody. So step one will be to learn how to play this melody. So let's get started with that. What's our key signature? Three flats from our ladder of fifths we know could be E-flat major or C minor. Well let's look at the first and last note. We start on an E-flat. We end on an E-flat, so that's a huge clue that with three flats we're going to be in the key of E-flat major. Now one thing that some people like to do is before you learn this go through and circle any notes, that's a little dark let's do yellow, any notes that are flat. So we know that from the key signature B's, E's, and A's are automatically flat, and when we're learning this we don't want to accidentally not flat something, so I'm going to go through and circle all the E's, A's, and B's. So here's a few E's that would need to be E-flat. Let's see, here's an A-flat. Now if you like, pause the video and go through in your own sheet music, circle all the E-flats, A-flats, and B flats. That's optional. So pause if you want to right now, otherwise let's check out the rhythm. We've got 3/4 time signature. That tells us 3 beats per measure. And we've got a lot of these dotted quarter note eighth note rhythms. Now when we have that rhythm, it can be very helpful to count a subdivided beat. Remember, a subdivided beat we named the beat and the second half of the beat inside one beat. Remember we've got this 1-& 2-& 3-& When we get to this dotted quarter note, a dotted quarter note equals 1 and 1/2 beats, so it's the 1-& 2, and then the eighth note gets the other half of beat 2, and that's what makes this rhythm have that unique sound. Let's clap it together and count the beat out loud starting right here, go. 1-& 2-& 3-&, 1-& 2-& 3-& And that's ♫My country 'tis of thee♫, alright? Now, with everything you know about reading notes on the staff, I would like for you to figure out how to play this melody on your own. Pause the video to learn "America," 'My country, 'tis of thee' from the start to the finish. Don't forget the three flats: B-flat, E-flat, A-flat. Don't forget how to count these rhythms, and also my last hint is to pay attention to the finger numbers. Notice we start on a finger 2 on E-flat, and that's really important if you start on a finger 1, which might be your tendency to want to do. You won't have a finger for this D. Notice we have to go a step below the E-flat to D and so you'll need finger 1 on that. So the fingerings are going to help you by preparing your hand to be in the right position for all the notes that are coming. Notice here it says finger 4 on B-flat so you have to shift your hand to finger 4 there, and then down here we've got an interesting thing. We've got finger 1 on F, finger 2 is going to cross over to E-flat, and then finger 1 has to reach under, kind of glide up and under to this G, and that's going to prepare you for some notes that are coming. And then here with this finger 3, your 3 is going to cross over to F to finish out the song. Alright, pause the video, learn the melody, and then press play and we'll look at it together. Now, I'd like to demonstrate this melody which you should have just learned on your own. You can try playing along with me if you like, or you can just listen. So my finger 2 is on E-flat. I'll count 3 beats, and then we'll start. 1 2 3 1 2 3, finger 4 moves up to B-flat. 1 2 3-& 1-& 2-& 1 2 3, we're done. Now, you might have noticed if you live in the United Kingdom that this is actually the same melody as "God Save the Queen," another patriotic song. ♫God save our gracious queen♫, so both use the same melody just different lyrics. Now to do our harmonization we're going to need to review the diatonic chords of E-flat major. So, can we try playing and naming these chords, which we recently learned. Let's say their names. So we have E-flat major I chord, F minor ii chord, G minor iii chord, A-flat major IV chord, B-flat major V chord, C minor vi chord, D diminished vii chord, E-flat major I chord. Now if that was hard, if you couldn't quite keep up with me, pause the video and work on those on your own, but if that was no problem for you, then let's keep going. These ...