Mary Had A Little Lamb: Harmonizing A Melody

Description

In an earlier classical guitar tutorial we learned to play this nursery rhyme as a single note melody.

Simple Melodies For Classical Guitar

This time we'll harmonize the melody in order to create and play a simple classical guitar style arrangement of the tune. We'll learn to play the melody with full chords as well as a two voice counterpoint arrangement.

Like many nursery rhymes or folk tunes, this is a very simple tune. But this quality is what makes it perfect for learning how to orchestrate it into a full arrangement to play as a solo classical guitar style piece. Orchestrate means to take a single note melody and add bass notes and chords tones to play along with the melody. Harmonizing the melody to create full chords from the key signature makes a fuller sounding piece of music. So, we'll learn a little about how melodies and chords are formed from scales, what it means to play in a key signature. And how to select the right chords for the melody notes.

This piece is in the key of C major, in 4/4 time and we'll play it at 80 BPM.