The purpose of the following discussion is to help you find appropriate
chords for accompanying Irish
tunes or songs. The determination of what constitutes an appropriate chord
is based on the most likely harmonizations of the accented melody
note in the particular key.
I've tried to make it as un-technical as possible, but the fullest understanding of what's going on requires a certain familiarity on your part with terms like "relative minors" and "scales" (being familiar with Roman numerals helps too!) If you're not comfortable in this area, you can skip right to the chord tables.
What follows should not be viewed as a rigid set of rules, but rather as a guide to what will usually sound best. I have tried to list the chords by degree of suitability, i.e. the first one listed is the most likely one to produce the harmonization suitable to the tune or song. This cannot however be anything more than a suggestion; your own musical ear (and those of the musicians around you, as you'll soon find out!) will make the ultimate decision.
I have limited the tables of chords to the main keys in Irish traditional music, starting with our old favorite D major. The harmonies for the relative minor keys are also given. I also give the general formula using the standard musical convention of Roman numerals indicating the relationship of the harmonies to the root chord, just in case you have to figure out chords in strange keys (for us, anyway!) like Eb or F#.
If you haven't gotten involved in this kind of thing before, it might look a little daunting. However, since it's such a useful thing for any musician to be familiar with, allow me a minute to go into a little detail.
Sometimes it's handy to be able to discuss music in numerical terms, both in terms of the notes of the scale (7 notes plus the 8th or "octave") and the chords ("triads") that are built on these notes. The mathematical aspect of music can be fascinating, but for now let's just say that it helps to realize that the relationship has some practical as well as theoretical uses.
For one thing, it enables us to discuss musical structure in a general way without reference to particular alphabetical note names. The best example I can give of this is the fact that even the least musically aware player knows that the "rock and roll" chord progression we're all familiar with is the I - VI - II - V progression. What do the Roman numerals mean? Well, basically they're telling us how the chords we want to play will relate to one another, regardless of the key we'll be playing in.
Another example: if you tell somebody that the basic harmony for an Irish traditional tune in a minor key consists of a I - VII relationship, that's shorthand for saying "for a tune in E minor, your secondary chord is D; for a tune in B minor, you'll be hearing a lot of A; for a tune in Dm, look for C", etc. etc.
Sounds handy, right? In fact it is, and even better it's very simple to learn how to match notes and numbers to start the whole procedure going.
Here's the way I do it: I write the numbers 1 to 7 in a column down the page, then I put the notes of the scale I want to work with in another column right next to the first one (you have to remember to put in the correct sharps or flats at that point). Not surprisingly, the first note of the scale should be right opposite the number 1. The rest of the notes will fall right into line.
Examples for the keys of D major, F major, and E minor:
1---> D..........1 ---> F.........1 ---> E 2---> E..........2 ---> G.........2 ---> F# 3---> F#.........3 ---> A.........3 ---> G 4---> G..........4 ---> Bb........4 ---> A 5---> A..........5 ---> C.........5 ---> B 6---> B..........6 ---> D.........6 ---> C 7---> C#.........7 ---> E.........7 ---> D
This I find is a handy way of figuring out which notes correspond to which scale steps in any key.
If you really get ambitious, you can throw in the Roman numerals I mentioned before and get your chords too. I think this is very useful for us backup players who specialize in chord relationships!
Example, using the D major scale (two sharps - "Silver Spear", "Lark in the Morning")
1 ---> note D ---> I -----> D chord 2 ---> note E ---> II ----> Em chord (explanation below) 3 ---> note F# --> III ---> F#m chord (ditto) 4 ---> note G ---> IV ----> G chord 5 ---> note A ---> V -----> A chord 6 ---> note B ---> VI ----> Bm chord (ditto) 7 ---> note C# --> VII ---> don't worry about this one!
When you start out with a major scale, some of the chords that you come up with - namely, the II, III, and VI - will always be minor chords. The reasons are pretty technical and have to do with neat stuff like "triadic intervals", which are interesting but not relevant to what I want to do here. (Same holds for the VII chord in a major scale.) If you want to pursue the matter, any basic music theory book from the library will tell you all you could possibly want to know (and more, much more).
Can you use this procedure with a minor scale? Sure, but the results come out a little differently:
Example, using the A minor scale (relative to C major, no sharps or flats - "Sligo Maid", "Cliffs of Moher")
1 ---> note A ---> I -----> Am chord 2 ---> note B ---> II ----> incomplete, like a VII in a major key 3 ---> note C ---> III ---> C major chord 4 ---> note D ---> IV ----> Dm chord 5 ---> note E ---> V -----> Em chord 6 ---> note F ---> VI ----> F major chord 7 ---> note G ---> VII ---> G major chord
Notice: when you build harmonies based on a minor scale, the III, VI, and VII will always be major chords, while I, IV, and V will always be minor. (In the present discussion, disregard the fact that Irish minor keys are almost always played with the 6th scale degree sharpened [Aeolian mode]).
It's important to understand these relationships because the little "m's" that we're so familiar with in our chord symbols don't appear automatically when we build our harmony chart - we have to know when to be looking for them.
Now that you have all this good theory, let's move on to the tables I've made up that will I hope assist you in finding the appropriate chord to harmonize any given note. I realize that the choice of chords in Irish traditional or any music is in some respects a matter of taste. However, since my tastes in backup tend to be conservative ones, I have listed only the chords I consider to be appropriate to the task: you won't find any 7th chords, augmented or diminished chords,etc. These are all fine and wonderful harmonies in the context of George Gershwin or Duke Ellington, but I don't think they have a place in the harmonic accompaniment of Irish traditional music, and on that basis you won't find any listed here.
A reminder: the following harmonization suggestions apply to accented
notes (i.e. the notes where
the beats fall).
NOTE TO CHORD TABLES
================================================= 1. Key sig: TWO SHARPS melody note......D major.........B minor ------------------------------------------- ....D............D, Bm, G........Bm, D, G, ....E............A, Em...........A, Em ....F#...........D, Bm, F#m......Bm, D, F#m ....G............G, Em...........G, Em ....A............D, A, F#m.......F#m, A, D ....B............G, Bm, Em.......Bm, Em, G ....C#...........A, F#m..........F#m, A
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2. Key sig: ONE SHARP
melody note......G major.........E minor ----------------------------------------- ....G............G, C, Em........Em, G, C ....A............D, Am...........D, Am ....B............G, Em, Bm.......Em, G, Bm ....C............C, Am...........Am, C ....D............G, D, Bm........D, G, Bm ....E............C, Em...........Em, C ....F#...........D, Bm...........Bm, D
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3. Key sig: THREE SHARPS
melody note......A major.........F# minor ------------------------------------------ ....A............A, D, F#m.......F#m, A, D ....B............E, Bm...........Bm, E ....C#...........A, F#m, C#m.....F#m, A, C#m ....D............D, Bm...........Bm, D ....E............A, E, C#m.......E, A, C#m ....F#...........D, F#m, Bm......F#m, Bm, D ....G#...........E, C#m..........C#m, E
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4. Key sig: NO SHARPS OR FLATS
melody note......C major.........A minor ----------------------------------------- ....C............C, F, Am........Am, C, F ....D............G, Dm...........Dm, G ....E............C, Am, Em.......Am, C, Em ....F............F, Dm...........Dm, F ....G............C, G, Em........Em, C, G ....A............F, Am, Dm.......Am, F, Dm ....B............G, Em...........G, Em
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5. Key sig: ONE FLAT
melody note......F major.........D minor ------------------------------------------ ....F............F, Bb, Dm.......Dm, F, Bb ....G............C, Gm...........Gm, C ....A............F, Dm, Am.......Dm, F, Am ....Bb...........Bb, Gm..........Gm, Bb ....C............F, C, Am........C, F, Am ....D............Bb, Dm, Gm......Dm, Gm, Bb ....E............C, Am...........Am, C
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6. GENERAL FORMULA scale degree...any major = I.....relative minor = VI.....minor = I -------------------------------------------------------------------- ....1..........I, IV, VI............VI, I, IV............I, IV, VI ....2..........V, II................II, V................VII, V ....3..........I, VI, III...........VI, I, III...........I, III, VI ....4..........IV, II...............II, IV...............VII, IV ....5..........I, V, III............V, I, III............I, V, III ....6..........IV, VI, II...........VI, II, IV...........IV, VI ....7..........V, III...............III, V...............III, V, VII The chords are all numbered based on their relationship to the tonic (=root note) of the major key. Remember: building from a major scale, the II, III, and VI chords are always MINOR; building from a minor scale, the III, VI, and VII chords are always MAJOR. Chords you don't have to worry about (unless you want to!): VII in major, II in minor.
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7. MODAL TUNES
Everyone even slightly familiar with Irish music knows about "modal" tunes ("Banish Misfortune" and "Rakish Paddy" are two examples). While a musicologist might understand the word in a broader context than we do, all we as Irish musicians have to know is that in "modal" tunes most if not all of the accented 7th-degree-of-the-scale notes in the tune are flatted (i.e., the C# in the key of D now becomes C natural, the F# in the key of G now becomes F natural, and so on).
Harmonizing the "flatted" note in "modal" tunes is relatively simple: use either the chord that has the same name as the note name, or its relative minor.
Examples:
key D modal: C# lowered to C natural: use either C or A minor
key G modal: F# lowered to F natural: use either F or D minor That's basically all there is to it. Again, the choice of chord will depend on your ear.
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I hope this little cyber-class has been helpful. If you have any suggestions as to how I can improve it, let me know. Good luck!