Andy Timmons - The Chord Melody Approach For 'That Day Came' - video Dailymotion

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MELODIC MUSE by Andy Timmons IN HARMONY  This month, Andy Timmons takes a look at his song “That Day Came,” which he recorded for his 2016 album, Theme From a Perfect World, as a means for exploring how to present a melody while supporting it with small two-note chords, often referred to as dyads, and other chord voicings that serve to fill out the harmony.

Transcript

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.

02:09That's the melody.

02:15So there's that melody.

02:16I just kind of...

02:17I even lead into that.

02:19I even kind of...

02:20I 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.

02:30So it's still kind of giving you that feeling of F-sharp minor.

02:32But there, it's just a sixth.

02:39So that last...

02:40Where that melody is headed is the seventh, the flat seventh of a C-sharp dominant chord.

02:48So very classic just harmony of one minor to five dominant.

02:53Kind of very classically influenced, I would say.

02:56And 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 as long as you've got that, sometimes you just need the root and the melody note, or

03:24sometimes the root and the third.

03:27But there you go.

03:28You've got everything you need to know that it's...

03:32Instead of...

03:35Nothing wrong with that, but these are the kind of editing choices that I'll go through

03:41when 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...

04:04Ah.

04:06Now I've completely taken us out of that F-sharp minor tonality, and I've played an F-major

04:12chord with that A as the melody, right?

04:17The A is the third of that F-major chord.

04:21And here I am just playing an F and a C and skipping a string and playing that A-melody.

04:27So...

04:31And that's going to resolve...

04:35To basically an A-major.

04:41So 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'm really very carefully choosing which

04:53finger I use for the melody, because that's going to be really, really tantamount to how

04:59that melody sustains and sings.

05:02So...

05:03See, 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 add that harmony.

05:21And here's a tricky one.

05:25Not too tricky.

05:26So the melody...

05:30And then sliding down to...

05:32And then I've just got the open A-string, A-octave, and E.

05:40And the melody finally kind of gives us the sense of, oh, that is A-major.

05:47Which is, of course, related to F-sharp minor.

05:49I've kind of taken this to A-major, a.k.a. F-sharp minor.

05:52But that's...

05:53So it's just scalar, except I lead into that top voice again.

06:04This repeats.

06:09Same pivot chord with the F-major coming up.

06:13Now, same melody.

06:14Right?

06:18But now, I'm going to go to C-major.

06:21But I've got to also get the correct finger to support with the voice again.

06:26Now I'm going to use my middle finger because...

06:30That's what I would normally use to play that little C-major triad there.

06:35So instead of using my ring finger, you see, I make that choice.

06:38Because of where the melody's going, I can sustain that.

06:42And if I did it with my third finger, I'd have to break it up.

06:48So...

06:49Those little details is really what can give your melody that chance to sing

06:56and really get to the heart of what you're trying to express here.

07:00So...

07:01And it walks down very beatily.

07:02So even though I went to C-major, natural C-major,

07:09and then kind of a G over B idea, and then A-major again.

07:14So twice, I've already taken this out of the key that was established within that first bar.

07:20Because to me, as a writer, and 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.

07:47There we go.

07:48Again, getting into the next section, I go to the melody of E,

07:52but it becomes the sharp 11 of that B-flat for another time.

07:59And I'll see you next time.

Andy Timmons - The Chord Melody Approach For 'That Day Came'

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