Piano solo: How to harmonize a melody! A piano solo can seem like a real mountain to climb. Used to beautiful voicings without a left hand fundamental, finding ourselves in charge of harmony without a bassist on hand could put us in crisis.
In this video we will see how to start exploring the world of the piano solo, starting with a very useful exercise. We will see how to easily and effectively harmonize a melody using only 4 voices and by involving both hands in the harmonization.
This technique is essential for developing the basis for expounding melodies, improvising and accompanying in solo piano and in all those situations where we do not have a bass player at our disposal (such as piano and voice).
Here is a small scheme of what to do/not to do in the 4-voice harmonization:
- Use fundamental, 3rd and 7th
- Avoid doubling as much as possible
- Divide the chord between your hands so that the right hand always sounds at least two notes
- Avoid minor 9th intervals between voices, except in dominant (7th) chords (