melody harmony?

[slapcracklepop]

I know theres a difference, and I kind of know what each means i just get them mixed up. Will someone explain both to me and their relationship

[DemoEtc]

Melody's just the tune, the melodic line of a song or piece. Harmony, in the smaller sense, is another melody (or melodies) which is in harmony, harmonizes, with that melody. Harmony in a larger sense is the whole concept of notes which work with one another, their smaller relationships with each other - and the melody - but also the larger, harmonic structure of a piece of music. And in a larger sense still, harmony, or the study of it, is the the study of how chords and melodies and etc, relate to each other in all different sorts of music, how the notes in one chord (for example) move to notes in the next chord, the reasons why certain things work and others don't, and the basic 'rules' so to speak as to what others in the past have done and what's being done now.

But to get basic again, someone hums a tune, and someone else hums along and it's not the same notes but notes that seem to go together - that's harmony and harmonizing.

Hope this helps.

[Trist6075]

I just had a test on this in my music class. I think the melody is the tones with a shape like the part u hum or the whatever right? And then all I know for hamony is that its the vertical aspect of the music and i guess the chords play off of eachother?

[Howard K]

Blimey that post confused the hell outta me

Melody is a sequence of notes that make up a tune. Like "Happy Birthday". Melody, by default has rhythm. You could clap Happy Birthday and most people would proabably know the tune from it's distinctive rhythm.

Harmony is the sounds of two of more notes being heard at the same time. Hamrony neednt have any rhythm appleid to it, it is purely the sound of two or more notes at the same time.
You get 'consonant' harmony, e.g. C and E played together, which sounds 'nice' and 'dissonant' hamorny, e.g. C and F# played together, which sounds nasty. Although what sounds nice and nasty is entirely personal of course