The Harmonization of the Major Scale

In today’s lesson we will get into what I consider to be one of the most important concepts we need to understand as improvisers, the harmonization of scales.
When we harmonize a scale, we are building a series of chords off of each scale degree using only notes from that scale. By doing this, you essentially create a
‘family’ of related chords that are connected to a single key center.

For example, let’s take the F major scale and harmonize it a couple of different ways.

The notes in a F major scale are: F, G, A, Bb, C, D, E

Example 1 shows what it looks like on a staff.

Example 1

In order to harmonize this scale, we need to build chords from each of its scale degrees. Chords are generally built in 3rds. By stacking 3rds from the root, we can
build different ‘sizes’ of chords. For example, a triad is a 3 note chord. A triad includes the scale degrees 1, 3, and 5. There is a 3rd between scale degrees 1 and 3,
and also a 3rd between scale degrees 3 and 5. A seventh chord is a 4 note chord. It includes the scale degrees 1, 3, 5, and 7. It has a 3rd between scale degrees 1
and 3, 3 and 5, and 5 and 7. See figure 1.

Figure 1

Now let’s apply chord construction to our F major scale.

Harmonizing Using Triads

Let’s start by harmonizing the F major scale using triads. In order to do this, we need to take each scale degree and add a 3rd and a 5th above it in order to build
each triad. As we can see in example 1, the notes in an F major scale are F, G, A, Bb, C, D, and E. The root of the first triad would be the note, F. With respect to
the scale, a 3rd above F is A, and the 5th above F is C. The triad is shown in example 2.

Example 2

If we continue building triads from the rest of the notes in the F major scale, the complete harmonization would look like example 3.

Example 3

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The qualities of each of these triads are defined by their included intervals. In a triad based harmonization of the major scale, there are 3 types of triads: major,
minor and diminished. The formulas for each of these are shown in figure 2.

Figure 2

If you evaluate each of the triads built from our F major scale, you will come up with the order of chords shown in example 4:

Example 4

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This order of chord types is the same for any major scale, since the construction of the major scale is universal for all keys. To summarize, the harmonization of
any major scale in triads can be represented in figure 3:

Figure 3

Harmonizing Using Seventh Chords

Now let’s harmonize the F major scale in seventh chords. Using the same approach in which we build our chords in 3rds, our seventh chords will each include a
root, 3rd, 5th, and 7th. Example 5 shows how this is applied to the F major scale on a staff.

Example 5

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Just as with triads, the qualities of each of these seventh chords are defined by their intervallic formulas. The harmonization of the major scale in seventh chords
contains 4 chord types: major 7, minor 7, dominant 7, and minor 7 b5 (also called half diminished). The formulas for each of these are shown in figure 4.

Figure 4

Applying these formulas in order to evaluate our chord types in example 5 results in the order of chords shown in example 6.

Example 6
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Once again, This order of chord types is the same for any major scale, since the construction of the major scale is universal for all keys. In this course, we will
mostly be working with seventh chords, since they are common to jazz and improvisational music. Figure 6 shows the order of seventh chords in the harmonization
of the major scale according to scale degrees.

Figure 5

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At this point, you should have the knowledge necessary to harmonize any major scale. In our next lesson, we will cover how to play actual harmonizations on your
bass.

 ASSIGNMENT

Exercises 1a-1f

For each of the major scales listed, you will provide:

1. the notes of the major scale, and 

2. the harmonization in triads on the staves provided. (Suggestion: Print out this page so you can write your answers down on the staves.)
3. the names of each chord written underneath the staff, including both the root and chord color

Important: Don’t forget to include any and all accidentals specific to each individual chord...

1a. C major:____________________________

1b. F major:____________________________

1c. Bb major:____________________________

1d. Eb major:____________________________
1e. Ab major:____________________________

1f. Db major:____________________________

Exercises 2a-2f

For each of the major scales listed, you will provide:

1. the notes of the major scale 

2. the harmonization in seventh chords on the staves provided
3. the names of each chord written underneath the staff, including both the root and chord color

Once again, don’t forget to include all accidentals specific to each key center...

2a. Gb major:____________________________

2b. B major:____________________________

2c. E major:____________________________

2d. A major:____________________________
2e. D major:____________________________

2f. G major:____________________________