Niveau 2 · Cours 22
Reharmonization
Transform a progression while preserving the melody — diatonic and tritone substitutions, modal borrowing, parallel harmonization.
🎹
Pause Culture · Réharmonisation
Bill Evans (1929–1980)
In 1958, Bill Evans recorded 'Peace Piece' in a single take. For eight minutes, he explored every harmonic colour possible over a single bass pedal — C. He borrowed chords from the…
💡
À retenir : Reharmonising means seeing the same notes under different lights. The melody is the soloist — the chords are the light you choose to illuminate it.
The 4 reharmonisation techniques
Reharmonising means replacing the chords of a progression while keeping the melody intact. The fundamental constraint: every melody note must remain consonant with the new chord.
Principle: the melody is fixed — it is "the roof". The chords can change — they are "the floor". Choosing a new chord means choosing the light under which the melody will be heard.
Click on a technique to see and hear the progressions.
Melodic check: before any reharmonisation, identify the long notes of the melody. A held note that creates a half-step with a chord tone = strong dissonance. Check systematically.