NON-HARMONIC TONES

Learn the music theory behind connecting two or more chords together

Writing a hooky melody can be an infuriating process. Sometimes, you just walk up to your instrument and the tune flows instantly and effortlessly from your fingers. Other times, it can seem like your muse has legged it for the day and nothing you come up with is ticking any boxes. It’s at these more difficult points that knowing a few theory-related tricks and tips can help you figure out what note to go to next.

The key thing when trying to come up with a melody over a set of existing chords is that the notes support the chords. The most obvious way to do this is to use notes from the chord playing at any particular point. If you only stick to this rule, however, you run the risk of producing somewhat lacklustre results.

So what can you do to spice things up a bit? Well, using notes that aren’t in the current chord is one way forward – in other words, any note from the chromatic scale that isn’t part of the chord that’s currently sounding. These notes are known as ‘non-harmonic’ tones, ‘non-chord’ tones, or even ‘embellishing’ tones – I’ll be sticking with non-harmonic tones here. There are five common types of non-harmonic tone – passing tone, neighbour note, suspension, anticipation and appoggiatura – and over the next two pages, I’ll be showing you exactly what makes them tick and how to use them.