Being able to harmonize a scale can be a great help in writing and learning songs. Simply put, harmonizing a scale involves building chords by stacking thirds on each scale tone or degree. Using these chords in a given key will pretty much always sound good – which is why many (perhaps the majority) of songs are written using these chords.

A great example of an incredibly popular harmonized chord progression is the basic 1 4 5 progression used in many genres including blues, bluegrass, and rock among others. This progression generally means to use the 1st, 4th, and 5th chord from the harmonized scale – so in C that would be C F and G. Because these chords are used so often they can be really helpful when learning a song by ear too.

Of course like all things music – there are certainly exceptions to this where chords out of the harmonized scale are used (like in Old Home Place where the major 3 is used or in Big River where the minor 2 is used).

The below chart shows the harmonized major and minor scales.

Here’s a few different practices for the harmonized scales as well

• C Major scale harmonized

I’d suggest creating some flash cards to memorize these progressions as well. On one side, the key. On the other, the harmonized scale.

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