I’m trying to post something that everyone can take away. Even at the early stages of someone’s musical path, you run into a major scale. Remember Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do well, that’ a Major scale. Let’s talk about what chords are found in a Major scale. For example I’ll use the Major scale in the key of G.
G A B C D E F# G

Number them G=1 A=2 B=3 C=4 D=5 E=6 F#=7 G=8 or (1)

To harmonize a major scale remember the following formula using 4 part chords:

The 1 and 4th tones of the scale are Major 7th
The 2 and 3 and 6 tones of the scale are minor 7th
The 5th tone of the scale is the Dominant 7th
The 7th tone can be either Minor 7th flat 5 or Diminished.

Let’s harmonize a G Major Scale with the following formula:

G Major7 – A minor7 – B minor7 -C Major 7 – D7 – E minor7 – F# dim. – G Major 7

You might be asking what does this have to do with playing music? If for example we have a chord progression like G Maj.7 | Em7 | Am7 | D7 | Taking a look at the chords we see that they are all in the key of G major so if you are soloing over these chords and had to play something, one down and dirty trick would be to play all the notes in the key of G Major and you would have all the consonant notes available to use for you solo in any octave on any instrument. Let your ear tell you what notes to emphasize when any one of those chords is being played.
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Tags: Harmonized major scale