Key Melody Note – This is the most important note in each bar.To understand reharmonization we need to understand the following concepts: When we reharmonize a song, we keep the same melody but change the chords to create a jazzy harmony. This will allow us to create our own chords when reharmonizing a song, rather than relying on standard and often overused chord substitutions (which don’t always necessarily work). Below we will discuss the general rules and underlying theory of how and why chord substitutions work. Reharmonization is essentially just a fancy word for chord substitution, but it involves substituting an entire chord progression rather than an individual chord. Reharmonization (or How to turn any Song into a Jazz Song) From barely jazzy (using 7th chords) to very jazzy (reharmonization). But by using and combining the above techniques you can turn literally any song, whether it be pop, classical, country, whatever, into a Jazz song (or at least a jazzy sounding song). Embellish the melody (add in a little improvisation and a few ornamentals)Īpplying each of these ideas allows you to ‘jazz up’ a song and each gives you differing levels of ‘jazziness’.Extend the chords (play 9th and 13th chords).For example, we can take any old song and apply the following techniques: Many of the concepts we learned in previous lessons can be applied to any song to make it sound ‘jazzy’.

In this lesson and the below video, we will explore how you can turn any song into a Jazz song by using a number of techniques, including Reharmonization (or with an ‘s’).

Make synthesia songs