Melodic Contours over I–V–I | Chord by Chord Ep.2

Start here: a free guide to learning harmony with this channel: https://drfrommsmusiclab.gumroad.com/... Practice worksheets for this episode: http://drfrommsmusiclab.gumroad.com/l... What happens above the I–V–I progression matters just as much as the chords themselves. In this episode of the Chord by Chord series, we expand beyond the basic lower-neighbor connection and explore three essential melodic contours that composers regularly use over I–V–I: Do–Re–Mi, Mi–Re–Do, and the upper neighbor. Rather than treating these as isolated “rules,” we focus on when and why each pattern works, how they shape musical direction, and how to use them without creating common voice-leading problems like unresolved leading tones or direct octaves. This episode builds directly on Episode 1 and shows how small melodic decisions create very different harmonic characters over the same progression. 🎧 Harmonic Dictation (practice the progressions from this video): 🔗 Tonic & Dominant Only (Major):    • Harmonic Dictation #1 – Tonic & Dominant O...   🔗 Tonic & Dominant Only (Minor):    • Harmonic Dictation #2 – Tonic & Dominant O...   🔗 Next Episode in the Chord by Chord Series:    • Resolving V⁷ to I (Why Incomplete Chords W...   00:00 Review of I–V–I 00:30 Lower-neighbor motion 01:03 Do–Re–Mi contour 01:44 Direct octaves (what to avoid) 03:20 Mi–Re–Do contour 03:40 Resolving the leading tone 05:57 Upper-neighbor motion 06:58 Comparing the four contours