Jazzy Wedding March Arrangement

August 8, 2014
By Willie
News
A student of mine asked about jazzing up the Wedding March by Mendelssohn, so I am
taking this opportunity to explain how to create an arrangement from scratch us
ing the Wedding March as a springboard.
In this article I am only going to cover the first four measures of the song. Wh
y? Because I want this article to focus on how to create an arrangement from scr
atch, not just how to learn the song. Using these techniques, you can learn the
rest of the song on your own and apply them to countless other songs.
I ll also give you a link at the bottom of the article to the entire
rsion of the song.
Step One
Figuring out the melody

traditional ve

Let s begin by figuring out the melody of the song. For those who read music, I ha
ve provided the first four-measures of the melody below (ex. 1). If you do not r
ead music, play the MP3 file to hear the first four-measures of the song, then p
ick it out by ear. In example 1, I wrote the note names below the notes.
Example 1
piano accompaniment example
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Step Two
Figure out the key using music
Before we begin putting chords (harmony) to the melody, let s first review the key
signature. The key signature is found between the clef and the time signature.
See example 2.
Example 2
piano accompaniment example
In example 2 we see that there are no sharps or flats in the key signature. This
means we are in the key of C major or A minor.
Step Three Figure out the key using your ears
What if I don t read music and just figured out how to play the melody by ear? How
would I know what key it is in?
That is a great question. If you figured out the melody by ear, also use your ea
r (plus a few tips I ll give you) to figure out the key of the song. The melody of
a song will naturally lead the ear to a key. This means you ll hear the right key a
fter playing the melody a few times. This is how:
Play the melody of the song 2-4 times
Next, play a strong octave at the end of the song. So, if you think it is in
the key of F, play an F in octaves in the LH after playing the melody. Try it r
ight now with this melody. You ll notice that it does not sound right at all. It d
oes not sound resolved
Continue step 2 till you find a match. This might require that you step away
from the keyboard for a while to clear your ears.
If you went through all 12 keys, you ll realize that C, A and E probably sound
the best.
Next, play that C, A or E in octaves over the entire melody. E does not soun
d all that great, so we can remove it from the list.

We ve now narrowed the two keys that sound good down to C and A.
Now, tedious as this method may be, it does have its benefits. If you tried this
, or listened to the examples, you ll hear that A sounds good in the beginning, bu
t it sounds better to end the phrase with a C.
So, we start on an A in the left hand, but move to a C at the end of the phrase.
This makes sense because A is the related minor to C Major. So, now we know tha
t the song starts in minor, then moves to Major.
Why does this work? It works because songs will often switch between related Maj
or and minor keys. Related keys are those that share the same key signature. C a
nd A both share the same key signature. More on this in the circle of fiths arti
cle.
Step Four Applying basic chords to the song
Let s start with two helpful tips that will help you figure out what chord to use
at the beginning of the song. Remember, these are tips and work most of the time b
ut not all of the time.
Most songs begin with the I or V chord. This is an extreme generalization but
often works well. So, in the case of the Wedding March, let s start with C, the I
chord in C major. Remember, we do not know if we are in C Major or A minor yet,
but let s assume C Major for the moment. The other options would be G (V chord in
C Major), A minor (I chord in A minor) or E (V chord in A minor).
The melody note will usually be the 1, 3 or 5 of the starting chord. Yet anoth
er generalization, but a good starting point. In this case, the melody note is C
and it is the root of the C chord or flat 3rd of the A minor chord, so it works
well with either chord.
Example three demonstrates applying these two tips to the melody.
Example 3
piano accompaniment example
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Now, after listening to example 3, we can it sounds O.K. but not quite right. It w
ould work in a pinch if you were on a gig though. Chances are, most people would n
ot even notice it sounding off . But, we know better!
Step Five
Fixing the chords
Example 3 did not sound terrible, but it could sound better. I mentioned back in
step four that most songs will start on the I or V chord most of the time. I ll sto
p putting in my disclaimers as long as you promise to remember that these tips o
r rules can always be broken and are broken many times in music history!
Back on track So if I list the I and V chords in C major and A minor, I get: C-G (
I & V in C Major) and Amin-E (I minor & V in A minor).
Immediately, I can bump the G and E chords off the list because the melody note
is not found in those chords and would sound very tense played along with the me
lody. We just tried the C chord and found that it sounded good but not great. Th
at leaves the A minor chord. Let s try it.
Example 4
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Now that sounds more like the Wedding March that we know. But I am still not hap
py with the first two measures.
Step Six
Harmonic rhythm.
Harmonic rhythm is the rate at which the chords change. Do they change every two
beats, four beats or more? Do you have one, two or more chords per measure? In
measures one, two and four the Harmonic rhythm is one chord per measure. I perso
nally like the sound of two chords per measure rather than holding out a chord f
or four beats. But, as always, it depends on the song and situation. For this ex
ample, let s add some more chords to our melody.
To make some room in measure two, I m going to push the F chord from beat one to bea
t three. In example 5, the green box shows us that we now have a space that we c
an fill. Now, the reason I knew I could move the chord over to beat three is bec
ause if it sounded fine over beats 1-4, then it will sound fine over beats 3-4.
Also, notice that the melody note is an F which will sound fantastic on an F cho
rd.
Example 5
piano accompaniment example
What chord should I fill in the green box? There are many chords that I could us
e in that area. Just think, What chords naturally have an A in them, and would al
so sound nice against the G? Well, D minor and A minor come to mind. But, I m going
to go in a different direction. I m going to choose a C chord.
Example 6
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In example 6, I have filled beats one and two in measure 2 with a C/E chord. Thi
s means that you play the C chord in first inversion with the E as the bottom no
te. If you were playing with a bass player, they would play the E while you play
a C chord in your left hand.
Now, the question is probably Why did you choose C, especially with that A in the
melody?!?
The A in the melody is acting as a suspension. This is a 6-5 suspension. You ll no
tice that it is tense on beat one, but resolves nicely on beat two when the G in
the melody comes in. Other common suspensions are 9-1 (2-1), 4-3 and 7-8.
I chose the C chord because it sounds nice and works well in the key. It helps t
o ground the key of C sound. Also, this is a traditional song so the axiom holds:
Just because you can change something doesn t mean that you should! Sometimes the
tried and true sounds better.
I want to draw your attention to the F/C on beat three in measure 2 (ex. 6). Not
ice that I am now writing this as F/C whereas before I was simply writing it as
an F chord?
When writing music for yourself, you can simplify the way that you write your ch
ords. The F/C versus plain old F does not change the harmony. It is still an F c
hord. When putting chords to a melody it is often necessary to get them out quic
k while they are still in your memory and ears. So, don t get bogged down in the d
etails.
Step Seven Dominant motion
In example 7, you ll see that we still have some room in measure one to fill in an

other chord. Of course we have room in other measures to fill in chords as well.
We could put chords on every beat, but that would be too dense.
Example 7
piano accompaniment example
Dominant motion is when you have a dominant 7th chord resolve down a fifth (up a
fourth) to another chord. G7 would resolve to C. The dominant chord must be a d
ominant chord for dominant resolution to work. However, the chord it is resolvin
g to can be a Major, minor or another dominant chord.
This gets a bit tricky, but sounds good. Since the bass motion on the C/E chord
makes us hear E as the root of the chord, I m going to think of this as an E chord
for right now. In reality C/E is not too far of a stretch from an E minor chord
. We ll see more of this later.
So, if I am now thinking of C/E as E, the question is What is the related dominan
t 7th chord to E? This is where your scales come in. You should at least learn ho
w to play all 12 Major five-finger scales. This is the first five notes of all o
f your Major scales. Don t get me wrong, it would be best to learn all 12 Major sc
ales in full.
The notes of the E Major five-finger scale are: E, F#, G#, A and B. Numbering th
e notes starting with E as 1, gives us B as the 5th. We now know that the 5th of
E is B. That means B7 has a strong dominant motion toward E, or C/E in this exa
mple.
Now, let s check B7 against our melody. The melody notes are B and F#, that s the ro
ot and 5th of a B7 chord. Perfect! See the results of this new chord in example
eight.
Example 8
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This now sounds like the Wedding March. However, the accompaniment is kind of bl
and only using triads. In part two, I ll talk about how to expand these simple cho
rds into a full blown arrangement in a traditional, jazz and contemporary style.
The Wedding March
Traditional Style
- See more at: http://pianowithwillie.jazzedge.com/2014/08/jazzy-wedding-march-a
rrangement/#sthash.0uBiaum0.dpuf