What is Harmony?
Like many words ‘harmony’ has many definitions, however many of these definitions center around the central idea that harmony of any sort is both organized and pleasing, such as having a harmonious relationship or having color harmony in a painting.
Musical harmony is defined as tones that are played together that sounds pleasing. Harmonies with three or more notes are known as cords. If you’ve ever listened to a song it is likely that you’ve heard a few cords on your life. In fact, many songs use the same cords because they sound pleasing. If you would like some examples of songs that use the same cords check out: 4 Chords | Music Videos | The Axis Of Awesome.
Harmonics is one aspect of music that makes it pleasing to listeners without it music would be a jumbled mess of notes. While harmony is not a hard-set rule it does tend to make songs sound more pleasing. Still, you can have a popular song that lacks harmonics. Take the children’s song, ‘Mary had a little Lamb’ for example, The entire song can be played using 3 notes, none of which need to be played at the same time. By definition, a harmonic is achieved by playing at least two notes simultaneously. Naturally, the childhood classic would sound better if it has a few cords in it, but it is not necessary to create a song.
One thing to keep in mind is that harmonies can mean different things depending on the culture. Some will say Indian classical music lacks harmony. However, both the organization of the notes and if the particular notes chosen to be part of the harmonic is pleasing can largely depend on what you’ve come to accept as such. Differences in preferences of music can arise from many factors including culture and environment.