From what I understand, in a major key, the most likely primary chords in order of likelihood are: 1, 5, then 4. Then the most likely secondary chords in order of likelihood are: 2, 6 and 3. So for the key of C, that would be:
C, G and F for the primary chords then Dm, Am and Em for the secondary chords (but these could be major, dominant 7th or minor 7th).

What if the song you want to harmonize is in a minor key. For example, I have one that has a key sig of 1 sharp. It starts and ends on E. My previous teacher told me this meant the song was probably not in key of G major but in key of Em. So far so good. So does the same rule apply as to which are the primary and secondary chords?

In the key of Em, would the primary chords be:
Em - B - A
1st - 5th - 4th
Would the 4th and 5th be major or minor or 7th chords?

Would the secondary chords be:
F - C - Am
2nd - 6th - 3rd
If so, am I right that the 2nd and 6th are major and the 3rd is minor?

I just bought Duane Schinn's course "How to match chords to melody notes" and I want to practice putting chords to simple melodies. But I know that many of the ones in my hymn book (especially those for Lent and Advent) are in minor keys. Besides that I have a real fondness for minor keys.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Monique from Ottawa Canada.

In the key of E minor, the dominant 7th chord would be B7. F#min7(b5) is the chord that leads to the B7, and most times, the B7 has a flat 9 (C natural) added to it.

When the melody moves to the subdominant, that chord would be A minor.

In your terminology, the 2d is the F#min(b5), the 6th is CMaj7, and the 3d is GMaj7.

The 1st would be Emin, the 5th would be B7 and the 4th would be A min.

If you want the excrucitating detail on this, talk to these guys: http://forums.allaboutjazz.com/forumdisplay.php?f=34

jjtpiano is correct, however, he/she is using more jazz chords than you might find in a hymn book.

In a minor key, you would still find the chords I IV & V to be most common. However, they are i (lower case to indicate it is a minor chord), iv, and then V. Notice that naturally, the v chord is minor. You have to make it major by raising the 3rd a half step to make it sound stronger.

In the case of E minor, your i would be E minor, iv would be a minor, and V would be B major (B-D#-F#). Secondary chords (ones less important) are the ii (which in minor is diminished), the III (not really used at all unless modulating to the relative major key), VI, and VII.

The best thing to do is know your i iv and V chords in whatever key you're playing in, and then listen and experiment. If those chords don't match what you're playing, then make an educating guess by seeing what note(s) are in the melody for that measure. If you have a C in the melody in the key of C major, then your possible chords can be C, a minor, or F. Try out chords where you're not sure and just go with what sounds best.

Thanks so much for your help. I'm trying to learn what I can of harmony theory. Right now what I am practicing is taking songs from my hymnbook (pew edition) that has only the melody notes and trying to come up with the chords.

I would keep it simple first. Start with just the triads, then all of their inversions, then add the 7ths and work out in all inversions...

Another cool thing to do is mix triads to create chords

ex: c minor triad in LH with G minor triad in RH gives you Cmi7 with 9

play around with mixing any triad (major or minor) you can think of until you get the sounds you want...

Thanks so much for the neat tip. I'll DEFINITELY start simple.

There was this song we sang at church tonight. It started in D major then for the verses switched to Bm. I saw that right away since the first 3 notes in the 1st measure of the verse were Bs where the refrain started and ended on D.

What really threw me was the verse ends on the note E but the chord provided was a G! The mini-course I took stated that the chord should have the melody note in it. Obviously not always! If I didn't have the chords for this song, how would I ever arrive at a G?