Rhythm guitarists in rock or pop bands play chords most of the time to provide the harmonies which accompany the melody of the song. Their job usually involves strumming several strings at once to produce a chord, which they repeat a few. times before moving on to another one. The notes which make up the chords are chosen to support the notes within the melodies, and this means that the chords and melodies often use some of the same notes. For example, if a certain bit of the tune uses the notes A—B—C--D---E, then a typical accompaniment would be the chord made up of the notes A, C, E. We don't slavishly follow, every note used in the tune; we just pick suitable ones which fit. This chord would obviously give most support to the notes within it (A, C, E), so we would use it if those were the notes we were emphasizing in the song. If we had wanted to giveprominence to the notes B and D in the same bit of tune, we could have used the chord which uses the notes B, D, F.
You may have noticed that I am not using consecutive letters for my chords. The simplest chords don't involve notes which are right next to each other in the scale because, as I've discussed, notes that are too close together produce harsh combinations. Consecutive notes of a scale are either a semitone or a tone apart in pitch, and I mentioned earlier that notes a semitone apart compete for our attention rather than support each other. The same is true, to a lesser extent, for notes a tone apart, so any consecutive notes from a scale will clash if they are played at the same time. For this reason, a chord made up of the notes A, B, and C, for example, would sound very anguished indeed, as the B would clash with both the A and the C. This sort of chord would not be of much use in accompanying a melody, but it would be right at home in something very tense like "The Devil's Staircase."
The notes in simple, harmonious chords need some breathing space between them in order to support each other, and three alternate notes from whatever scale is being used gives us the commonest type of pleasant combination. However, even in pop songs it is customary to add a little bit of spice to occasional chords by first building a "nice" team of three notes and then adding a single clashing note. So we might use C, E, and G, with a B thrown in to add a bit of tension because it will clash with the C. Our rhythm guitarist (who should really be called the harmony guitarist) provides these groups of notes as a background to the melodies produced by the lead guitarist or singer.
In other musical situations we don't have one person providing the melody and another giving us the harmony. Solo pianists, for example, do both jobs at once, generally playing the melody with their right hand and the chords/harmony with their left. On the other hand, classical music often involves a large team of orchestral players. When an orchestra plays, only a few of the members will be playing melodies at any one time, and the other musicians will play harmonies to accompany them. The composer will often pass melodies around from one group of musicians to another to keep the listener interested. In Bolero by the French composer Ravel, the music gradually gets louder as the tune is passed around the orchestra and more instruments join in. The harmonies are kept pleasant and warm until just near the end, where the composer injects a lot of tension for a dramatic final climax.
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