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In bar one, should I write chord I twice or should I write I_________ Also, in bar 3, am I right if I added chord symbols to each of the last three notes or should I add it to only one?

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    I think your question title is more like "where to write roman numerals for a harmony analysis." I thought your question was going to be about how to select a bass and chords to support a given melody. – Michael Curtis Jun 16 '17 at 17:34
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  1. There's no universal answer for how to write the first measure. Plenty of people (myself included) would just write I and not write anything else until the chord changes, the assumption being that the chord stays the same until we analyze another chord. People will also write I I as you did, and as you said another possibility is I ----. All are correct.

  2. It's very common for chords to change quickly right before the end of a phrase. (In fancy terms, we say that "the harmonic rhythm accelerates as we approach the cadence," but don't worry if you haven't heard those terms yet; you will later!) Furthermore, your chords make complete sense there, so the end of your m. 3 looks great to me!

(Note: People typically use lowercase Roman numerals for minor chords. If that's the case, make sure you write your II as a ii. But if your teacher has asked you to use all uppercase Roman numerals, then stick with II!)

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  • Surely, if teacher has asked for all upper case, he's going to get some wrong, as they will appear to be major, when they are minor. II in B is C# major, it can't be C#minor, can it? – Tim Jun 16 '17 at 21:54
  • Well, there are some systems that only use uppercase Roman numerals, and don't use cases to indicate chord qualities. – Richard Jun 16 '17 at 21:57
  • I learn something new all the time with this site. Which systems? I guess they use 'm' or '-' to qualify minor. – Tim Jun 17 '17 at 7:24
  • The earliest Roman numeral systems used all uppercase letters; only later systems added in lowercase to show chord quality. – Richard Jun 17 '17 at 16:52
  • So how is quality shown in all caps? – Tim Jun 17 '17 at 21:56

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