Harmony

[YDOD]

I am playing around with harmony. I notice that other than the basic chords
such as the 1st, 4th, 5th,and 6th, many chords do not have a particularly
pleasant sound if you just play them in isolation. What I mean is that it
doesn't seem possible to memorize the sound of a large number of different
chords and then just use them when you need them. At the moment, I try to
write a melody line, harmonize it by just using one bass note i.e. 2 part
harmony, then try to fill in the chords by trial and error. Is there any
other way?

[Edward Lilley]

Try getting a sense of where the harmony is moving to while you write
the melody. Also, look over some chorales for some common chord
sequences (perfect & imperfect cadences should be relatively easy to
pick up on, for example).