Lesson with CreationArtist

Lesson with Creation Artist

OK, first I need to know what sort of notation software you use. Oddly enough, I have no notation software of my own, just a MIDI sequencer. I can create small PDFs in Lilypond, or I might have to get Finale notepad.

So now I would like to ask you a few basic questions to understand what exactly you know about harmony, which I assume will be our initial area of focus. You will probably already know the answers to most of these, so don't bother to answer any really easy ones. I hope you're familiar with roman numerals to designate chords, like i, V, iv6, i64, III+6, etc....

1. Can you see a chord spread over both treble and bass clefs and rapidly know the intervals between any two notes?

2. Do you know the basics of voice leading between root position chords? 6 chords? (sorry, I call first inversion 6)

3. Do you know when a 6/4 (second inversion) chord is appropriate?

4. Name some chords you would place before a vi chord in major. Name some that would go after.

5. When would you double a chord's 3rd?

6. When would you use IV (major subdominant) in minor?

In all of these I'm referring to what is now usually called common practice harmony, as used from Bach and beyond. I'm assuming that this sort of standard harmony (and counterpoint) is more or less what you want to master. (Keep in mind that I myself am slightly more comfortable in the harmony of the early Baroque, which is my favorite music, so I might be learning some things about the 18th cent. and beyond with you. Also keep in mind that unfortunately I know almost nothing about Classical music and beyond. The harmonic knowledge, however, still applies all the way up to the early romantic period.)

I'm sorry if these questions are too basic, I just want to better understand where you're at. As soon as you reply I'll think of concepts to teach and exercises. Also, feel free to ask about counterpoint, general details of baroque style, and baroque forms.

1. I use Finale 2007a
2. I'm not familiar with all the roman numerals, just I-vii


1. No.
2. No.
3. No.
4. iii -> vi -> (predominants) ii/IV -> (dominants) V/vii* -> I/iii
5. When moving to the dominant?
6. Don't know.

I should get going with Piston's Harmony as we progress, too

One other thing I should have asked... do you play the piano?

Yes, for seven years

Do you like my arrangement of your fugue? I just uploaded a new one

Which midi editor do you use? It sounds better than GPO

OK, we will begin by discussing voicing. You might know all of this already. As soon as you finish this we will begin voice leading chords in four part harmony. Since you say you cannot fluently determine intervals on a piano staff, these exercises are very important. If you cannot find parallel fifths at a glance, you can't avoid them. We will mostly be working with 4-part keyboard harmony.

Chords

You probably know what a triad is: a harmony consisting of three notes, in this style, separated by thirds. So in a triad there is a root note, a third, and a fifth (which is two stacked thirds). In actual chorale style harmony, the root note is often repeated, giving you a chord of four notes. These four notes may be moved into any octave, so that the 3rd becomes a 10th, the 5th a 12th, the unison an octave or 15th. I hope you know all the names of the intervals (like unison, second, etc...).

Voicing

In chorale style harmony, the notes of the triad are arranged in a certain way to make the most balanced sound. Usually the whole chord is not very far outside of the treble or bass clefs' ranges.

To begin with, we will work with chords whose roots are in the bass, or as I call them, 5 or 5/3 chords. For now we will only use chords with a single third and fifth, and a doubled (repeated) root (usually in another octave).

Open the attached file and list out the intervals each note of each chord forms from the bass, from the bottom up. Ignore the notes without a chord for now. For example, the first chord is 5, 8, 3. You notice I wrote 3 instead of 10, because that note functions as the third. And it will be easier for all of us . Try to be as fast and accurate as possible.

Now list the intervals between successive notes of those same chords, that is, the interval between each note and the next note above it. For the first chord, 5, 4, 3.

Now I will explain those chords. You probably know this too; I hope this isn't too basic. A balanced chord's notes are never separated from each other by more than an octave, except from bass to tenor. Thus from soprano to alto, and from alto to tenor there should be less than an octave. Tenor to bass, however, be more than or less than an octave.

Note that tenor to soprano can be over an octave. When it is, you have an open disposition. When tenor to soprano is less than an octave, you have a closed disposition.


Notice the difference of sound (listen to my example) between open and closed chords.

Now tell me whether each of my chords is open or closed, and if it follows all the rules.

Then, make your own chords on each of the roots I have written, without using any accidentals. Remember, 3rd, 5th, and doubled root. Make the first two closed and the last three open.




If this is way too basic, just tell me and we'll skip it all. If not, then you should follow it all exactly. Do not break any rules unless you have mastered them. So, for example, in 4 part counterpoint, upper voices might be separated by over an octave, but such an arrangement is usually very brief. There is no reason for there to be any mistakes in your answers (unless, like I said, this is too basic. Then we can skip all of this). You need to have fast interval identifying skills to write progressions and avoid parallels.

Done

Ok, well, I would like for you to go back and edit some of those chords you arranged on the roots I posted, because for now I would like to work only with chords in root position with a doubled root. For example, your first chord is in first inversion, and your fourth chord has a doubled fifth. Also, I wanted you to notice that my last chord is unusually open (there is an 11th between soprano and alto) and thus not very well suited to chorale style harmony.

In general, feel free to experiment with 6th chords and unusual doublings or whatever else... but only if you have totally understood what we have done so far, and probably better separately from my lessons (although I can discuss any of these further if you want). After all, good music departs from traditional rules of spacing and doubling occasionally - but are you sure you truly understand all the possibilities within my restrictions?

Anyways, you seem to be more proficient than you believe at identifying lots of intervals. Since that will be very valuable, you should repeat the exact same exercise many times with Bach chorales or some other homorhythmic passages. Even if you don't understand the harmonies, you can name intervals.

I really hope I haven't offended you about Mozart. I definitely admire his music and plan on listening to more. And I would like to say again that these same chords and voice leading conventions apply all the way from Bach to Beethoven, Mozart included. The differences are in how they combined the chords, not the chords themselves.

OK, now its time for the next lesson.

Let's face it, voicing chords, studying their dispositions can hardly qualify as music. In this lesson, we will actually combine chords: now we will have motion.


For now we are not going to try to understand what the chords we use actually mean. Tomorrow we will study the functions that different chords have, which is an area that you seem to already have knowledge in. So, to begin with I would like for you to prepare a "progression chart" where you list each chord of a major scale (in roman numerals) and then list any chords likely to follow it. For example, as you probably know, the dominant chord V, often moves to the tonic chord I. In this chart, lets not worry about inversions, just the essential chords themselves. I guess you can format it something like this:

I: (list following chords here)
ii: ...
iii:
IV:
V: I, vi
vi:
vii*:

Those chords are the diatonic chords of a major key: they have no accidentals in C Major. I think you already know which of those chords are minor, major, or diminished (lets use uppercase, lowercase, and the star: I, vi, vii*). If not, I will discuss that a little tomorrow anyway. Tomorrow I will also introduce the minor mode.


Like I said, today I will not teach about that sort of "harmonic function." Today I will teach you how to connect different chords following the rules of traditional harmony; tomorrow I will teach you what chords to choose.

THE RULES

In these exercises you must follow what I have taught about chord spacing perfectly. I understand that yesterday you might have made some mistakes, but today you must totally understand spacing to move on to progressions.

The famous rules you have surely already heard of. Parallel fifths and parallel octaves are entirely forbidden for now. Please open the file named Examples and look at it alongside this lesson.

In the first bar, the outer voices form a fifth in the first chord, and then move to another fifth in the next chord. This is strictly prohibited, but if you follow my guidelines avoiding parallel fifths should not be hard.

In the next bar you see parallel octaves. The same goes for them. (The matter of doubling a whole melodic line in octaves like in orchestral music or the piano is something else entirely. In these cases those octaves are just a thickening of an existing part, not true harmony. I can discuss the difference further you want.)

Repeating the same octave or fifth in two chords, on the other hand, is entirely allowed. An example of this is in the third bar. (We will not worry about direct octaves and fifths for now.)

PROGRESSIONS

Remember that we are still only using chords in root position with a doubled root (and since they are in root position, the bass is the root). All of the spacing rules from yesterday should be perfectly followed.

When one chord moves to another, the most fundamental motion is that of the roots. Since we are only using root position chords, the fundamental motion is in the bass. Now I will list the smoothest ways to connect chords with any melodic interval in the bass.

UP BY A FIFTH

When the bass leaps up by a fifth, the two triads will have a note in common (remember a triad can have more than three notes, but the extras are doubles). For example, a C triad and a G triad share the note G in common. In a progression by ascending fifth in the bass, tie or repeat that common note in one upper voice, and move the other two upper voice notes down. See the fourth and fifth bars of my examples.

Another way to manage this progression moves all the upper voices in the same direction as the bass to the next nearest note of the next chord, not repeating or tying any notes (some notes will move by a second, some by a third). See the sixth bar. This version is weaker because all voices move in the same direction.

DOWN BY A FOURTH

When C moves up by a fifth, it goes to G. When if moves down by a fourth, it also goes to G. Though the bass melodies are different, the exact same harmonies are used and thus the same procedure as up by a fifth applies.

The difference is that now the second approach, where no voice is repeated or tied, is actually stronger because all of the voices are moving upwards, contrary to the bass. Bars 7 and 8 show this. Bars 9 and 10 mix down by fourth and up by fifth in both versions.

DOWN BY FIFTH, UP BY FOURTH

After you have learned all of the preceding progressions and have fused them to your very soul, these should be easy. Simply move the upper voices in the opposite direction of down by fourth and up by fifth. In this way, in the version where all upper voices move, they will move down. In the version where only two voices moved by step, they will now move up.

Bars 11 through 14 show all these possibilities. Bars 15 through 16 show a mix of all eight progression you can now handle. If followed correctly, these should not create parallel fifths.

DOWN or UP BY THIRD

In these cases two notes will be shared in the upper voices. For example, C mjaor and E minor share both E and G. Those notes should be tied or repeated in the upper voices. One note of the upper voice will move by step contrary (in the opposite direction) to the bass. See bars 17 and 18.

DOWN or UP BY SIXTH.

Same as with thirds, only that the one moving voice goes in the same direction as the bass.

DOWN OR UP BY SECOND

In this case the upper voices will all move contrary to the bass, some by third and some by step, since there are no common notes. Make sure the following chord is in root position with a doubled root! See bars 19 through 21.



Now you know how to move between any two chords in root position with root doubled. This is 80% of what you will ever learn and use with harmony, so make sure you know it perfectly. Know each one of these by heart. That will take lots of writing, and using them every day. Because of this I am posting lots and lots of exercises. They wont even be close to enough! These progressions MUST be learned.

Remember, only root position, root doubled. Always use proper spacing. For now, never use the vii* chord. Also, please save minor for tomorrow after the lesson about harmonic functions.

I will post exercises in a few minutes; please don't try any of these until then.

Here are the exercises. I will post more later, as this is the essence of harmony.

Place properly voice-led chords on all the roots provided. Remember (sorry, I have to repeat this ), only root position chords with doubled roots. Make sure that all of the spacing conventions are perfectly followed. For now use the formulas I have listed to connect chords.

Each exercise is separated by a repeat. Don't take the repeat seriously; it only separates independent exercises (you don't have to worry about connecting one exercise to the next, only worry about voice leading within each exercise).

This one is two pages long. To master this you should have dozens of pages of this sort of thing before long. For now, however, lets wait for writing your own bass lines until we discuss harmonic function tomorrow. Also remember to make the chart I asked for in my previous post.


Something I just remembered to discuss... Sometimes the doubled note can be a unison, which I think you understand. So, in this case, the bass can form a unison with the tenor. Also, small harmonic intervals are usually better higher up. So, the tenor to the bass can be a third, but only if they are relatively high. If the third is very low, you should probably use a tenth instead.