Hot answers tagged harmony
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Counterpoint is a type of polyphony with certain restrictions on form. For instance, contrapuntally organized music focuses on melodic interaction between multiple independent voices rather than harmonic interaction. In other words, chords occur as a result of coincident notes in multiple melodic lines rather than as a primary textural element. Other forms ...
12
The basis of counterpoint (point against point) is melody. Harmony is evident in counterpoint which, I suppose, is what is causing the confusion. A theory professor once told me that Harmony is a byproduct of the rules of counterpoint being used properly. Counterpoint changed from renaissance to baroque in some significant ways. Renaissance counterpoint ...
11
I think the difference you would hear would be the difference in the direction and rhythm of the lines. Counterpoint would fill in the melodic "gaps" rhythmically and harmonically. Basic harmony often lines up with the melody. Counterpoint frequently goes opposite the melody, thus its name.
Listen to some Baroque music, where counterpoint was used heavily ...
11
Start out by learning the characteristic sound of a V-I progression. Play only the guide tones (3rd and 7th) and note how the 7th of the V moves down a half step to become the 3rd of the I. Then do the same for the ii-V, noticing how the 7th of the ii moves down a half step to become the 3rd of the V. Then put them together. There are many possible ...
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There are some very simple ways to transform the mood of a song by slight alterations in the melody, harmony or both.
A transposition of the melody to the relative minor (ex. from C major to A minor) or to the parallel minor (ex. from C major to C minor) are both very simple ways to retain the melodic material, while drastically changing the sound.
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8
There are a couple interesting idioms used by Prokofiev that stand out for me:
Tonal ambiguity and disjunct melody, often using chromatic lines, fourths (quartal harmony), tritones, symmetric scales based on minor or major thirds (octatonic or augmented, respectively), harmonies and melodies involving dissonant minor second and major seventh intervals, ...
7
Visualizing harmonies takes place in what I and others call the aural image; basically, being able to hear music internally with little or no outside stimulus. When instrumentalists practice this, they usually do it by singing, since the voice is that much more closely related to the brain than any given instrument. For all of the above, though, it can be ...
7
If there are rules, they are pretty much the same as for popular music of the early 20th century. Some rags have simple progressions; some use more complex progressions. As with jazz improvising, "substitution" chords can be used, like ii-V7-I in place of IV-V7-I. Ninth chords and beyond are rare. Joplin's "Euphonic Sounds" and "Antoinette" are extreme ...
6
As Matthew indicated, overlapping tuplets are most commonly used for rhythmic effect, called polyrhythm. Try writing an ostinato accompaniment in one subdivision (like triplets, or 6/8), and write a melodic line in the other subdivision (straight 8ths, or 2/4), while staying in the same key.
Almost certainly, some composers have used bitonality alongside ...
6
Harmony refers only to the relative pitches of the different voices you hear sounding together in a nice way; it says nothing about the timing of the notes in the different voices.
Counterpoint refers to different voices forming their own separate melodies: (many of) their notes are produced at different times and with different durations. Counterpoint ...
5
Edward Sarath's Music Theory Through Improvisation is available online, thanks to google books. The subtitle of the book ("A New Approach to Musicianship Training") seems to address your situation directly. You may also find my posts about another book and about chord functions useful.
5
It surely can be done and it's largely used in, for example, games to signal mood changes to the listener while still conveying the original "idea" of the song.
Take as an example the soundtrack to Final Fantasy VI (Final Fantasy III in the USA). The main theme for Terra - one of the protagonists - is a strong yet melancholic song with emphasis on the ...
5
There are other transformations besides the shift to relative minor, but it begins to depend on what kind of melody you're dealing with.
If the melody covers only a short range of the scale, you can alter any notes it doesn't touch. Like if the melody only ranges over 1-2-3-4-5 of the scale, you can shift it to 4-5-6-7-8 of the ascending melodic minor ...
5
The words denote totally different concepts and the difference lies in the arrangemental intent for the instruments playing tones in parallel octaves:
Parallel, or consecutive, octaves
If the intent of an arrangement is to have independent voices but two (or more of) them happen to move in parallel at the octave (or in unison, or two or more octaves apart) ...
4
7, 9, and 10 are simply applications of all the other skills.
7. To continue a given melody, notice what mode the melody is based in and what general sorts of intervals and rhythmic values it's been using thus far (and what chords it has been implying). Then write something that fits in that general style. (Your ear will be better at this than your brain!)
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4
Usually tones from the chords you are plying over will harmonise well together; so as InternalConspriacy has mentioned 3rds/4ths/5ths will all sound good and interesting harmonised together; how you use these intervals will effect how the background chords sound as they change (by emphasising or blurring the change), this will depend on which chord you move ...
4
I haven't done a proper study of the matter, but the following do stand out for me:
use of the lydian mode
melodies spanning a large pitch range
frequent key changes, even multiple times in a passage
repetition of a theme in a different key (especially a tone lower; e.g 8-bars in D major then repeated in C major)
These are, of course, not enough to ...
4
You have a great number of options. Some of them:
Change the tempo (duh)
Change rhythmic figures, add pauses, change note duration.
Change time signature; classic examples are bringing a 4/4 piece in 3/4 or even 5/4.
Work on the harmony: change voicings, add or remove notes. A seventh where there wasn't one (or vice versa) makes a big difference, and gives ...
4
I would call this a flat seventh note. The reason that it sounds right is that all the musicians are playing an appropriate (i.e. not dissonant) melody/harmony to support this choice of melody.
It would sound rather upsetting to have, say, the chord of D major (with triad D F# A) playing while the vocals (or other melodic instrument) are playing F natural, ...
4
Scott Joplin, in his School of Ragtime, insists that ragtime should always be played in a strict, even time; straight eights. Ragtime does not swing, nor does it rock, instead it ripples.
So if you're swinging the eighth-notes, then "honky-tonk" is probably as good a term as any. If the left hand were busier, it might be Boogie-woogie.
To investigate the ...
4
The scale you describe (C D E♭ F G A♭ B) is, as Raskolnikov points out, a C harmonic minor scale.
However the scale used in the video is a C natural minor scale as the notes used are C D E♭ F G A♭ B♭.
(Parts of the melody, in the video, could be considered to be in the temporary tonic key E♭ -- the relative major of the song's ...
4
I'd approach this as an application of counterpoint, where it's not always desirable to have the intermediate voices be a 5th above the bass. In strict counterpoint, you would typically construct parallel voices with a separation of a 3rd or a 6th up from the bass, this may fill out the harmony better than a 5th. This is in addition to the the answer ...
4
As you have observed, parallel 5ths are not particularly musical. In fact, in the first semester of Theory I, everyone learns the important rule of harmonizing a melody and bassline: "NO PARALLEL 5ths!" In fact, I give you not one, not two, but three different memes (that I did not make) that detail this. (This page has some much more useful images.)
You ...
4
You have a couple good questions here.
Parallel Fifths and Parallel Octaves occur primarily in realizing functional harmony; whether it is in a chorale, a fugue, or any number of traditional forms of the European Classical tradition.
They are the result of two voices moving in parallel motion - hence the term "parallel fifth / octave." They are forbidden ...
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The answer you have given has parallel fifths in the bottom two voices between the last two chords. To be more specific, the bass (bottom voice) plays D-A-D while the tenor (second from bottom) plays D-E-A. It is the interval A-E in the second chord, moving to D-A in the last, that gives the parallel fifths.
3
This question sounds hard, but it's actually very easy to answer :-)
Harmony is vertical based and counterpoint is horizontal based.
In the old days, when mr. Bach was doing his thing, harmony as we know it didn't really exsists in the same way. Ofcourse, multiple-sounding-notes are creating a harmony. But it wasn't a harmony like we hear now in pop and ...
3
It seems like every theory program has a different name for this Ic construction. I admit I have never seen it called that, though I have seen a variety of other names, including I6/4, V6/4, and just plain not labeling the chord.
Nevertheless, the idea is the same. The chord labeled Ic is not a functional chord. Rather, it is a double suspension over the ...
3
If you are going to hear a ii-V-I sequence in a traditional sounding blues that you're likely to hear in Chicago blues music, rock and roll, folk blues from the South, a blues in country music, or from rhythm and blues, you can be reasonably sure that you will not hear it during the first 8 measures of the 12 bar blues form. When blues musicians are being ...
3
Generally with this duo, I would tend to write more with the fife in mind, and not worry so much about the fiddle player. If you are talking about concert D and G as keys, those are great keys for violin in a small group or solo setting, because they will very likely give you some open string double stop availability (violin is tuned in 5ths: G - D - A - E). ...
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Most teachers regardless of whether they teach piano, guitar, voice, or tuba, should be teaching you the basics of music theory. This should include key signatures, time signatures, note durations, and how chords are made, inverted and arpeggiated. Since you mention major, minor, diminished I assume you are learning western music vs other world music. ...
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