New answers tagged

0 votes

Chords building blocks

You've stumbled upon the DNA of music. Yes you can re-harmonize any piece of music as you see fit but changing the song's chord progression is a little more tricky, especially if you are playing with ...
3 votes

Chords building blocks

Does every song consist of certain chord progressions? There's a lot to that question. First of all, not all songs even have chords! And it is true that some chord progressions can become famous or ...
  • 11.9k
0 votes

Chords building blocks

Every song you hear that's written and recorded will initially have the same chords (and same melody) as original, but everything can change after that. If that's what you're asking. If you're ...
  • 183k
-1 votes

A melody is built from both notes and chords

All melodies have a harmonic basis. Music is not just a collection of notes. Melodies have to have a harmonic basis, if they don't have the foundation of harmony then the melody is just an incoherent ...
  • 14.4k
0 votes

Learning chords on the harmonica

My understanding is that you can blow chords on a blues harmonica, but you can't get the tone you want. One path to getting a good tone on a harmonica is to learn to chug. Chugging is a technique that ...
  • 11.8k
1 vote

A melody is built from both notes and chords

There can be further subtleties. Although a melody often implies a harmony, different harmonies can color the same melody. As an example, take this stoke of genius by Schubert in the opening of the ...
  • 1,070
1 vote

A melody is built from both notes and chords

A melody is simply a musical "line", a collection of notes that are played sequentially as a cohesive musical thought. Almost any series of notes could be called a melody. A melody requires ...
8 votes

A melody is built from both notes and chords

I wouldn't work too hard to derive "truths" from this website. It has a point to make, and there are some good aspects to that point, but it's a very simple point and it makes it in a ...
  • 11.9k
11 votes

A melody is built from both notes and chords

Your question deals with pitch and how it is used expressively. The expressiveness of a single pitch is limited, but I would not say it has no expressiveness, no character. Excluding other factors ...
2 votes

A melody is built from both notes and chords

Yes and no. There's often the definition of melody as a serial progression of notes and harmony as notes being played in parallel. So if you imagine a chord as being 2 or more notes being struck at ...
  • 161
3 votes

A melody is built from both notes and chords

since a good melody does have a certain feel of mood, the melody is built from both notes and chords No. A good melody may imply chords, meaning that hearing the melody alone is enough to invoke ...
0 votes

A melody is built from both notes and chords

Generally speaking, the main notes that are in a chord are reflected in a melody, and vice versa. As in, chord of C in a bar, melody notes are often (not always!) C, E or G. By main, I mean beat 1 and ...
  • 183k
0 votes

How do voice leading chords work in practice?

"Voice-leading chord" is just a generic term for a chord (i.e., notes that happen simultaneously) that doesn't fit any particular functional label, but serves to help the various voices move ...
  • 71.2k
-1 votes

What is the name of a G major triad in the context of F sharp major?

It's ♭II. In classical harmony it's a Neapolitan chord. In jazz harmony it can be a ♭5 substitution for V. A deleted answer led with 'There is no G Major chord in F# Major.' This is a common view ...
  • 85.2k
3 votes

What is the name of a G major triad in the context of F sharp major?

A G major chord does not exist in the key of F# diatonically but if you expand into chromaticism the major chord built on the lowered 2nd degree (G in F# major) is referred to as a Neapolitan chord. ...
2 votes

What is the name of a G major triad in the context of F sharp major?

A G major chord in an F sharp major context would be called a Neapolitan chord. The Neapolitan chord is normally notated as ♭II, sometimes even if its root note would be notated with a natural instead ...
  • 12.9k
1 vote

will thumb also get callus on strumming guitar

Find what works for you. I developed a technique where I put my thumb on my index finger - down uses the nail on the index finger, strumming up uses the thumb nail. Incorporating wrist movement rather ...
  • 111
1 vote

Random Chord Progression Based on Circle of Fifths

The wording of your question could be clearer, but I think I understand it. Given these diatonic chord: I IV V vi... If you always start with I... Can the following chords be IV V vi in any order... ...
2 votes

Random Chord Progression Based on Circle of Fifths

My answer comes from a slightly different vantage point, but: this absolutely happens, and it's one of the hallmarks of French impressionism (especially Debussy). We call this pandiatonicism (...
  • 83.1k
1 vote

Random Chord Progression Based on Circle of Fifths

Surprisingly many chords will "work" in many situations, depending on your definition of what it means to "work". If the audience expects a certain chord progression and will not ...
2 votes

Random Chord Progression Based on Circle of Fifths

It will fail most of the time, which is why composers exist — to find ways to make otherwise random sounds "work". It's also why music theorists exist — to understand what allows some ...
  • 71.2k
1 vote

Chord III is rarely used, but Pachelbel's Canon in D has F#m

Chord III is rarely used. But, does the well-known Canon in D use chord III as the progression is D → A → Bm → F#m → G → D → G → A? Well, yes, but only for part of the piece. For much of the piece, ...
  • 17.2k
8 votes
Accepted

Why are 6/5 chords written in different ways?

Imagine that these chords had shorter note values, such that they had stems. The stem for the first example would go downwards: And the stem for the second example would go upwards: In both cases, ...
0 votes

Why are 6/5 chords written in different ways?

Where there's likely to be a squash, as in the top two notes in each case here, the lower note goes on the left, the higher on the right. This is the case for all chords, not just 6/5s. Simple!
  • 183k
0 votes

Harmonic functions of these chords

The Adim chord is known as a "common-tone" chord. Common-tone diminished chords are often used to extend a tonic chord.1 In this case, it's acting to delay the tonic chord or smooth the ...
  • 71.2k
3 votes

Harmonic functions of these chords

Based on the reference you provided in comments your version of the chords in the key of A minor is incorrect and also leaves out the all important bass notes/inversions: G#o7/B Am/C A7/C# Bb/D D#o7 ...
1 vote

Chord III is rarely used, but Pachelbel's Canon in D has F#m

Yes, there is a iii chord in that Pachelbel's Canon progression. It is a harmonic sequence called "falling thirds". It takes the two chord pattern I V and then sequences it by diatonically ...
2 votes

will thumb also get callus on strumming guitar

My initial answer was Short answer: the instructor is wrong. But I've looked back over the video again, I'm not sure he's instructing you to use the knuckle, I think he's using the bit of skin ...
1 vote

will thumb also get callus on strumming guitar

I'm not familiar with this technique, and BTW I'm a bassist, finger-style and often play in Metal bands so I'm used to intensive playing sessions. There's a balance to find for training/rehersal ...
  • 150
-1 votes

will thumb also get callus on strumming guitar

Can't see any point in not using a pick (plectrum). Used properly, feathering either way, will give a different tone, but we don't know if that's a factor. But certainly it will stop your thumb from ...
  • 183k
5 votes
Accepted

Chord III is rarely used, but Pachelbel's Canon in D has F#m

Yes, it does. This sequence is one of the places where the III chord appears. Another place one might expect it is in consecutive first inversion chords. For another example (but a debated one), see ...
  • 71.2k
5 votes
Accepted

will thumb also get callus on strumming guitar

There's a joke: MAN: Doctor, I get a shooting pain when I raise my arm like this. DOCTOR: So don't raise your arm like that! Seriously, this is the simple answer to avoid so many performance injuries. ...
  • 11.9k
3 votes

will thumb also get callus on strumming guitar

Some calluses are unavoidable, but they also come a lot from improper technique or using too much force. If you are a beginner and suddenly made an hours-long playing session, perhaps you overdid. You ...
  • 13.9k
3 votes

Why do the notes of a blues scale sound good with the I, IV, and V chords?

The Blues scale is mainly built on the Minor Pentatonic scale. A Blues : A C D (D#) E G A Minor Pentatonic : A C D E G A Blues progression is containing 3 chords : A7 D7 E7 If we take root and ...
5 votes

Could minor-third be used to judge major or minor key?

As an engineer would you build a bridge by guesswork? As a musician understand musical concepts through musical knowledge not guesswork. To understand key at a basic level you must at least: learn ...
2 votes

Bach prelude in C major: unresolved suspension?

...but it never reaches F. Probably the most obvious way the F could have been reached would be this... But instead the E4 is held and my first reaction when hearing that is an allusion to a ...
1 vote

Bach prelude in C major: unresolved suspension?

There's a lengthy discussion of this here: https://www.reddit.com/r/musictheory/comments/iu65lp/function_of_major_7th_chord_arpeggio_in_bachs/ (But note the early comment: "You're getting some ...
  • 85.2k
4 votes
Accepted

Bach prelude in C major: unresolved suspension?

I would argue that there is a name for this phenomenon: the E is a chord tone! Bach has a C7 chord in m. 20, but he decides to keep the E as a chordal seventh (creating a IV7) in m. 21. This is not at ...
  • 83.1k
2 votes

Bach prelude in C major: unresolved suspension?

Yes, I would say this can be called an unresolved suspension. The 7th, e, is prepared in the previous chord, but does not resolve upwards into f. Rather it moves downward to form a fully diminished ...
1 vote

Bach prelude in C major: unresolved suspension?

What is Bach doing? This situation does not meet the definition of a suspension, since the resolution, by definition occurs within the "next" harmony. But it also doesn't meet the definition ...
  • 71.2k
1 vote

A-Minor songs Reharmonization Using circle of fifths

Yes, that works. And funnily enough, all the chords mentioned are from the same key - same 'family'. I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi. in key C, for example, I, IV, V, vi are C, F, G, Am, whereas in key Am (the ...
  • 183k
6 votes

Could minor-third be used to judge major or minor key?

m3 is not a good criterion for defining if a song is in a major or minor key. There are loads of intervals used regularly in all songs, pop or otherwise, and none of them can or do herald that. ...
  • 183k
12 votes
Accepted

Could minor-third be used to judge major or minor key?

There is a bit of a flaw to your thinking. Minor and major triads each contain a major 3rd and a minor 3rd. A major triad is M3-m3 and a minor triad is m3-M3. The only time there is a likelihood of a ...
1 vote
Accepted

A-Minor songs Reharmonization Using circle of fifths

Yes, the I, IV, V, and III chords can be used to harmonize most melodies in major or minor. The one modification in minor is that the V chord will typically include a sharped scale degree 7: so, in ...
  • 71.2k
1 vote

About slash and 7th chord's meaning and their history

A "slash chord" is not a chord type but a short-hand notation. It can be a simplified description of the chord, emphasizing what's played in the bass note: C/E is just C G/F is ...
  • 1,430
3 votes
Accepted

Arpeggiated chords: which order to play, and does it matter if it's right or left hand?

Chords, by default, are arpeggiated from the lowest pitch to the highest, unless otherwise indicated, regardless which hand is playing them. This is the case with the Beethoven example in the question....
  • 71.2k

Top 50 recent answers are included