Theory Course, 2011 - 10

HH2011 \ music theory 1 \ scales \ modes \ intervals \ harmony
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MUSIC THEORY
tools for creativity & understanding
HOWARD HARRISON 2010
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If it sounds right, it is right.
Music Theory isnt a set of rules about how things should be - it just observes how music seems to work, and what it seems to be made of. It notices what other musicians do and have done, because we have much to learn from them - after all, it was other musicians that invented the thing in the rst place.
This document is a work in progress, something that started small and that I keep patching and extending as people seem to need it - there will subsequently be a version that includes self-testing exercises, some subjects will be covered in greater depth & it will broaden in scope. In the meantime it tells you much of what you ought to know about scales, modes, intervals and harmony in western music, and much else. I hope it is helpful.
Each stage provides information that will allow you to understand the next, so take it in order unless you are using it for reference purposes. Words in red are key terms or concepts.
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MUSIC THEORY
HOWARD HARRISON 2010
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CONTENTS
Page numbers might be approximate! 7 SOUND
9 10
THE CHROMATIC SET First Intervals - octave, tone, semitone
11 12 13 13 14 17 18 20 21 22 24 25 27 28 29
SCALES The Major Scale Tetrachords Key Signatures The 12 major Keys Minor Scales - Natural Minor Melodic & Harmonic Minor Scales Relative Major & Minor keys Minor Key Signatures Scale Step Names Key relationships Other Scales - Modes Pentatonic Scales Whole Tone & Octatonic Scales Atonal Music
30
31
32
33
INTERVALS Harmonic & Melodic Intervals Integer Notation Pitch Class Intervals Intervals in tonal music Number & Quality Major & Perfect Intervals Minor Intervals Diminished Intervals Augmented Intervals
5 / 85 34 35 36 38 39 40 41 42 43 45 47 48 Consonance & Dissonance Inversions Interval Characters Intervals & Musical Style HARMONY Functional Harmony Diatonic Chords - naming them Primary Chords - The 3-chord trick Secondary Chords Hierarchy of Chords The Dominant Seventh Modal Chord Sets The Classical Minor System Rock & Pop Chord Sequences Other Chords
And more! - CHORD PROGRESSIONS . . . . . .
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SOUND
Hit a drum-skin \ force air between your vocal folds \ pass uctuating electrical signals through a loudspeaker system \ squeeze a reed and blow \ twang a string - whenever you activate a musical instrument you make an elastic material wobble; you make it vibrate. When something vibrates it disturbs the air around it and the ripples that result spread through the air and ultimately disturb your ear-drum. Electrical impulses report the movements of your ear-drum to your brain and at that point the vibrations become sound. Sound is only in your head; if there's no-one there to hear it, a falling tree really does make no sound. If the ripples move your ear-drum at absolutely regular intervals, and if there are more than 20 and less than about 20,000 of them each second, the brain will perceive a steady note. The faster the vibration, the higher the note. We now hear a note with a mysterious quality; although it's obviously higher than the 440 A and therefore different, it is also strangely the same. Because the new note sounds the same-but-different, it feels reasonable to name it after the rst, so this is another, higher A. The distance or interval between two notes related in this way is an octave, and the strange kinship between the two notes is called octave equivalence, a phenomenon that almost all human beings experience and one of the essential building blocks of almost all music.
Long ago, we started nding notes to spread through the space within the octave. We could have chosen any number of notes but most cultures went for 5, 6 or 7 and most probably chose their sets of notes intuitively, as they might have picked owers - because they liked them and the ways in which they related to each other. In ancient Greece, however, Pythagorus noticed that it isn't only the simple 2:I proportions of the octave that please the ear. Two notes whose frequencies are related in the proportion 3:2 are also particularly pleasing and produce what we now call a Perfect Fifth, (C & the G above it, for instance). 4:3 is a Perfect
A string that plays the A below the middle C on a piano vibrates 440 times a second. We say that it has a frequency of '440 cycles per second (cps), or '440Hz' (Hertz). Halve the length of that string and it will vibrate 880 times a second, exactly twice as fast as before.
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Fourth (C to the F above). 5:4 is a Major Third (C to E). Th e s e i n t e r v a l s a r e r e m a r k a b l y consonant. What the Greeks had noticed was that simple mathematical relationships between frequencies please us, particularly when the notes are played together. As harmony began to interest European musicians more and more, they tried many ways of tuning the intervals within the octave. They also devised the chromatic set, a pool of 12 notes from which a variety of 7-note scales could be extracted; many early instruments couldnt play all the possible scales, but an instrument that was designed to play the chromatic set could - in theory, at least. A problem, however; because the 12 notes werent evenly spread through the octave, some scales were more perfectly t u n e d t h a n o t h e r s . Th i s h a d i t s advantages; composers could choose a key for its particular avour, sweet or sour. But it had its disadvantages; keys including more than four ats or sharps were so sour that they were barely usable. This hampered composers who wanted to write music that changed key freely in the course of a piece, and there was a growing interest in this possibility. Slowly, we gravitated towards a tuning system that had been around since Galileo's father had advocated it in 1581; equal temperament, twelve notes spread at mathematically calculated, equal intervals across the octave. Now, the frequency relationships between any two adjacent notes were identical. We had striven for intervals of pristine mathematical and aural perfection but now made a compromise, trading some slightly iffy intervals for the possibility of writing music that could move freely between 12 acceptably tuned keys, each one of them using only a selection of notes from the full set, and each one tuned exactly like the others. This was a move which liberated composers to write ever richer and more exotic harmonies and to take their listeners on safari through many of the 24 available major and minor keys - and then beyond! The incredibly fertile but slightly sour set of twelve notes that we have inherited is the equally tempered chromatic scale or chromatic set.
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the CHROMATIC SET

So - the chromatic set contains the 12 equally spaced notes available to us on most Western instruments. Arranged in ascending or descending order the 12 notes of the chromatic set become the chromatic scale. The distance, or interval, between each of these notes and its nearest neighbour is called a semitone (a frequency relationship of roughly 16:15) As we have tended to use only seven of these 12 notes at a time, it has made practical sense to name the 12 notes using only seven letter names. Seven of these have simple letter names, but notice that they arent distributed evenly through the twelve (well, they couldnt be . . . ).
The 7 notes with simple letter names are called naturals - A natural, B natural and so on. Most of the naturals are a tone apart (i.e. two semitones), but notice that A & B are only a semitone apart, and so are E & F. The 5 remaining notes are named after the naturals that they sit between and this means that they can each have two names. The note between A & B, for instance, can be called A# (A sharp - which simply means the note a semitone higher than A) OR it can be called B (B at), meaning the note a semitone lower than B.
We say that A# is the enharmonic equivalent of B. Similarly; F# = G, G# = A, C# = D, D# = E
Heres the full chromatic set written out twice, with sharp names on the top row, and ats on the bottom.
A A
A# B
B B
C C
C# D
D D
D# E
E E
F F
F#
G# A
A A
G G
And here are the two versions written in standard notation -
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The sign that you see written before the naturals () is a natural sign. As you would expect, its used to indicate that the following note is a natural, and its use is necessary here to cancel the at sign on the note before it. Apart from that, only the names are different; in every other respect these two chromatic scales are identical.
accidentals
Sharp signs #, at signs , and natural signs are all called accidentals when used just before a note. They all apply to the rest of the bar that they appear in but not beyond. (Ive never met anybody who knows why they are called accidentals, which they clearly arent.)
rst INTERVALS
OCTAVE, SEMITONE & TONE
Just to recap - the differing distances between notes are called intervals, and each interval has a name. We will describe all of these possibilities later, but for now you need to know about the following three:
octave
the interval between two notes whose frequencies are related in the ratio 2: I - two As or two C#s for instance. the interval between any two adjacent notes in the chromatic set, (E & F, for instance, or F and F#), and two semitones, the interval between A & B or E & F#.
semitone
tone
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SCALES
A Scale is a collection of notes written or played in ascending or descending order, starting and nishing on the tonic, the home note for the piece. It provides the basic raw materials from which the melody and chords of a piece can be made. There are hundreds of different scales in use around the world and each one has its own avour and offers certain musical possibilities. Some scales offer exquisite melodic possibilities, for instance; others are a source of interesting chords and allow us to create complex harmonic systems. Most western scales and modes are heptatonic, meaning that they use only seven notes. Its possible to have scales with more or less than seven notes and pentatonic scales (ve-note scales) are particularly common. Here are some scales from various cultures, with the chromatic scale at the top and the other scales all starting on the same note so that you can compare them easily.
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In reality, Indonesian, Middle Eastern and many other scales use notes that simply aren't available in equal temperament, so some of the scales written above are approximations. In almost all Western classical, popular & folk music, however, the contents of almost all scales are now selected from the equally tempered chromatic set.
the MAJOR SCALE

The Major Scale is undoubtedly the best-known and probably the most used of all heptatonic scales. Its crucial to understand how the major scale is built, if only because we dene all other scales by comparing them with the Major Scale.
A major scale can start on any note, but then follows this xed, dening sequence of intervals tone - tone - semitone - tone - tone - tone - semitone
Here, for instance, is the C major scale.
and here is an A at major scale - the sequence of intervals is the same.
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TETRACHORDS
In common with other Heptatonic (seven note) scales, the Major scale has a lower tetrachord and an upper tetrachord, its rst and last four notes. Notice that the two tetrachords of a major scale have identical tone-tone-semitone structures, with a gap of one tone between the two tetrachords.
Notice, too, that the Upper Tetrachord starts on the fth step of the scale. This will become very signicant . . . . .
KEY SIGNATURES
There are only 12 major scales, one starting on each step of the chromatic scale. Each one of them uses a unique selection of notes. To indicate which scale you should use, notated music almost always includes a key signature, a bunch of up to 7 sharps or ats placed at the beginning of a piece and then at the beginning of every subsequent line. Some key signatures contain sharps, some contain ats. No major or minor key signatures contain both. Some examples -
The last key signature above includes just one at on the middle B line. In practice, this means that you should play B every time you see a B, regardless of which B it is. The third key signature tells you to play F#, C#, G# & D# and the same rule applies - play these notes every time you see an F, C, G or D. Notes not mentioned in the key signature are assumed to be naturals. This is a really helpful system. It saves a lot of pointless repetition of at and sharp signs in the notation. More importantly, it forwarns the experienced player that they will be using a familiar collection of notes - a G major scale, for instance.
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the 12 MAJOR KEYS

To understand how the key-signature system works, and how the 12 major keys are related, it's worth looking again at the diagram showing the two matching tetrachords of the major scale - (in passing, notice that, as the C major scale is made up entirely of naturals, there is no need for a key signature.)
As the Upper Tetrachord of this C major scale has the same structure as the Lower Tetrachord, it is possible to use it as the Lower Tetrachord of a new major scale starting on G - a G major scale -
In order to keep the tone - tone - semitone structure in the new Upper Tetrachord, the seventh step of this new scale needs to be an F# rather than an F The F# is the only note in this scale that isnt a natural, so we simply write a key signature with one sharp - F# - and this tells the player to play F# when they see any F in this piece (not just the F on the top line of the stave).
The new Upper Tetrachord that this process has produced can be used to begin yet another major scale. It starts on D, so its D major -
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The F# in the Lower Tetrachord is still needed, of course, but, as before, the new 7th step (C) now has to be sharpened to maintain the major-scale structure, and the new key signature has to have an F# and a C# -
We can carry on this process until we run out of sharps. Each new scale will start a fth higher than the last and will include one new sharp at the end of its key signature. Here are the major keys with sharps in their key signatures. Notice that the sharps are always written in the order in which they have been added.
You may have noticed that, as you create each new scale, the sharp that is added at the end of the key signature always refers to the new 7th step. It follows that: The last sharp in a major key-signature is always a semitone below the tonic. The order in which the sharps appear and are written is F# C# G# D# A# E#* B#*
(Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle) Notice also that each new sharp is 5 steps above the last.
* E# is an alternative name for F , and B# the alternative name for C . If this is a surprise, remember that sharp simply means a semitone higher than, and then it makes sense.
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MAJOR KEY SIGNATURES WITH FLATS

Sharp key signatures can only be used for seven of the twelve keys. Flats are needed for the rest. Key signatures with ats work in a similar fashion to sharp signatures, but each key starting a fth below the last, and each one adding one more at to the key signature. Here are the 'at' major key signatures starting from C major again -
Usefully (and logically) the order of key signature ats is the reverse of the order of sharps B E A D G C F
(Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles Father) Notice also that each new at is 5 steps below the last, and that the rst four ats conveniently spell BEAD. In at key signatures, the next-to-the-Iast at names the tonic; For instance, if the key signature shows B, E & A, its the Eb that appears next to last, so you're in E major. Look at the at key signatures above to check this out.
Youll spot that F major doesnt have a next-to-the-last at - youre just going to have to remember that one. You may also have noticed that there are now apparently 15 key signatures this is because F# major has appeared twice - once as F# major, and once as Gb major, which contains exactly the same notes by different names. B major has also appeared as Cb, and C# as Db.
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MINOR SCALES
the NATURAL MINOR Scale
The second best known scale is the minor scale. There are in fact various versions of the minor scale and the simplest is the Natural Minor. Starting on C, it goes like this:
You'll notice that the rst, second, fourth and fth notes are the same as in the C major scale but that steps 3, 6 & 7 are attened - a semitone lower than their Major scale equivalents. So, as we dene all scales by comparing them with the major that would start on the same note, we can say that the Natural Minor scale has a at 3, 6 & 7. You may have also noticed that C natural minor contains the same notes as E at major. It will therefore have the same key signature -
Natural Minor scales can start on any note, of course -
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MELODIC & HARMONIC MINOR SCALES

In practice, many pieces in the minor dont simply use the seven notes of the natural minor scale. Greensleeves is a perfect example of this. Here it is in A minor, which has no key signature -
Notice that the sixth and seventh steps of the scale (F and G naturals) often appear as predicted by the key signature, but that sometimes accidentals are used to indicate that F# and G# should be used instead, despite the fact that F# and G# are the sixth and seventh steps you would expect to nd in A major. This is absolutely typical of a huge number of minor key pieces; the major and minor sixth and seventh steps are used interchangeably, the major versions being indicated with accidentals. This may have arisen because musicians found it effective to accompany minor key melodies using a couple of chords which also include the major sixth and, more particularly, the major seventh steps. In order not to clash with these chords, the melody sometimes has to include a major six and seven, too. In Greensleeves, for instance, the G#s (the major 7s) are almost always used at a point where an E major chord (E - G# - B) is sounding; a melodic G would clash. So why is the sixth step also altered? Sometimes to accommodate a chord with a sharp 6 in it, but, as often as not, its altered in combination with the seventh step, simply to avoid large leaps in what would otherwise be a smoothly owing phrase.
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In an attempt to rationalise this rather uid situation, theorists have constructed the rigid harmonic and melodic minor scales -
The Harmonic Minor

scale is notated with a sharpened seventh step. This scale is regarded as being the source of the chords used in minor key pieces. In contemporary use, this isnt quite true. Nevertheless, for reference, here is A harmonic minor.
(As this scale really only has a theoretical function, why do players of melody instruments practice it so diligently, except to pass exams?)
The Melodic Minor

scale is notated with the major sixth and seventh steps in the rising version of the scale and the attened sixth and seventh steps indicated by the key signature in the descending version. Accidentals are needed in both directions to introduce and then cancel the major 6 & 7.
There is a myth that the major 6 & 7 steps are generally used when melodies are rising, and that the at 6 & 7 are used when melodies are falling, and that this justies the way that the melodic minor is both notated and practised. In reality, the different sixth and seventh steps are used equally in rising and falling melodies, and for the harmony-related reasons given above. Practising the melodic minor as it is usually notated is valuable, but it would surely be more realistic to practice both versions in both directions.
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RELATIVE MAJOR & MINOR KEYS

Here are the key signatures for all twelve possible minor keys, each one starting ve scale steps above the last, but leaving out A# minor, Eb minor & Ab minor, for which there are already enharmonic equivalents. It should look familiar.
You may have identied that this sequence of minor key signatures is essentially the same as the sequence of major key signatures that you came across earlier. Theres nothing obscure about the reason for this: every major scale contains the same basic set of notes as one minor scale. As these these pairs of scales use the same notes, they use the same key signatures and they are considered to have an especially close relationship C major and A minor form one such pair, so we can say that C major is the relative major of A minor, and that A minor is the relative minor of C major. Notice that A is the sixth step of the C major scale.
This is true of all pairs of related scales The tonic of the relative minor is found on the sixth step of the major scale (or three semitones below the tonic). The tonic of the relative major is on the third step of the minor scale (three semitones above).
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For reference, here's a set of key signatures with relative minors above and relative majors below. .
MINOR KEY SIGNATURES

Its really useful to be able to work out key signatures. Its even better just to know them - there are, after all, only 12 major and 12 minor keys. At the very least, learn all those up to four sharps and ats. There are some handy rules, however, that can be used in various situations. In Parallel major and minor scales (pairs of scales which start on the same note, like C major & C minor) the minor scale has three more ats than the major (& it follows that the relative major has three more sharps than the minor).
(This may need a little explanation. If the major key has sharps in it, the extra three ats in the parallel minor will effectively cancel three of the sharps. If there were four sharps, for instance, three will be cancelled and you will be left with one. If there was only one sharp, one of the new ats will cancel it and the remaining two ats will appear in the key signature. Have a look at the chart of relative majors and minor key signatures if you need to clarify this to yourself.)
Also The tonic of a minor scale is two tones above the last at or one tone below the last sharp of the key signature.
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SCALE STEP NAMES

Before moving on to talk about key relationships, we need to give new names to the steps of the scale. These names will be useful when you come to read about chords in part two, as well.
ABSOLUTE & RELATIVE NAMES

There are various ways of naming notes. Some of them are absolute; a C is always a C, for instance. In most kinds of music, however, there is also a way of naming notes which we can think of as being relative, a way of identifying the position of a note within the scale and its relationship to the other members. For instance, each scale note has a relationship to the tonic and a position in the scale. It follows that the second step of a scale can be called just that step two. The rest of the notes could be similarly named steps three, four, ve and so on. Another relative set of names that you may have come across is doh-re-mifah-so-la-te-doh. In this sol-fa system, the rst step of the scale is doh regardless of what key you are in, and re is the second step, and so on. (Unless youre French . . . . . . . ) Indian music uses a similar set of names Sa - re - ga - ma - pa - dha - ni - sa. These names are ne in many situations but Western musicians have found it useful to use both an absolute name (C, F# etc.) and a relative name for each note, and have favoured a set of names that recognises the signicance of each scale step; in many ways, western music has a hierarchical structure, and these names recognise that -
STEP NAMES
The rst step of the scale, the most signicant of all, to which all the others relate, is the TONIC. I have already hinted that the fth step of the scale has particular importance and a particularly strong 3:2 frequency relationship with the tonic. It is called the DOMINANT.
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The fourth step (which could also be thought of as the note 5 steps below the tonic) has a similar but slightly weaker relationship to the tonic. It is called the SUB-DOMINANT. The third step of scale is halfway between the two poles of the scale, the tonic and the dominant, and it is called the MEDIANT. Combined with the tonic and dominant, it completes the tonic chord of the key. The sixth step of the scale is halfway between the tonic and the sub dominant below it. It is called the SUBMEDIANT. Combined with the tonic and sub-dominant, it completes the subdominant chord.
That leaves just two more steps -Step two is tthe note just above the tonic and is called the SUPERTONIC. Step seven often creates a desire for the tonic in the listener and is called the LEADING-NOTE.
Here are the names applied to the notes of a C major scale, but remember that they can apply to the steps of all major & minor scales, and the modes that we will discuss later.
Step No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Name tonic supertonic mediant subdominant dominant submediant leading note upper tonic
Sol-fa Doh Re Mi Fa Soh La Ti Doh
Indian Sa Re Ga Pa Ma Da Ni Sa
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KEY RELATIONSHIPS
Relative major & minor
Youve already seen that pairs of major and minor scales which share the same note-content are are considered to be closely related - we say that C major is the relative major of A minor and that D minor is the relative minor of F major, and so on.
Parallel keys
Other pairs of scales are also considered as being related. Major and minor keys starting on the same tonic, for instance, are called parallel keys. We say that C Minor is the parallel minor of C major. Similarly, D major is the parallel major of D minor. If a piece modulates (changes key) from A major to A minor, we can say that it has moved to the parallel minor. It is also common to talk about moving to the tonic minor or the tonic major - it means the same thing.
Dominant - subdominant etc. . . . .

If a piece modulates from C major to G major, we say that it has modulated to the dominant, because G major is the scale / key built on the dominant of C major. Similarly, a shift from C to F major would be a modulation to the subdominant. A shift from C to E would be a modulation to the mediant . . . . and so on.
Close & distant relationships

Some keys are more closely related than others. On the whole, keys are considered to be mostly closely related when the two scales share a tonic or key-signature. Moving to the dominant involves changing only one note, so that relationship is also considered to be a close one. The less that scales have in common, the more distantly related they will be.
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THE CIRCLE OF FIFTHS

If you move from any key to its dominant, and then from the new key to its dominant, and so on, you will eventually nd that you have moved through all twelve possibly keys and returned to the one you started on. This sequence of keys is called the Circle of Fifths because each new tonic is a fth above the last (a fth being the interval between the tonic and fth step of a major or minor scale). This concept has been very important in tonal music, and can be applied to key relationships and to chord sequences (which well look at in much more detail later). Here is the Circle of Fifths for reference -
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OTHER SCALES
the CHURCH MODES
We have discussed the two best-known Western scales, and these are the ones that most theory courses restrict themselves to. However, many other scales used to be used in Europe, including a set of modes. They were used less and less as harmony became the driving force behind our music but they came back into use in many twentieth and twenty-rst century genres. Their use in folk music never declined. The modes in this set have something in common; they each contain 5 tones and 2 semitones, and the 2 semitones are in every case a fth apart. Apart from the Ionian and Aeolian (which are the same as the Major & Natural Minor), the Dorian, Mixolydian and Phrygian modes are the most frequently encountered.
Here is the full set -
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As with all other scales, these modes can start on any note. There is an allnaturals version of each of these modes, and you might like to experiment with them all -
Name
IONIAN MIXOLYDIAN DORIAN AEOLIAN PHRYGIAN LOCRIAN LYDIAN
Content
all-naturals version starts on . .

C
7 3 & 7 3, 6 & 7 2,3,6 & 7 2, 3, 5, 6 & 7

#4
G D A E B F
These modes are associated with (and help to characterise) different styles and have been heavily used in recent music. The Mixolydian, Dorian and Aeolian, for instance, are heavily associated with folk and popular styles, but also modal jazz. The Phrygian is instantly recognised as the Flamenco scale and gets heavily used in Heavy Metal. The Lydian is beautiful but quite rare and associated mainly with East European folk styles. The Locrian is so strange and unstable its rarely used at all.
MODAL KEY SIGNATURES

Key signatures for these modes are no different from major and minor key signatures and simply recognise the pitch content of the piece. Having applied the key signature, there is sometimes confusion about how to name the tonality of modal pieces. The rst step is to identify the tonic by listening to and examining the piece the closing chord and note are a fairly reliable guide. If the tonic is E, then the piece is in 'E something'. The second step is to ask which mode the rest of the notes in the piece make when arranged above E - when you've identied the unique structure of the Dorian or the Phrygian, then you can say that the piece is in 'E Dorian' or 'E Phrygian'.
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PENTATONIC SCALES
Five-note (pentatonic) scales are common and two of them have become so well known that we tend refer to them as The Major Pentatonic and The Minor Pentatonic.
The Major Pentatonic

contains steps 1, 2, 3, 5 & 6 of the major scale. Here is C Major Pentatonic -
This scale crops up in music from Scotland to China, Africa to the Andes. You can play F# Major Pentatonic entirely on the black notes of any keyboard.
The Minor Pentatonic & The Blues Scale

is also very common, and it contains a 1, b3, 4, 5 & b7. Here is A Minor Pentatonic
Notice that it contains the same notes as C Major Pentatonic.
Many musicians think of this as The Blues Scale, but a fuller version of the Blues Scale will include a chromatic link between the 4th & 5th -
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WHOLE TONE & OCTATONIC / DIMINISHED SCALES

There are too many other scales to mention them all. As far as Western music goes, the following two have been much used both in 20th century classical music and jazz improvisation. The rst is the
Whole-tone scale,
most famously used by Claude Debussy. Every interval in the scale is a tone, and it has a curiously centreless, oating quality. This is rarely notated with the key signature - just use accidentals as necessary.
The other is the
Octatonic / diminished scale

an eight-note scale made up of alternating tones and semitones. This appears in the work of many composers (Messiaen, for instance), and is often used by jazz players as the basis of improvisation against diminished chords. Again, a key signature is not appropriate (or possible).
KEY SIGNATURES WITH SHARPS & FLATS COMBINED

Some scales from other musical cultures can only be notated with key signatures that combine sharps and ats. Heres an Indian scale -
ATONAL MUSIC
Much 20th-century music is atonal, meaning that it is not in any key and usually indicating that all 12 notes of the chromatic set are used freely or equally in the music. A key signature makes no sense in this situation, so accidentals must be used throughout the music.
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In tonal music, accidentals only apply for the remainder of the bar that they rst appear in. This convention also applies in some atonal music, but most atonal composers notate their music on the understanding that accidentals only apply to the note that they precede. Its usually clear from the context which of these conventions applies.
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INTERVALS
You have already come across the octave, tone & semitone. There are other intervals, of course, and it would be easy enough to list their sizes and names, but its important to recognise that intervals are much more than spaces between notes. Each one has its own character, value and psychological and emotional impact; styles are dened by the use of certain intervals, forward motion is achieved by the shifting between dissonant and consonant intervals, harmonic systems are constructed around them, the emotional value of each one has been explored across time and disparate cultures. Intervals are really important - well come back to some of their more interesting qualities later..
Harmonic & Melodic Intervals

Intervals can be harmonic or melodic, depending on whether the two notes are heard simultaneously (as part of a harmony) or one-after-the-other (as part of a melody). Harmonic and melodic intervals of the same size have the same names.
INTEGER NOTATION
The simplest way to name intervals is simply to say how many semitones each interval spans. In this system, C to C# is a 1 C to D is a 2 and so on . . . . . . . Falling melodic intervals can be notated with a minus sign, so C up to E C down to E = = 4 -8
This system of naming is particularly appropriate for atonal or post-tonal music - it makes no sense to talk about minor thirds, major sixths and so on when describing music which is neither major nor minor. This is also the way that MIDI programs such as LOGIC identify intervals; if you want to transpose some midi information youll be invited to say how many semitones you want to raise or lower what you have recorded.
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Youll nd a chart comparing numeric intervals with their tonal equivalents on page 00.
PITCH CLASS INTERVALS

In music the term pitch is used to identify a unique note - middle C, for instance, but not the one above it. By contrast, a pitch-class identies all notes of the same name - the pitch-class C means all Cs, G# means all G#s and so on. Pitch-class Intervals measure the shortest distance between two pitch-classes, rather than the actual distance between specic pitches. It follows that 6 is the largest pitch-class interval that is needed. The most appropriate application for this system is to serial music.
INTERVALS IN TONAL MUSIC / Diatonic Intervals

The above makes perfect sense in certain music, but is still true that most of the music that we listen to and perform is tonal, and there is an established system for naming intervals embedded in that system.
Number & Quality Each interval is named in part after the number of scale steps that it spans, always counting from the lowest note. An interval between C and E, for instance, is a third because it spans three letter-names - C, D & E. A to E spans A, B, C, D & E so it is a fth. A to G is a seventh.
This is a simple rule but you may have already spotted a problem. C/E is a third because it spans C, D & E. However, C to E is also a third, because it too spans three scale steps. The two intervals are clearly different, so we
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need to say what kind of thirds these are to avoid confusion; we have to identify the quality of each interval. Here are some straightforward and then increasingly obscure rules about the full naming of intervals.
MAJOR & PERFECT INTERVALS

If the upper note of an interval can be found in the major scale built on the lower note, the interval is either a Major interval or a Perfect interval. Here are all the possible intervals in C major. Notice that, where you might have expected to nd a major fourth and a major fth you nd a Perfect Fourth and a Perfect Fifth.
MINOR INTERVALS
If you atten the upper note of any of the four major intervals, you produce a
minor interval. This means that we can have a 'minor second', even though it never actually occurs in a minor scale. (The minor third, sixth and seventh do appear in the minor scale.)
DIMINISHED INTERVALS
If you atten a minor interval or a perfect interval, the result is a diminished interval. It's been necessary to notate some of these with 'double ats' and these do what it says on the can so A!, for instance, turns out to be another way of naming a G.
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AUGMENTED INTERVALS
If you sharpen the upper note of a major or perfect interval, the result is an augmented interval. As with some of the diminished intervals, some of these are very uncommon.
You'll have noticed that what is essentially the same interval can have two or more names - compare a Minor 3rd and Augmented 2nd, for instance.
COMPARISON CHART
For reference, here is a chart comparing some ways of naming intervals No. of semitones 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Pitch-class intervals 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Diatonic name
Unison / Perfect Unison Minor Second Major Second Minor Third Major Third Perfect Fourth Augmented Fourth / Diminished Fifth Perfect Fifth Minor Sixth Major Sixth Minor Seventh Major Seventh Octave / Perfect Octave
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CONSONANCE & DISSONANCE

Some intervals are noticeably more consonant than others - easier on he ear, if you like. By contrast, some intervals are dissonant - harder on the ear. These terms are relative; some people have a lower dissonance threshold than others, and feelings about what intervals are consonant have changed over time. The octave is regarded as being the most consonant interval and, if you remember from the very beginning of this document, it is the interval with the simplest mathematical relationship between its two frequencies (2:1). The perfect fth and perfect fourth come next with frequency relationships of 3:2 and 4:3. Different authorities apply different criteria when evaluating the relative consonance and dissonance of some of the remaining intervals. Few, however, disagree that the next group still sound relatively consonant major third minor third major sixth minor sixth (5:4) (6:5) (5:3) (8:5),
and that the most dissonant intervals are major second minor seventh minor second major seventh diminished fth (9:8) (16:9) (16:15) (15:8) (45:32)
Notice that the more consonant intervals feature frequency relationships containing lower numbers.
INVERSIONS
If you take the lower note of any interval and move it up an octave, you have inverted the interval. If you invert a second, the result is the seventh. If you invert a third, the result is a sixth. Similarly, a fourth becomes a fth, a fth a fourth, a sixth a third and, nally, a seventh becomes a second.
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That was a very general statement. What about minor thirds, major thirds, minor sevenths etc? The rule is very simple; When you invert intervals The numbers add up to 9, and Perfect intervals remain Perfect. (P) Major intervals (M) become Minor (m) Minor intervals become Major. Augmented intervals (+) become Diminished (d) Diminished intervals become Augmented.
INTERVALS - THEIR CHARACTERS

Each interval has certain qualities in common with its inversion HARMONIC INTERVALS (when two notes are played simultaneously) Perfect fths and fourths, for instance, are generally thought to sound stable, spacious, clear, even noble. Thirds and sixths are also thought to be stable, but less stable than fths and fourths, also thicker, sweeter and richer. Seconds and sevenths are considered to sound unstable and relatively dissonant. Minor seconds & major sevenths are considered to be the most dissonant. A special mention for the diminished fth / augmented fourth, which is so unstable and dissonant it used to be known as the devils interval and was even forbidden at one time. This interval famously characterised what most people regard as the most dissonant, least tonally stable music of the 20th and 21st centuries.
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MELODIC INTERVALS It isnt far-fetched to suggest that when we hear the two consecutive notes of a melodic interval, we nevertheless relate them harmonically in our minds, and its certainly true that melodic intervals have the same qualities as their harmonic equivalents; melodic perfect fths still suggest solidity and boldness; diminished fths still feel strange, spiky, in need of resolution. Some intervals seem to inspire particular expressive associations; a falling minor third is usually considered sad, while a rising major sixth is generally thought to sound optimistic and aspiring (the opening notes of If I ruled the world . . . make an obvious example). . . . . large & small Its also possible to generalise about the size of melodic intervals. A melody consisting entirely of small intervals will inevitably have a more owing and less abrasive character than one made out of relatively large leaps. Large leaps can be very striking, underline moments of high emotion and markedly raise the energy level - a lot of conjunct motion will produce the opposite effects. Many composers successfully exploit and contrast these two kinds of motion, even within one phrase.
HARMONIC INTERVALS & MUSICAL STYLE

Different harmonic intervals have characterised the music of different periods and its interesting that, in Europe at least, we have gradually accommodated and at times favoured the more dissonant intervals. Heres an excerpt from a little mediaeval piece for two instruments or voices. Harmonically, it is typical of its period. The numbers show what intervals occur between the parts, and a quick glance will tell you how favoured octaves, fths and fourths are, particularly if you look at the intervals which are rhythmically stressed.
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Heres part of a baroque duet by Telemann, historys most prolic composer. There is now a very marked shift to a texture saturated with thirds. Thirds, of course, are the building blocks of major and minor chords, and Telemanns music was conceived in terms of chord progressions, so this is no surprise . . . .
Finally, heres some early 20th-century music by Schoenberg.
Now the picture is not so clear. Schoenberg still uses thirds, but the less stable minor thirds, and he freely uses and emphasises more dissonant, unstable intervals like seconds, sevenths and augmented fourths. While the textures of popular music were to remain saturated with the sweetness and harmonic stability of thirds, a huge amount of 20th Century classical music was to be avoured with the peppery, unstable intervals that Schoenberg had favoured. Its clear that the use of different harmonic intervals lends markedly different avours and helps to characterise different styles, even different periods of music. It also partly determines what is possible in each periods music.
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TRANSPOSITION
If you start singing a favourite tune now, the chances are that you will pitch it higher or lower than the last time you sang it. Even though you start the tune on a different note, the melody remains recognisable because the intervallic structure of the piece is retained; you still move down a major third, up a tone, down a perfect fth etc. regardless of which note you started on. This, for example -
is the same tune as this -
Youll note that the second version of the tune starts a perfect fourth higher than the rst - in fact, every note in the second version is a perfect fourth higher than the corresponding note in the rst. We say that the tune has been transposed up a perfect fourth. The act and technique of moving music in this way is called transposition and whole pieces of music can be transposed; so long as every note in Beethovens 5th Symphony is raised by a semitone, most listeners wont notice the difference. (This has actually happened; in Beethovens time instruments were tuned considerable lower than they are now.)
The ability to transpose music is an essential skill for any arranger or composer. You may have a vocalist who can sing a piece more effectively in a different part of his or her range, for instance - the instrumentalists need to transpose their parts to suit. In another situation, you may want to repeat a section of a piece but in a new key. If you are writing or arranging for transposing instruments such as clarinets, saxes and French Horns, you need to know how to transpose their parts so that they sound at the right pitch. There are various ways you can approach this problem -
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TRANSPOSITION TECHNIQUES
1 Interval by interval
This is perhaps the most laborious transposition method, but sometimes necessary, particularly in music without a key signature. When you have decided how far you need to transpose the music, move every note up or down by the same interval. Here, for example, the rst melody is transposed up a tone, and then down a major third.
Another approach is to decide on the new rst note and then copy the interval sequence from the source melody. In this case, thats down a dim5, up a m3, down a dim5 and so on. Using both approaches allows you to double check that you havent slipped up at any point. And - of course check the results by ear.
Transposing from one key to another.
The most likely transposing job will involve moving material from one key to another: D major might suit your vocalist better than C major, for instance, or a piece might simply be easier to play in C rather than C#. This process is rather easier than the previous one 1) Work out what your new key needs to be. Insert the appropriate key signature in your new score. 2) Work out how many scale steps up or down you need to move from the original version to the transposed version. (E up to G would be a third, and so would Eb to G#). 3) Move every note that number of steps. The new key signature takes care of the intervallic structure . . . Job almost done -
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Heres an example, a tune in E minor thats needs transposing up into G minor:
After inserting the new key-signature (two ats), simply compare the two tonics, in this case E & G. They are a third apart (and it doesnt matter what kind of third). Now slide all the music up a third, (from any space to the space above, or from any line to the line above). The original piece included some accidentals. If you simply copy them across -
it might or might not sound right, and the E# in this example doesnt. You clearly need to think of the accidentals in a different way in this context. In the original tune, the accidentals told you that the C and two Ds should be played a semitone higher than the notes implied by the key signature (i.e. that you should play a C# & D# instead of C & D). When you make the transposition, you need to make sure that the same is still true. In the G minor version, the key signature implies an Eb and an F natural, and as the notes a semitone higher than those are E natural and F#, those are the notes that you now need to notate. The correct transposition is therefore -
Notes for computer users: In Logic etc. you can ask the program to transpose your midi recordings up or down by a specied number of semitones - refer to the comparison chart a few pages back to translate interval names into numbers. In dedicated notation packages like Sibelius, transposition works in a number of ways and you need to be careful which method you use. For instance, if you select a group of notes in Sibelius and then use the arrow keys to raise or lower them, the notes will be moved up or down a space or line at a time, but are unlikely to retain their intervallic structure unless you are transposing by an octave.
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Alternatively, you can select notes and then use the Transpose function. At this point you will be offered the choice to 1) transpose your material up or down by an interval that you specify, or 2) transpose the material to a new key of your choice (assuming that you are creating a score in a key). Both of these methods will retain the intervallic structure correctly, but the notation might or might not be grammatically correct (particularly as regards accidentals) so you will still need to check and edit the music.
Transposing chord symbols

Easy. Transpose the roots of the chord symbols consistently. The sufxes remain unchanged. For instance: Cmaj7 | Fm9 |E |D7 ||
when transposed up a perfect fourth, becomes Fmaj7 | Bbm9 |A |G7 ||
Transposing Instruments
For reasons to do with the historical development of various wind instruments, we have a strange situation where an alto saxophone player might nger and play a written C, but produce the sounding Eb a major sixth below. On a tenor sax, the same ngering and notation will produce a Bb and octave and a tone below. This isnt quite as crazy as it may sound, but it is a situation were stuck with so . . . . .
There are a number of transposing instruments, nowadays mostly in Bb (meaning that a written & ngered C produces a sounding Bb) or in Eb (meaning that a written and ngered C produces a sounding Eb). The commonest transposing instruments are Clarinet (Bb - sounds a tone lower than written) Bass clarinet (Bb - sounds an octave + tone lower than written)
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Soprano sax (Bb - sounds a tone lower than written) Alto sax (Eb - sounds a major sixth lower than written) Tenor sax (Bb - sounds an octave + tone lower than written) Baritone sax (Eb - sounds an octave + major sixth lower than written) Trumpet and Cornet (Bb - sounds a tone lower than written) French Horn (in F - sounds a perfect fth lower than written) Cor anglais (in F - sounds a perfect fth lower than written) I should also mention that some instruments transpose at the octave the guitar, for instance, sounds an octave lower then written, while the glockenspiel sounds an octave higher.
In order to cope with this situation, the arranger / composer has to transpose the players parts to compensate for this discrepancy. For instance, a Bb clarinet sounds a tone lower than written, so you need to compensate by notating its music a tone higher than you want to hear. Write a D if you want to hear a C, a G# if you want to hear an F#. Just as importantly, youll need to give the transposing instrument its own key signature - write the clarinets music in the key of D major if you want to hear C major, and so on. Played by a clarinet, soprano sax, trumpet or cornet, this E major scale -
sounds like this, a D major scale -
Notes for computer users If you set up your program correctly, you will nd that parts are automatically transposed, along with their appropriate key signatures etc.
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MECHANICAL TRANSPOSITION
Guitars + Capos . . . .
The guitarists capo is a clamp placed on the guitar neck which effectively shortens the ngerboard; a capo placed in the second fret will raise the pitch of the guitar by two semitones. If you now nger and play a C major chord on your shorter, higher pitched instrument, it will sound as a D major chord. The guitar has effectively become a transposing instrument in D. By placing the capo in the third fret, youll make it a transposing instrument in Eb, and so on. This is very useful if youve learned a piece in one key and want to transpose it quickly into another. There will also be situations where you want to use the capo to improve or change the sonority of the guitar, or to allow you to use easier or more effective voicings. If the guitar is to sound in the same key as any other instruments, you will have to transpose its part in order to compensate for the effect of the capo. For instance, if your piece is in Eb major, an awkward key for a guitarist, you can put the capo on the third fret. This raises the pitch of the guitar by three semitones / a minor third. If you then transpose the guitar music down a minor third to compensate for this, you nd yourself reading & playing in the friendlier key of C major, but still sounding in Eb. So -
CAPO 3 sounds -
|| C
|G
|F
||
|| Eb
| Bb
| Ab
||
. . . . and Digital Keyboards Almost all digital keyboards have a transpose function which is even more exible than the guitarists capo because it will transpose down as well as up. Control of this varies, but typically you need to work out how many semitones you want to raise or lower the music by and then, in combination with a transpose button, press the key positioned the same number of semitones above or below middle C. (Refer to the keyboard instructions).
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HARMONY
Music can be conceived as having a horizontal axis and a vertical axis. Melody and rhythm take place in the horizontal dimension. Harmony is what happens in the vertical axis. Any vertical slice of music containing more than one note is considered to contain harmony, and there is no limit to the number of pitches that might be present in such a slice. The resulting chords will have a variety of characteristics, and these characteristics will help to dene the style, period and genre of the piece. Jazz, for instance, is typically saturated with more complex and more ambiguous chords than would be typical of Mozart or recent rock music; Stockhausens music is typically more dissonant than Debussys. Most styles of music, then, have distinctive vertical characteristics. While the kinds of harmonies permitted or favoured in a particular style might help to dene it and might indeed be crucial to its overall effect on the listener, they are not, however, necessarily structural elements. . . . . Between about 1650 and 1900, however, European musicians developed a number of styles in which the harmonic aspects were of primary structural importance. This Period of Common Practice was, if you like, the period of the chord progression, of major and minor keys, of chords used in a hierarchical relationship, of harmonic journeys to and from the tonic chord and from one key centre and another, so creating a sense of movement and a dening shape for each piece. This very specic kind of harmony is called tonal harmony, or functional harmony, and is Europes greatest gift to the Worlds music.. From the perspective of a Western Classical Music historian, the period of Common Practice is now over, but this kind of harmony still provides the back-bone for most of our popular music, and a good deal else. It has also spread to musical cultures which were untouched by it when the period was supposedly ending. Well discuss other non-functional harmonic possibilities later, but for now well look at the kind of harmony we have been surrounded by all our lives . . . . .
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FUNCTIONAL HARMONY
Two kinds of chord are fundamental to functional / tonal harmony - major & minor chords.
MAJOR & MINOR CHORDS The 1st, 3rd & 5th notes of any major scale constitute its tonic chord. The 1st, 3rd & 5th notes of any minor scale constitute its tonic chord. For example; C, E & G are the 1st, 3rd & 5th notes of a C major scale, so they are a C major chord when played together. C, Eb & G are the 1st, 3rd & 5th notes of a C minor scale, so they are a C minor chord when played together.
(Note that major chords are named without a sufx, but that minor chords need a lower case m). The three notes of every major or minor chord are called the root, third and fth. All major chords incorporate a major third between the root and the third, and a minor third between the third and the fth. All minor chords incorporate a minor third between the root and the third), and a major third between the third and the fth.
(A major third spans 4 semitones, and a minor third spans 3, so you can also calculate the contents of major and minor chords by taking any starting note and then ascending 4 + 3 semitones for a major chord, and 3 + 4 semitones for a minor chord.)
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DIATONIC CHORDS Every major scale will yield a number of triads (three-note chords). C major, for instance, yields three major chords, three minor chords and one other - a diminished chord (which will be discussed later).
We can extract these chords from the scale without making any chromatic or other alterations and can therefore say that these chords are diatonic in the key of C major. Naming major & minor diatonic chords 1. Jazz & Pop notation Each chord in a key set such as the one above is named after its root. It is assumed that the chord will be a major chord unless you put a lower-case m after it to indicate a minor chord. This system of notation is now very widespread. 2. Roman numerals You can also name chords after the scale steps that they are built on, and, to avoid confusion, Roman Numerals are used. Note that upper-case numerals indicate major chords, and that lower-case numerals indicate minor chords.
3. Functional names The chord built on the tonic is called the tonic chord. Similarly, the chord built on the dominant (fth step) can be called the dominant chord (or simply the dominant), the chord built on the sub-dominant is called the subdominant chord, and so on . . . . . in C major, then, the following chords are named -
System 1 is excellent in playing situations. Systems 2 & 3 have advantages when it comes to analysing and understanding chord sequences.
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MAJOR KEY PRIMARY CHORDS - THE THREE-CHORD TRICK Of the six major & minor chords above, chords I, IV & V are called the Primary Chords. Thousands, possibly millions of tunes and songs are built around these three chords alone and any musician armed with this knowledge can quickly work out an accompaniment to an unfamiliar song hence the Three Chord Trick. This is a pun on Three Card Trick, of course, and this set of chords is indeed a powerful hand - (see what I did there?) - it contains the tonic - the home chord to which all others must lead and on which the piece will come to rest. the dominant - the chord that we feel creates the strongest sensation of a need for the tonic, and the sub-dominant - which creates the same sensation, perhaps not quite so strongly.
SECONDARY CHORDS The three minor chords are known as the Secondary Chords. They are ii, iii & vi, or the supertonic, mediant and sub-mediant. We feel that these lead less directly and powerfully back to the tonic. Notice, however, that the roots of these three chords are related to each other in the same way that the roots of the primary chords are. Here are the primary & secondary chords in C major.
Youll see that the three secondary chords are built on A, D, & E. Taken on their own, these could be I, IV & V - the 3-chord trick - in A minor. This can be very useful, and many chord progressions employ this fact, shifting the emphasis to the Secondary chords and then back to the Primary chords, all to create that satisfying sense of going away from and then back towards the tonic.
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Here are the Primary & Secondary chords in three different major keys -
HIERARCHY OF CHORDS We are beginning to build a picture, I hope, of a hierarchy of chords, some with a more powerful and close relationship to the tonic than others.
THE DOMINANT SEVENTH It is, of course, possible to extract more than 7 chords from a major scale. Some of these may be interesting and beautiful but might not have a clear tonal function (well return to the idea of non-functional harmony later) -
One particular extra chord is, however, very powerful. By adding a seventh to the dominant chord, you create the dominant seventh, and we feel that this chord creates an even greater desire and expectation of the tonic than the simple dominant. In C major, the dominant seventh chord will contain G, B, D & F, the F being 7 steps (specically a minor 7th) above the root of the chord. This would be notated as G7. In any key the dominant seventh chord can be notated as V7, and is often called the 5-7 chord.
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Here, then, is a fuller set of diatonic chords, in a range of keys - notice the dominant sevenths in each key -
MODAL CHORD SETS Although the Major scale came to have enormous importance, there was a time when it was just the Ionian Mode, only one of a set of modes that are actually still in use. Chord sets can be extracted from these modes in exactly the same way that they were extracted from the major scale. For comparison, here are the Ionian (major) and the four other commonest modes (the Dorian, Phrygian, Mixolydian & Aeolian (Natural Minor)), and the chords built on each step -
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The contents of these ve chord-sets are identical, but the chords change their positions and functions in each new mode. In one key, C is the tonic, but it then takes up position as the sub-tonic, sub-mediant, subdominant and nally the mediant. So how and why does C feel like home in one piece, but not in a piece with identical chord-content? How does the chord of Em, a relatively weak chord in C major, then get promoted to the position of dominant in A Aeolian? It is clear that the way in which chords are deployed in actual music is crucial. Chords acquire their status in each new hierarchy partly by being being placed in signicant positions (beginnings and endings of phrases, for instance), and partly by being approached in ways that point up their importance. If the right things arent emphasised at the right times, the chords lose their functionality, progressions lose their dynamic qualities - and the music is less moving. It is also true that, from mode to mode, the relationships between the roots of the chords remain pretty much the same; tonic, dominant and subdominant are still separated by perfect fths, for instance. The new secondary chords might now be found on different steps and might be a mixture of major and minor chords (the Mixolydian) or all major chords (the Aeolian), but they still form sets whose roots are fth-related. These root relationships to some extent override changes and additions to the chord contents. In other words, a D - G - C sequence tends to work whether the individual chords are minor or major because the movement of roots is so clear and powerful. Try these - they all work -
Here are the same modes that you saw above, now transposed to start on the same tonic -
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Now you can see more easily what these harmonised modes have in common, where they differ, and where they have signicant and unique features. Only the Ionian (the Major), for instance, includes a major dominant, more powerful than the minor dominant because it includes a leading note only a semitone below the tonic. (In some of the other modes, the chord on the subtonic / leading note works almost as well as the dominant when leading back to the tonic). The Phrygian has a unique supertonic chord built on a at 2; this I - II chord relationship immediately identies the music as Flamenco (or perhaps Heavy Metal ). And so on . . . . . .
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THE CLASSICAL MINOR SYSTEM So far, so simple. The classical minor is more complex. It is more complex than the major and other modes because it includes a number of melodic and harmonic alternatives. If you look back to the section dealing with the Harmonic & Melodic minor scales, youll see that users of these scales have the option of both a major and a minor 6th, and both a major and minor seventh. In the Melodic Minor, the major 6 & 7 are conventionally notated in the ascending version of the scale, and the minor 6 & 7 are written in the descending version -
This is a set of notes that ironically yields far more chords than the so-called Harmonic Minor, and the reality is that, in one style or another, all of them get used. Omitting the three possible diminished chords, we now have a set of 10 chords -
This set includes all six of the chords from the relative major key as well as the chords associated with the natural minor, and a major dominant 7th, of course.
ROCK & POP CHORD SEQUENCES I should mention here that, in a number of rock & pop styles, its common for pieces in major keys to incorporate some of the chords usually associated with the parallel / tonic minor, particularly the major chords built on the at sixth and at seventh steps. A piece in C major, for instance, might well include Ab and Bb chords. There are other ways in which rock practice differs from that so far described, and Ill deal with this later.
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OTHER CHORDS The chord sets described above may be regarded as basic sets; you will certainly use some or all of the chords from each set in a piece, and these will provide the essential framework of your chord progressions. However, you will have noticed that, in practice, chords from outside these sets do get used. First, some chord-types apart from major and minor that can be extracted from the parent scales -
Open \ Power Chords (5) Major or minor chords with the third missing. Much used in folk music and, of course, rock music, particularly Heavy Metal.
Diminished chords ( / dim / m5) You have already seen that each of the scales and modes discussed above contains a diminished chord. A diminished chord may be described as a minor chord with attened fth, or as two superimposed minor thirds.
Note that there is some confusion about the notation of this chord, and the sufx is often used interchangeably with 7 and dim7. This means that there is no way to distinguish between this three-note chord and the four-note 7 as described below. For clarity, it seems worth keeping the notation as described here, then, but be ready for some inconsistency in practice.
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Minor 7th Chords (m7) A minor chord with an added minor 7th. This chord is tonally ambiguous, effectively containing the notes of a minor chord and an overlapping major chord. Note that the sufx m refers to the basic chord. The 7 is assumed to be a minor 7.
Major 7th Chords (maj7 / M7) A Major chord with an added major 7th. Similarly ambiguous. Here the maj or M refers to the seventh - in the absence of a lower-case m, the basic chord is assumed to be a major chord.
Major 6th Chords (6) A major chord with an added 6th. More ambiguity!
Minor 6th chords (m6) A minor chord with an added major sixth.
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9th Chords (9) A major chord with an added minor seventh and a major 9th. (A 9th is effectively the second step of the scale.) Note that the added 7th is assumed here, even though it isnt named.
Major 9th Chords (maj9 /M9) A Major chord with an added major seventh and major 9th. Note that the maj or M refers to the seventh - the fundamental chord and the 9th are assumed to be major.
Suspended 4th Chords ((sus4) / sus4 / sus) A major or minor chord in which the third is replaced by the fourth.
Now a couple of important chords that cant be derived directly from major or minor scales, or any of the modes.
Augmented Chords (+) A major chord with an augmented (sharpened) fth. This can also be thought of as two superimposed major thirds. In effect, a C+ contains the same notes as an E+ and a G#+ so your choice
of name indicates which note you want to be in the bass. Only four distinctly different augmented chords are possible.
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Diminished 7th Chords (7) A minor chord with a diminished fth and an added diminished 7th. You can also think of this as a pile of minor thirds. The silent-movie suspense chord par excellence.
Only four transpositions of this chord are possible so, as with augmented chords, name the chord after the note that you want in the bass. The above are the chords you are most likely to come across, but many others are possible. After the next couple of paragraphs, you will nd a chart summarising the above (including major and minor and dominant seventh chords), and introducing some other chords, too. You might, of course, come across or create chords not in this chart. To name them, follow these rules, some of which have been covered above -
CHORD NAMING RULES
1.
It is assumed that the underlying chord is major unless you say so that a 7th is a minor 7th unless you say so. It follows that an m sufx applies to the fundamental chord, and that maj or M will apply to the 7th.
2.
It is also assumed that If you specify an added 9th, you mean as well as a seventh. If you specify an added 11th (11), you mean as well as a seventh and a ninth. Extend the rule for 13ths etc. 9ths, 11ths, 13ths and 15ths are major unless you say so.
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3.
Other numbers (most likely 6) also imply notes to be added to the fundamental chord.
4.
Sus implies that a chord note is to be replaced. The commonest sus chord is a sus4, where the fourth step replaces the third, so assume this is what is meant if the sufx is simply sus. The only other likely sus chord is a sus 2, and here the third is replaced by the second.
COMMON CHORD TYPES / SUMMARY

Name
Major
Sufx
none
Example
Description
1st, 3rd, & 5th notes of major scale.
Minor
1st, 3rd, & 5th notes of minor scale.
Open / Power Chord
1st & 5th notes of major or minor scale.
Dominant 7th
Major chord with added minor 7th
Major 7th
maj7 / M7
Major chord with added major 7th
Minor 7th
m7
Minor chord with added minor 7th
Minor with major7
mmaj7
Minor chord with added major 7th
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Minor 6th
m6
Minor chord with added major 6th
Suspended 4th
sus / sus4
Major or minor chord with third replaced by fourth.
Seventh with sus4
7sus4
Dominant 7th chord with 3rd replaced by fourth
Suspended 2nd
sus2
Major or minor chord with third replaced by second.
Added second
2 / add2
Major chord with added second
9th
Major chord with added minor 7th & major 9th
Flat 9th
b9 / 7b9
Dominant 7th chord with added attened 9th. If not using the 7 in the sufx, make sure the at sign is raised - otherwise youre implying a c-at chord. Major chord with added major 7th & major 9th
Major 9th
maj9 / M9
Minor 9th
m9
Minor chord with added minor 7th & major 9th
Diminished
/ dim
Minor chord with attened fth
60 / 85 Diminished 7th 7 / dim7 Minor chord with attened fth and added diminished 7th
Augmented
+ / aug
Major chord with sharpened fth
Augmented 7th
+7 / aug7
Augmented chord with added minor 7th
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CHORD PROGRESSIONS
As hinted at above, the chords and even the chord-families that we have identied are only the building blocks for something far more signicant. This is, of course, the chord progression / chord sequence / harmonic progression, the phenomenon that provided so much of the structure and the forwarddrive for almost all of the European classical music written during the Period of Common Practice, and for the popular song from that period until the present day. An effective chord progression is more than a string of related chords and interesting changes; having established a sense of home and away, it takes the listener on a satisfying, interesting and often emotionally charged journey. It matches and enhances the phrase-by-phrase-structure of a song melody; at the same time, it interacts with melody in ways that enrich its expressive content, and make it more satisfying aesthetically. What follows is a necessarily supercial look at chord sequences, starting with the shortest possible, and then looking at progressively more complex examples, moving from purely diatonic sequences to those that incorporate non-diatonic chords of one kind and another, and then to those that modulate. In passing, well collect some of the tricks of the trade.
TWO CHORD ROCKING SEQUENCES Many pieces have been built on a simple alternation between two chords. One of these chords will inevitably be the tonic chord - the home chord and the other might be almost any other from within the diatonic set. The following example sequences are described in numerals, and followed by a version in the key of C. Try each one as a regularly alternating pattern, and then explore other possibilities . . . . . I - V \ C - G : The most obvious of all chord pairings, the tonic and the dominant. In a major key, no other chord leads so decisively back to the tonic or establishes the tonality so clearly. (My Lady Careys Dompe, 1551 / chorus of Yellow Submarine, 196?) I - IV \ C - F : The next most obvious, but not quite so in your face as the previous pair, perhaps. I - ii \ C - Dm : The classic reggae shift. I - iii \ C - Em : a soft change (only one note difference) but a telling one.
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I - iii \ C - Am : A similar effect to the last pairing. (Pie Jesu, Faure Requiem / innumerable pop songs) i - bVII \ Cm - Bb : This minor mode shift can be all you need for an Irish jig . . . I - bVII \ C - Bb : And this major version might be all you need for a Scots reel, but it also features in many rock songs, particularly those in the Mixolydian mode. Oh, and The Drunken Sailor.
There are, of course, many other possibilities, particularly when you start to explore minor key and modal chord-sets. From a creative point of view, it may be worth noting that such alternating patterns might be just one section in something grander, and that each twochord relationship has quite distinctive expressive and stylistic implications.
I said above that one chord in a rocking pair will inevitably be the tonic; the other chord provides the sense of away . . . . . Having said that, if we hear chords IV & V \ F - G repeated, we have such a strong expectation of the unheard I chord that you could use this pairing to create music that implies a tonic without you ever actually playing it. We feel a need to hear the tonic, and the resultant tension is quite acute. Add a seventh to the V chord to crank up the tension. This idea that you can imply and create a desire for the tonic becomes more usable and important in longer sequences, and its part of the reason why short sequences almost always lack a sense of forward movement, and why longer sequences have the potential to be more interesting and emotionally more compelling.
MAJOR KEY - THREE CHORDS There are disproportionately more possibilities when you allow yourself three chords. Even in classical music, where you might expect things to be more complex, three chords have been enough for substantial sections of pieces, and there are innumerable major-key songs that use only three chords. Some of these simply loop around the three chosen chords (I - IV - V \ C - F G, for instance, in La Bamba, Twist & Shout etc.), but most grasp the possibility of making more satisfying and longer sequences.
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As soon as you have three chords, you have a tonic and a choice of two away chords, and one of these will feel more distant from the tonic than the other. A chord sequence that has been used in a million songs in the twentieth century (probably not an exaggeration) illustrates how this can be used perfectly. Its the 12-bar blues The 12 bar blues sequence contains three four-bar phrases. In its simplest form the three phrases (a, b & c) go like this -
a. b. c.
|I | IV |V
|I | IV | IV
|I |I |I
|I |I |I
| | |
We can describe what happens in this piece as follows; Phrase 1: States and establishes the key simply by repeating the tonic chord. Takes us to the sub-dominant (IV) and then back home to the tonic. Moves to the dominant (V), the chord that feels most distant from the tonic in this piece, and then moves back via the subdominant to nish on the home chord.
Phrase 2:
Phrase 3:
We never lose track of the tonic in this sequence, but we are taken away from it, and then even further away from it before we are brought back home. In essence, the piece establishes the tonic, moves us progressively further and further away from the tonic, creates the maximum desire for the tonic, and then satises that desire. Job done in an extraordinarily compact and satisfying form. There are thousands and thousands of major key pieces that use these same three chords - I, IV & V. Because so many musicians managed to get by with a knowledge of not much more than these three chords, this tonic-dominantsubdominant set became known as the Three-Chord Trick. They are, of course, the Primary Chords.
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MAJOR KEY - SIX CHORDS As has already been pointed out (pg 40), a major scale will yield six major & minor chords. The three not mentioned in the previous section are the Secondary Chords, and in a major key these are all minor chords (ii, iii & vi). Here they are in C major again -
Including the Secondary Chords in your sequences immediately allows greater exibility and interest, as well as the emotional contrast that the minor chords allow. Even in songs built over 4-chord loops, incorporating one or more of the secondary chords creates more interest. Notice how the insertion of a passing Em into this otherwise standard I - IV - V sequence makes it less obvious, and adds an emotional dimension otherwise missing. C - F - Em - G (I - IV - iii - V) The same could be said of the following but its a turn-around so overused in rock n roll songs that it now sounds hopelessly corny and naive. It doesnt stop people using it. C - Am - F - G (I - vi - IV - V) One more C - Am - Em - G ( I - iii - vi - V) On the whole, these turn-around sequences hardly count as progressions, because, like alternating pairs of chords, they are circular, never really going anywhere except back home.
In longer sequences, the use of the occasional secondary chord provides some welcome variety, but allows for a more dened shape in the piece, too. Heres Dylans Blowing In The Wind, for instance. This isnt quite Dylans own chord sequence, which was simpler, but Im hoping you know the tune, so this lets me demonstrate some things . . . . .
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C F C F C F F Dm
|G |G |G |G |G
C Am C
|C F | C Dm | Am Dm | Am |C
|C |G |G |F |C
| | | | ||
Phrase 1: Uses the tonic, subdominant & dominant, to establishing the key and the tonic. Phrase 2: Starts like phrase 1, but then introduces the vii chord (Am) and the ii chord (Dm) in the approach to the V / dominant (G). This gives us contrast, but the approach to the dominant chord is also strengthened because the Dm has its root a fth above the G - this is a powerful connection. Phrase 3: This is almost a repeat of phrase 2, but the secondary chords are now more closely grouped, and the closing sequence leads us to the dominant again; this time, the cadence is strengthened even more because we now have a sequence of three chords from the circle of fths (Am - Dm G). The dominant now feels even more dominant, both repeated and emphasised very strongly. The feeling that the next chord will be a C is strong, but Phrase 4 & 5: an F replaces the C, and the tonic chord is thus avoided until the very end, when again it is approached via the circle of fths (Dm - G - C).
So, the secondary chords have been used to add interest, but also to make the structure of the song more clearly dened, and the harmonic journeys more substantial; as they are used more, we feel an interesting shift to new territory that we can nally leave and return from; they also allow us to avoid the tonic chord by substituting for it here and there, thus creating greater satisfaction when it nally arrives; they let us create longer chains of fth-related chords, and these create a powerful sense of forward ow and continuity.
Heres another major-key piece that uses all six of the diatonic chords,. This time its in D and its Sheebeg & Sheemore, by OCarolan.
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This progression makes beautiful use of the secondary chords (Bm, F#m & Em). In the middle of both halves of the tune, your focus is shifted towards them so that Bm feels, at least temporarily, like a new home: then you are returned to the Primary chords so that D is clearly re-established. Examine this progression closely - theres a lot of subtle detail, as well as some absolutely stock ideas - the IV - V - I (G - A - D) cadence, for instance, that the rst section of the tune hints at twice before it nally states it, and which links the endings of both halves.
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CHORD PROGRESSIONS IN MODAL AND MINOR PIECES So, what about creating progressions in modal pieces and the classical minor? The same principles apply - although youll have different chord-sets,
Identify the Primary & Secondary Chords. These will vary from mode to mode, so while they are likely to be I, IV & V, they wont inevitably be so. Its best to think of the Primary chords in modal pieces as being the three chords that help you to establish the key most clearly; this might well include the chord on the seventh step. Use them! Use them freely, but remember that they can be used as groups that you can move between to give shape to the piece. Thinking of related groups of chords is more sophisticated . . . . . . . Place signicant chords in signicant places. Beginnings and endings of phrases are the signicant staging posts on your harmonic journey and what you place here outlines the overall shape of your progression. Gentle changes Changing between chords whose roots are a third apart allows the music to ow. Chords related in this way will have two notes in common, so the changes will be smooth. Moving chords by step has a similarly gentle effect. More decisive changes Moving roots by fths or fourths tends to be more striking, and is a good way of producing strong forward movement. You can chain such shifts; even within a diatonic set, your six chords can be arranged to form part of the Circle of Fifths (F - C - G - Dm - Am - Em in C major, for instance). Use any part of that. Fifth-based moves are also a powerful way of emphasising those signicant staging-post chords, and this is why Plagal (IV - I) and Perfect (V - I) cadences work so well. If you are approaching the dominant (V) at the end (or start) of a phrase, try approaching it from a fth above or below. Look at Sheebeg again to see how many times this happens. Other stock moves Cadences are not necessarily a simple pair of chords. Using all the primary chords in the sequence IV - V - I, for instance, is a much-used longer approach.
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Create expectations This is a fundamental idea - if the listener expects something to happen, you can choose to give them what they expect, or not. Denying their expectation allows you to pull of some very expressive touches (IV - V7 - vi instead of the expected IV - V7 - I, for instance), and to keep them hanging on for more . . . . . .
INCORPORATING NON-DIATONIC CHORDS You may get frustrated with the basic chord sets and want to incorporate other chords. These will almost certainly include notes from outside the scale, and we can therefore label them as being non-diatonic. Because these chords include alien notes, they will inevitably weaken the sense of key and there is a danger that the music will lose its sense of direction and become incoherent. So, how can you incorporate non-diatonic chords without undermining the overall musical sense? These are only some of the ways -
Use the circle of fths By side stepping to a relatively distant point in the circle of fths, you can then move back through the circle to a signicant chord from within the home key. For instance, in the following example, all but the C & G chords are non-diatonic in C major, but you arent left in doubt about what key you are really in |C E A D |G G7 | C . . . . . .
The chain of fths can be only one link long - this: |C D |G |C |
includes only one non-diatonic chord but its effect almost enhances the sense of key because it draws attention to the chord that follows it - the dominant is emphasised.
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Substitute major for minor If the root movement is strong, you might well be able to substitute major for minor, or minor for major here and there - a minor subdominant has long been a favoured move, for instance |C G | Fm C |
Decorate coherent progressions with chromatically linked chords The following sequence is simple and diatonic, in G major |G Em |G |G D |G |
The following sequence keeps that outline but includes some non-diatonic linking or passing chords -
Because the overall outline of the sequence is maintained, and because the ear easily follows all the chromatic links between the main chords, the sense of the music is maintained, but some interesting and expressive things are allowed along the way. One of the by products of this is that a melody written around this sequence can / almost has to use some extra notes too . . . .
Use strong progressions from other modes Rock and pop in particular sometimes transplant strong progressions from other modes. One now hackneyed but still much used cadential sequence, for instance, is VI - VII - I, a rising set of chords that you could nd in the natural minor, for instance, but not in the major. Here it is inserted into the third bar of the sequence we just examined -
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You could make some of the chords a little richer - these are almost the same as the above if you inspect them closely -
but the internal sense that comes from the original outline still isnt lost. Notice how important the chromatic links are in making sense of these nondiatonic intruders. Note that the bass line is entirely steps I, IV & V, too.
Mix major & minor chord-sets An extension of the last idea reects a tendency of rock, pop & jazz harmony to borrow other chords from the parallel minor set when harmonising major key melodies.
MODULATION
So far, we have looked at the kinds of harmonic journeys that you can make within one key. But the possibility of changing key - modulating - means that we can make even more extreme journeys, like visiting the next country rather than the next town. Modulation has been a hugely signicant part of tonal music. There is hardly a single piece by Bach that doesnt modulate, and later pieces modulated through many keys - you could almost think of the series of keys typically moved through in romantic symphonies as a kind of overarching chord sequence that gives coherence and shape to the whole piece.
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PASSING MODULATION Weve already shown how the use of secondary chords can at least hint at the relative minor or major. You can, of course, go all the way, switching the listeners focus from one key centre to another. If this is only brief, and the music is to soon return to the original key, we can call this a passing modulation. Passing modulations (and full modulations) to closely related keys are most commonly achieved by introducing the dominant (7th) of the new key, and then using some or all of the chord-set associated with it. You might also employ the tonal ambiguity of pivot chords - chords common to both chordsets. Heres C major, and a modulation to the dominant (G), via Bm7 and then a D chord. How long you stay in G is up to you . . . .
and heres a similar move to the relative minor, giving you a weak m7 dominant before the real thing (E).
The same applies when returning to the the original key - introduce the dominant of the original key.
. . . . . & FULL MODULATIONS The above isnt the only way to get from one key to another, and it has an undeniably antique air about it that can sound inappropriate in certain styles - and absolutely right in others.
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You can just go to a new key without any preparation, of course, and this can be totally effective. The Beatles Girl, has its verse in Cm. The chorus simply starts with the tonic of the relative major (Eb) and doesnt declare the clinching dominant (Bb7) until the end of the next bar. At the end of the chorus, the dominant Bb is treated as a bVII chord and rises to the Cm at the start of the next verse. Of course, that modulation is only between closely related keys. In Die Lotosblume, Schumann could suddenly switch from F to Ab (three more ats) without warning. What these two modulations have in common is that they are integral to the grand structure of the piece, and both underline the expressive content of the lyrics. There are innumerable examples of both leaps into new keys and modulations with only one or two chords preparation. Nevertheless, theres something very satisfying about those moments when music is shifting from one key to another; the process of modulation doesnt have to be screamingly obvious unless you want it to be, and it doesnt have to be between closely related keys. In some styles, (some 19thC Romantic styles, for instance) transition often seems to be what the music is all about. Choose your key to modulate to for a reason - sharper keys do what it says on the can and tend to give a feeling of lift; at keys tend to do the opposite; moving to the parallel major or minor is an easy but striking change. Distant keys can sound mysterious, and disorientate the listener for a while (in a good way.) Here is a relatively swift link between C major and its least related key, Db, just to prove it can be done.
and heres a standard jazz modulation between the same two keys -
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NON-FUNCTIONAL HARMONY
If the above describes a very specic kind of harmony - functional harmony then every other kind is by default non-functional. Every other kind of harmony is, of course, a vast subject and what follows can therefore only be an introduction to some examples and possibilities.
Intervallic consistency and musical style in polyphonic music.

All music involving the simultaneous sounding of different pitches must produce some kind of harmony and it is noticeable that the harmonic aspects of almost all musical periods and styles have been characterised by the consistent use of certain intervals. (This is already touched on in Harmonic Intervals & Musical Styles). Here is that little medieval dance tune again, from c.1200 -
to remind you that music of that period tended to stress the octave and the perfect fth as harmonic intervals. Look particularly at the intervals that are rhythmically stressed in this piece and you will nd few exceptions to this rule. The early medieval composer and listener found other intervals relatively dissonant and therefore in need of resolution, and further examination of the piece above conrms this; there are a number of thirds and sixths and even the occasional seventh, but they are in passing, the byproducts of melodic motion that always seeks out a stable harmonic resolution. A later example illustrates a development in taste and apparently in the composers and listeners ability to accommodate thirds. This is from Dufays rst setting of Ave Regina Coelorum. (Note that the tenor part sounds an octave lower than written).
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This is a piece richly saturated in thirds, but phrase endings are now always on open fths; the third is no longer considered to be a real dissonance but is still unacceptable at moments of nal resolution. Also notice that, although you can nd successions of triads that we would now name D minor, C# minor, G major and so on, these are the by-products of melodic motion and a taste for the accumulations of thirds available within the prevailing mode rather than pre-conceived functional progressions that have determined the melodic content. Another interesting aspect of this music is its use of occasional chromatic alterations to the fundamental mode. All the instances in this extract (the notes with accidentals) are chromatically adjacent to the tonic and the fth. Their use creates extra tension and therefore resolutions that are all the more satisfying, but notice that these moments are again melodically conceived and that, inasmuch as they create some striking and surprising harmonic effects, as far as our perception of them is concerned they are melodically justied. We can still describe this harmony as non-functional, then, even though we might sense a dawning realisation that certain cadential sequences work. This remains true in varying degrees until, during the Baroque period, functional harmony dominated art music and continued to do so until its hold waned in the late 19th century. As we left the so-called Period of Common Practice, early 20th Century composers such as Webern and Schoenberg started to compose music which
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eschewed tonality entirely, partly by the consistent use of all twelve notes of the chromatic set, partly by an avoidance of those intervals most inclined to imply a harmonic centre, however briey. Here is a typical example, the start of one of Anton Weberns many canons -
This is music saturated with semitones, tones, tritones, minor thirds and their inversions, mostly the unstable, dissonant intervals that would have been anathema to the medieval musician, and which played only a supporting role in the building blocks of the tonal harmonic system. While this is worlds away from medieval music in its sound (which is exactly the point) in other respects it is very like its pre-tonal predecessors - despite the avoidance of step-wise motion, regular phrasing and much else that characterised earlier melody, Weberns individual parts have a coherence which this time comes partly from the intensive use of certain motifs and intervals, partly from the fact that the three melodies are transpositions and inversions of each other. In common with the melodies in the older pieces, these have been carefully composed so that they produce a consistent harmonic sound-world, a texture saturated with a carefully chosen, controlled palette of intervals. This is non-functional harmony, but it is harmony.
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In most styles of music, the vertical and horizontal elements derive from the same pool of materials; Dufays heptatonic modes provided the materials for his melodies and his harmonies; Weberns 12-note chromatic set served the same dual function. In both cases, the composers were able to derive both considerable harmonic consistency and variety from their source materials. In some music, the source materials are more limited, and the harmonic possibilities inevitably fewer. Balinese gamelan music, for instance, uses a ve-note scale (Pelog) that is simply not designed to yield harmonic variety, and while there will be a focus on particular notes or pairs of notes from time to time, gamelan textures typically exploit all ve pitches quite freely. The result is not the harmonic mush that you might expect and the overall harmonic sound-world of gamelan music is very particular. You could view such textures as vast arpeggiations of a single ve-note chord. The above is a serious over-simplication, but a useful one, and the seed of a simple but powerful idea that permeates sections and even whole styles of music in the 20th and 21st Centuries; that a collection of pitches chosen for their total harmonic qualities can be rendered as harmonically static patterns and textures. Here are a few bars from Jupiter, from Gustav Holsts Planets Suite, in a twopiano reduction -
This busy texture is a rhythmic arpeggiation of a single non-functional chord including all ve notes of the minor pentatonic scale -
You will nd similar and more elaborate examples of this kind of texture in many twentieth century works, from Debussy onwards. In the second half of
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the century, minimalists Steve Reich & Terry Riley exploited this device many times, and were much imitated. Terry Rileys In C provides many examples - it is made of 53 melodic patterns of varying lengths, performed by any number of players who relate their looping performances of the patterns to a common pulse but dont otherwise attempt to play in time with each other. So long as the players are within a few patterns of each other, which most performances aim to be, the piece is composed in such a way that combinations of adjacent patterns tend to exploit a limited palette of pitches, and the resultant textures are not unlike those in the Holst example, except that, as the players progress through the patterns, the pitch-content of the texture very gradually changes.
Terry Riley \ In C \ patterns 1 - 25
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Patterns 1 to 5, for instance, gradually add C, then E & F, then G. By contrast, patterns 8 - 13 focus on F, G & B in addition to the C pulse - a rather more open, unstable, Balinese-sounding set. Patterns 22 - 28 produce yet another sound-world, a dense, pulsing 6-note chord containing a pile of tones and semitones - E, F#, G, A, B & C. The range of pitch-group types in In C is quite large, exploiting different numbers of pitches, varying interval content and so on, but Rileys preference, in this piece at least, seems to be for diatonic clusters. More tightly controlled applications of this idea will be found in other Terry Riley pieces of the 60s and 70s, and in pieces by Steve Reich such as Music for 18 Musicians, Nagoya Marimbas, Electric Counterpoint etc. but this is an approach to writing at least sections of pieces that reaches back at least as far as Debussy. All the above rarely go beyond heptatonic modes for their source materials, but you should also hear how Gyorgy Ligeti exploits the full chromatic set to produce chromatic clusters (chords built from chromatically adjacent notes). In pieces like Lux Aeterna, the clouds of pitches evolve and shape-shift rather like those in In C, but to quite different effect.
NON FUNCTIONAL HARMONY IN CHORD-BASED MUSIC

I need to preface this next section by saying that individual chords within functional progression can be described as being non-functional. Unstressed chords which link two more signicant chords, for instance, can be thought of in this way. In the following, only the C, D7 and G are functional -
ThIS section, however, focuses on some of the ways in which chords have been used in a non-functional way, while nevertheless providing the harmonic substance of a piece, or part of a piece. Claude Debussy (1862 - 1918) was not the rst to explore such possibilities, but his music was a turning point in this respect and his harmonic style and innovations inuenced generations of serious and popular musicians. There is a great deal more conventional tonality in Debussys work than is often acknowledged but the following are just some of the more obvious nonfunctional harmonic devices that he used.
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It has been said that Schoenberg liberated the dissonance, and that Debussy liberated the consonance. Whoever said this meant that these two composers found themselves able to write music in which dissonance no longer inevitably needed to resolve onto a consonance, and in which even the most consonant chords no longer functioned as mere components in homeseeking progressions - instead, these sounds could exist in their own right, as sounds and sonorities. One way in which Debussy could exploit this was to build whole phrases and sections of pieces from the notes of one chord. The Holst example above is a good example of this device. The Chord-stream Equally characteristic was the device of the chord-stream, in which Debussy would treat a chord as an object to be moved up and down in literal transpositions - in Cathedrale Engloutie, from Debussys First Book of Preludes, that most functional of chords, a dominant 7th, is moved up and down with no regard for keys and tonal centres, and thus rendered powerless.
There are many examples of this device in Debussys music, and it was much used by later composers, but usually using tonally ambiguous chords. Here, for instance, is a chord comprising two perfect fths stacked a semitone apart, being taken for a walk . . . .
Chordal Polyphony Another example from Cathedrale Engloutie shows Debussy doing this kind of thing in two layers (three including the held chord) - the lower layer is a chord made of stacked perfect fths, and the upper layer a perfect fth and a fourth. While the lower layer rocks back and forth, the upper layer describes an independent arc. The combination of the two produces a variety of nonfunctional chords, all exploiting the notes of a single heptatonic mode. It also produces a kind of chordal polyphony, the interweaving of streams of chords
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instead of single pitches - a very fresh thought that can be applied within or without a modal context.
Compound fourths chords As a further example of how similarly structured chords can be derived from a single mode here is a set of chords built from perfect fourths, all derived from E Dorian, followed by a fuller set which also includes two chords built from fourths (but including augmented fourths). This is a set often used by jazz players.
Here, for contrast, is the same chord-structure being moved around without any modal restrictions -
Free modally-derived chords Of course, there is no need to limit yourself to one chord structure whether working modally or not. Here are a variety of chords derived from one mode, a simple A Aeolian.
Other tonally ambiguous chords Chords with added sevenths and ninths etc. are tonally ambiguous, but chords built from seconds, sevenths and fourths are even more so. Indeed, chords can be built from any intervals, any combinations of intervals and any numbers of pitches and there are potentially far, far more tonally ambiguous
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chords than there are chords with clear tonal implications. This must have been one of the attractions for Debussy and Schoenberg - the possibility of exploiting the expressive and coloristic effects of harmonic worlds so far forbidden. The possibilities are so numerous that they cant be listed here, but here are some examples of chord-types typical of certain styles. Line 1 chromatically altered and extended triads typical of mid-century jazz, Debussy etc Line 2 Chords built using tritones, major 7ths and seconds, typical of serial music and post-war experimental and avant-garde music. Line 3 Chords built from 4ths, fths and seconds, typical of some later jazz styles, minimalism etc.
Some jazz applications of non-functional harmonies Although jazz was very clearly tonal at its inception, and essentially remained so for a long time, some jazz composers and players started to develop a language that was so saturated with exotic chords, that the sense of tonality started to collapse. In time, Miles Davis started to explore modal approaches to composition and improvisation, and Herbie Hancock (amongst many others) got interested in other harmonic possibilities. (Theres an interesting parallel with what had happened in Art music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries).
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Here are two extracts from the opening of Miles Davis So What. It starts with a chord-stream that Debussy could have written. In the second line we hear the famous tune for upright bass, with the answering chords for wind and piano - these chords are piles of perfect fourths topped with a note a fth above the root, so distinctive that some jazz players still call this the So What Chord.
And heres Herbie Hancocks Maiden Voyage - this is built entirely on transpositions of an ambiguous 7sus4 chords, and both the composed melody and subsequent improvisations exploit the modes implied by these chords. (Its worth noting that the 7sus4 chords can be interpreted as yet more superimposed fourths, a staple sound of so many recent styles.)
Other scales So far, we have focused on chords and sequences of chords derived from familiar modes and scales, but, partly inspired by his experience of Javanese gamelan, Debussy also explored the possibilities of exotic and invented scales.
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In this respect he is probably most famous for his use of the whole-tone scale. Here are both of the possible versions of this centreless, rootless scale -
And here a few bars of Debussys Voiles (Preludes, Book 1), made entirely of the six notes of the rst version.
Many other scales, from the open-textured, relaxed sound of the pentatonic scales, to the denser, less stable sound of the octatonic, were to be exploited by later composers (Messiaen is a good example), and as the basis of jazz improvisations.
As I said at the head of this section, this is a vast subject that needs a book of its own - try Vincent Persichettis 20th Century Harmony, Creative Aspects & Practice.
. . . . . . . . to be continued!
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If it sounds right, it is right.

Howard Harrison 2008 - 11

Theory Course, 2011 - 10

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HH2011 \ music theory 1 \ scales \ modes \ intervals \ harmony

HOWARD HARRISON 2010

HH2011 \ music theory 1 \ scales \ modes \ intervals \ harmony

If it sounds right, it is right.

HH2011 \ music theory 1 \ scales \ modes \ intervals \ harmony

HOWARD HARRISON 2010

HH2011 \ music theory 1 \ scales \ modes \ intervals \ harmony

THE CHROMATIC SET First Intervals - octave, tone, semitone

HH2011 \ music theory 1 \ scales \ modes \ intervals \ harmony

And more! - CHORD PROGRESSIONS . . . . . .

HH2011 \ music theory 1 \ scales \ modes \ intervals \ harmony

HH2011 \ music theory 1 \ scales \ modes \ intervals \ harmony

HH2011 \ music theory 1 \ scales \ modes \ intervals \ harmony

HH2011 \ music theory 1 \ scales \ modes \ intervals \ harmony

the CHROMATIC SET

We say that A# is the enharmonic equivalent of B. Similarly; F# = G, G# = A, C# = D, D# = E

And here are the two versions written in standard notation -

HH2011 \ music theory 1 \ scales \ modes \ intervals \ harmony

HH2011 \ music theory 1 \ scales \ modes \ intervals \ harmony

HH2011 \ music theory 1 \ scales \ modes \ intervals \ harmony

the MAJOR SCALE

Here, for instance, is the C major scale.

and here is an A at major scale - the sequence of intervals is the same.

HH2011 \ music theory 1 \ scales \ modes \ intervals \ harmony

HH2011 \ music theory 1 \ scales \ modes \ intervals \ harmony

the 12 MAJOR KEYS

HH2011 \ music theory 1 \ scales \ modes \ intervals \ harmony

HH2011 \ music theory 1 \ scales \ modes \ intervals \ harmony

MAJOR KEY SIGNATURES WITH FLATS

HH2011 \ music theory 1 \ scales \ modes \ intervals \ harmony

Natural Minor scales can start on any note, of course -

HH2011 \ music theory 1 \ scales \ modes \ intervals \ harmony

MELODIC & HARMONIC MINOR SCALES

HH2011 \ music theory 1 \ scales \ modes \ intervals \ harmony

The Harmonic Minor

The Melodic Minor

HH2011 \ music theory 1 \ scales \ modes \ intervals \ harmony

RELATIVE MAJOR & MINOR KEYS

HH2011 \ music theory 1 \ scales \ modes \ intervals \ harmony

MINOR KEY SIGNATURES

HH2011 \ music theory 1 \ scales \ modes \ intervals \ harmony

SCALE STEP NAMES

ABSOLUTE & RELATIVE NAMES

HH2011 \ music theory 1 \ scales \ modes \ intervals \ harmony

Sol-fa Doh Re Mi Fa Soh La Ti Doh

HH2011 \ music theory 1 \ scales \ modes \ intervals \ harmony

Dominant - subdominant etc. . . . .

Close & distant relationships

HH2011 \ music theory 1 \ scales \ modes \ intervals \ harmony

THE CIRCLE OF FIFTHS

HH2011 \ music theory 1 \ scales \ modes \ intervals \ harmony

Here is the full set -

HH2011 \ music theory 1 \ scales \ modes \ intervals \ harmony

all-naturals version starts on . .

7 3 & 7 3, 6 & 7 2,3,6 & 7 2, 3, 5, 6 & 7

MODAL KEY SIGNATURES

HH2011 \ music theory 1 \ scales \ modes \ intervals \ harmony

The Major Pentatonic

The Minor Pentatonic & The Blues Scale

Notice that it contains the same notes as C Major Pentatonic.

HH2011 \ music theory 1 \ scales \ modes \ intervals \ harmony

WHOLE TONE & OCTATONIC / DIMINISHED SCALES

The other is the