How to Manage Chords - Harmony in Music I
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This video is the beginning of your learning how musical harmony works, of learning about the nuts and bolts of chords, about how chords interact with each other.
In much music, past and present, CHORDS are a way of expressing musical harmony, and HARMONY is one of the principal elements of music. So learning how to manage chords is important! Now, there are other ways of creating musical harmony besides chords, but we'll start with chords, because they're familiar.
So, what are chords? and how do chords work? and How do you know which chords to use in a piece of music, or in a song you are writing?
Without getting too technical about it, a chord, or harmony, occurs whenever two or more musical tones are sung or played together: What we heard just now, was actually two identical chords, played one after the other. [mus] There they go again.
[mus] A Triad is a chord in which we hear THREE tones sounding together, and a Seventh Chord (7th chord) has FOUR tones. [mus]
A triad is constructed by taking one tone as a root - a foundation - and adding two tones above it, respectively, at the intervals of a third and fifth. [mus] In another video, I talk more about thirds, and fifths, and sevenths.
Triads having one or more dissonant intervals are Dependent Chords. Seventh Chords are another category of Dependent Chords. Triads composed exclusively of consonant intervals are Independent Chords. I explain Intervals, consonance, and dissonance, and also discuss seventh chords, and much more about triads, in other videos. After watching those, you may want to come back to review this one.
Dissonant intervals introduce musical tension into a chord. The diminished 5th interval, and the 7th intervals, are dissonant. While the audio isolates the dissonant intervals of each chord, brackets indicate the two notes comprising each dissonant interval. The tension you hear is produced by the interaction of the musical tones in those intervals. [mus]
A Dependent chord sounds exactly like what it is: a triad or 7th chord having one or more dissonant intervals which create tension. The tension is not released until the harmony progresses to an Independent chord; the Dependent chord thus “depends” on an Independent chord to resolve its tension.
Triads containing NO tense, dissonant intervals sound relaxed. That’s why they are Independent triads.
[mus] Here, the musical harmony passes through more than one Dependent chord.
[mus] It is only after the music arrives at an Independent Triad, that the tension is released.[mus]
[mus] That is an example of a series of Dependent Chords, that eventually resolve into an Independent Chord. It demonstrates how the concept of Dependent and Independent Chords apply in a popular music style; after hearing several Dependent 7th chords in series, an Independent Triad finally releases the tension. [mus]
[mus] A promotional trailer creates anticipation for an upcoming movie, to make you want to go to the theater.
[mus] Whether you end up liking the film, or are disappointed, your finally going to see the actual movie “resolves” the anticipation aroused by the teaser – and anticipation is another form of tension. Incidentally, if the movie trailer reveals too much plot information, it defuses the tension too soon. We call that a “spoiler” because it spoils our anticipation of the film. Bad trailer!
The movie itself is certainly independent of its trailer. Once you buy your ticket and are sitting in that theatre with your popcorn, soda, or snacks, you usually want to stay there, until the show is over.
[mus] On a smaller scale, an Independent triad works similarly: a chord of stability, a destination, a release of tension, a chord that feels less “dependent” on, less need for another chord to follow it. This is because an Independent chord contains no dissonant intervals, but only consonant intervals, which create no tension. There is no “itch” to leave, or to move on.
(!)
Furthermore, the video you are watching right now is, in a sense, a “Dependent Video” because it DOES NOT present ALL the information you need to understand these concepts!
[mus] For at least some of you watching, this intentional lack of info creates tension, because you need a more detailed explanation of these concepts in order to really understand them—so you are dependent on ME to deliver the needed info.
To shed more light on this topic, I am planning an “Independent video” or two, resolving questions that come up while watching this one. That presentation should explain more completely the concepts of chords, and the different types of intervals with which chords are constructed—For now, let’s say that Intervals are the musical materials used in building chords. So don't worry. Just consider this video as a “teaser” of sorts, albeit an informative one. Now, before I conclude, I want to talk about an important method for you to use while learning all this stuff. Something practical that you can do, that will really help crystalize in your mind all these abstract concepts. And that is …
TRANSCRIBING – A lot can be learned about poetry by copying poems by hand, word for word. In the same way, one can learn a lot about music by copying music, note-for-note, BY HAND.
That process is called “transcribing” and some of the world's best poets and composers perfected their craft by copying what other experienced artists had already written.
Their purpose was NOT to plagiarize or steal another artist’s work, but for their own benefit. TO LEARN! Therefore, some presentations feature a transcription assignment, for those who really want to learn how to compose!
If you have pre-lined music staff paper, well and good. You can even make your own, by using a sheet of legal-sized paper. By simply darkening sets of 5-lines to produce a makeshift musical staff, you can then make photocopies of as many as you need.
For this installment, I want you to do your best to copy – transcribe – the music, to your paper, exactly as you see here. USE PENCIL, and a straight-edge! Music notation software does exist - and it’s okay with me if you prefer to use that - there are, however, advantages to learning with the hands on, pencil-to-the-paper approach.
If you can also play piano a little, by all means find and play these same notes and chords on a piano keyboard, as this will help further imbed this information in your brain. But don’t worry if you cannot play the piano. YET! FYI a series of presentations introducing piano keyboard technique, for composers and songwriters, is in the works—Now, how is that for a teaser!
There are the same chords again, now shown as piano keyboard positions. Do you remember which chords are Independent, and which ones are Dependent?
Finally, copy these vocabulary words, look them up, and add their definitions to your paper.
As the French say, “ C’est en forgeant que l’on devient forgeron ” !
There you have it, for now. Subscribe for updates on future videos, and share with anyone who wants to learn more about this topic.
Are YOU ready?
IMAGE AND OTHER CREDITS
Movie theatre interior photo, courtesy of Richardson Productions: http://rpstudios.net
Darth Vader image (mods and commercial use allowed): https://flic.kr/p/5Rj5s7
puzzled cat (mods and commercial use allowed): https://flic.kr/p/7zp86n
Image of legal pad (mods and commercial use allowed): https://flic.kr/p/aV1rG8
Link to creative commons license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/
Note: changes in formatting may have been made to some of the above images, such as brightness, contrast, size, etc.
FYI
A number of college-level music fundamentals and music theory textbooks contain the same information as presented here. In addition, in this project, I will call attention to conceptual points gleaned from a couple of 19th century textbooks, now in Public Domain.
One of those “old books” is Manual of Harmony by German composer and theorist Salomon Jadassohn, from whom I have adopted the terminology of, and distinction between, “Independent” and “Dependent” chords, as well as the general order of presentation for the musical concepts in my series.
Link to YouTube video on "Music Fundamentals, Part 1":
Link to our original video, uploaded to my YouTube channel on April, 2016:
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