As the name implies, a chord substitution involves using a chord in place of another. However, it is not just any chord as usually the substitute chord replaces the original one in respect to its function in a given harmonic… Read More »A Simple Guide for Chord Substitutions
These next concepts will crucial to understand not only tonal harmony but also to understand how we can use this knowledge to escape the tonal pull exerted by certain chord types and instead work in an atonal or modal context.… Read More »The Importance of the Tritone in Harmony
We perceive sound as a whole but even if the fundamentals of that sound are not present (1st and 2nd overtones, etc.); our brain can still reconstruct the fundamental tone. However, if we continue to remove the following overtones, gradually… Read More »The Close Relationship Between Tonic and Fifth
There is much more to say about rhythm than what I will be exposing in this post. However, I am assuming that you already know enough about rhythm figures, meter and pulse, to follow along. Depending on certain music genres,… Read More »Rhythm and Music Expression
The chromaticism of the nineteenth century diluted the tonal system in such a way that it was only natural that the system would eventually be abandoned altogether. This new music without a tonal center, that was weakened or lost, eventually… Read More »Atonality
In tonal music, a key center is the pitch or chord around which the music revolves, like a home base where you want to return to. It is important to distinguish that being in the key of C major doesn’t… Read More »What Are Key Centers?
A harmonic movement from one chord to another is called a chord progression and a cadence is a harmonic device that refers to the form of ending a musical thought. Cadences may appear in the end of a phrase or… Read More »Harmonic Cadences
A cluster is a chord built by at least three adjacent tones of a scale. In this form they are similar to chords by seconds as the adjacent tones usually correspond to second intervals as clusters can be based on… Read More »Clusters
Polychords may be built with materials from different tonalities, modes, synthetic scales, etc; and then such materials are explored according to musical context and intentions of the composer. But the provenance of materials for polychordal and polyharmonic technique is not… Read More »Polychords and the Harmonic Series
A polychord consists of two or more chords played together and such chords may be originated from the same or different tonalities – usually the latter is applied. Generally, the used chord in the polychord structures must be perceived independently,… Read More »Polychords
As we have chords by thirds (or 6th), chords by fourths (or fifths), we also have chords built by stacking seconds (or sevenths). Mind you that the fact that a chord by thirds or fourths has seconds in it, doesn’t… Read More »Chords by Seconds
Also referred to as quartal or quintal harmony when the chords are built by stacking fourths or fifths, respectively. These chords don’t need to have these intervals exclusively, as long as fourths or fifths predominate, they are still considered as… Read More »Chords by Fourths and Fifths
The construction of this scale basically consists on adding a b6 on a major scale that unlike the bebop major scale, with similar construction, is treated as a scale degree and not simply as a passing tone: The addition of… Read More »The 6th Diminished Scale
Learning how to harmonize a scale is a procedure that will allow you to figure out the possible chord formations as a consequence of using the notes from that tonality. In order to do so you just… Read More »How to Harmonize Scales
Now that you have a good idea of how each mode sounds and considering that we are dealing with modes from within the same tonality, it is time see how they relate to each other in terms of feel and… Read More »Darkest to Brightest Modes
As the name suggests, these are chords that approach a target chord (that being a tonic chord or any other), by a movement of a half-step either from above or below. Normally, the approach chord will be of the same… Read More »The Usefulness of Chromatic Approach Chords
Also known as Dodecaphony, the twelve-tone technique is a method of musical composition devised by Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg, as an aftermath of “free atonality”, as a way to replace the structural differentiations present in the tonal system. The core… Read More »Twelve-Tone Music
With the harmonic scale, we run into an augmented 2nd interval between the 6th and 7th degree. The idea behind the construction of the melodic scale is so that the melodic ascension towards the tonic is smoother by raising the… Read More »The Melodic Minor Scale and Modes
Chords aren’t always played in their root position, like a C major with the notes C E and G in this order. While remaining the same, the notes of the chord may change places for practical reasons that may relate… Read More »Chord Inversions
Because a scale is a collection of notes that divide the octave into a certain number of steps, I previously implied that you could create your own scale materials. When you do so, my only advice is that the process… Read More »Synthetic Scale Formations
