harmonies

[Brian Cooper]

howdy y'all OK simple question I hope, or at least I'd like to keep it simple. OK been learning about triads, and sevenths. I get the idea of augmented, and diminished, but is that all there is to it? Oh yeah minors as well, but I haven't learned much about them yet. So inside a key there are 7 other possible chords? And well how do you figure which way to go? I've been using my bass to figure out the basic pattern, and build chords accordingly. So is this a good way? I'm sure it's not the only way so thats where I need y'alls help what else can I do? Thanks ahead of time HOSS

[Tyler Hughes]

You have a lot of question packed into that some paragraph, makes it a little harder to tackle what exactly is confusing you.

It sounds like you havent gotten to chord functions yet. In Diatonic Functional Harmony, all chords have a function and wish to go to another. Chord progressions are a play between tension and resolution. The function of you diminished chords is to resolve to a more stable major or minor chord.

This is true for all seven chords in a key, using roman numerals i can show you (if you remember that link I shared with you before, they cover roman numerals)

 

You have your I chord or your tonic, which is the center of all this. When it starts a piece it can go to anything.

 

You have your wild card chord III your mediant chord. I can act as a stepping stone to the next set of chords

 

Your pre-dominant chords which are your ii and you IV chords. They prep us for the next set of chords

 

The dominant chord are your V and viio chords. They set everything to go back to the tonic or I chord.

 

SO a chord progression could look like this

 

I, iii, IV, viio, I

 

Of course this is just the simplest of chord progressions, the more you look into this and study the more complex they can become.

 

For more links check out this thread, it may help clear up any other question you may have:

http://composersforum.ning.com/forum/topics/the-growing-composer-li...

[Brian Cooper]

I do remember it I have learned a lot from it, and have it bookmarked. that particular part though is a little confusing. Your heading the right way as far as what I'm looking for. I can hear chord changes naturally when I play bass. I guess I'm just afraid I'm missing something new or different by only hearing what I want rather than what is available. Does that make sense? HOSS

[Doug Lauber]

A fun exercise is to invent a melody comprised mostly of eighth notes.

Next, invent a four-note chord for each eighth note. Try various instrumentations or just use

one instrument, like a piano or strings... 

[Spiros Makris]

may I add to the above that you can open a random piece of (instrumental-and my choice would be classical) music, take a theme that doesnt modulate (change key) and add some chords below. You can even take a piece unknown to you, so that your memory doesn't interfere... A good source of sheet music is www.imslp.org , you will find tons of royalty free sheets to study.

There are also books for harmony with excercises-themes that you have to put chords to. You can propably find one at a local library.

Study the links Tyler posted and then try each thing you learn, try different thing for the same role and see how they work.

 

[Jonas Aras]

Although it is important to have a grasp of tonal/functional harmony, writing in keys is a "box" that you should break out of as soon as possible. 

For me, studying Lyle Murphy's Equal Interval System (EIS) has been instrumental in understanding the architecture of music in a completely new and original basis.  I think of it as the "unified field theory of music" in that EIS confirms all the stuff that is found in the traditional/tonal systems and yet it is not limited by key centers right from the very beginning.