Harmony Research, Analysis, and Recording Project

Summary

Here i learned about musical harmony. see below.

My First HookTheory Chord Progression  (Harmony)

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ReY3PiVLXYg%3Ffeature%3Doembed
  • Watch this HookTheory Harmony Tutorial
  • Make an 8-measure chord progression
  • Place a screenshot of your 8-measure chords (harmony) from hookpad.hooktheory.com
  • Link to a .mp3 file of your first HookTheory chord progression (harmony) that you exported from hookpad.hooktheory.com
  • Write a brief reflection about this chord progression (harmony).
    • What do you like about it?
  • DELETE ALL OF MR. LE DUC’s INSTRUCTIONS AFTER COMPLETING THEM

Notes from Howard Goodall’s Harmony Video

CueNotes
what about 2 part harmony?
harmony is regarding multiple notes at a time rather than a one note at a time melody.
discord/ dissonance is where a “wrong note” is musically played.
dissonance is used to spice up music.
most cords have a emotion attached to it.

Summary: harmony is a large part of music in every modern genre. and can hold the emotion of a song through the cord progression, despondence, suspense, and augmentation/ diminishing.

Harmony Composition Terms and Definitions

  • Harmony was not originally part of music until the middle ages and the renaissance
  • Harmony sounds like it comes from some other plane of existence (to exaggerate a bit)
  • Harmony in its simplest and oldest form in two notes playing at the same time
  • A drone is a single note that you can sing any melody above. Bagpipes are an instrument that plays a drone.
  • A drone is usually the tonic
  • When people started to move the drone around, it was like the melody and the harmony were parallel lines. As the melody moved up, the drone moved up
  • Triad – 3 notes that come together and create a chord
  • Chord progressions are the backbone of western harmony
  • People discovered the “hierarchy” of chords and created rules to go with these
  • In one note, there are other hidden notes called harmonics
  • Humans can only really pick out three or four harmonics
  • Using the harmonics humans were able to make chords by finding the notes hidden in the harmonics
  • In minor chords, the middle note is a half-step lower than in a major chord
  • Polyphony is when you have a bunch of chords under the melody
  • Polyphony – many “voices”
  • Progression – a certain series of chords or notes that “work together” and sound good
  • Tonic – the first note of a scale “home”
  • Dominant – the fifth note of a scale that raises tension
  • Passimezzo Antico – A chord progression that’s a variation of a double tonic. It was popular during the Italian Renaissance
  • Passimezzo Moderno – “Modern half step” A chord progression that’s a variation of Passimezzo Antico. It divides the section in two and often uses a contrasting progression or section known as ripresi
  • Dischord – a deliberate collision of notes that are meant not to sound “pretty”
  • Dissonance – lack of harmony between notes “a clash”
  • Passing Notes – notes that don’t sound “pretty” but are used a small number of times like they are just “passing through”
  • Suspended Notes – dissonant notes being held for as long as possible and then finally moving at the last second
  • 7th Chords – A regular triad chord plus the note seven steps above the first note
  • Diminished Chords – A regular triad chord with the bottom note being moved up a step
  • Augmented Chords – A regular triad chord with the last note being moved up a step
  • Tonic (1 and 8 chords)
    • Root note creates a feeling of resolution and stability 
  • Supertonic, Mediant, Submediant (2, 3, 6 chords)
    • Moderate tension, useful for transitions 
  • Dominant, Subdominant, Leading Tone (4, 5, 7 chords)
    • Create lots of tension to get to the tonic 

Mr. Le Duc’s Key of C Major Notes and Chords Chart (PDF)

One of My Favorite (Chord Progressions) Harmonies

  • This is without a doubt my favorite progression ever. The progression perfectly captures the emotion a the feel of a James Bond song. especially at the end where the lyrics drop and it plays the infamous chromatic ascending and descending line that is well associated with James bond. another interesting part of the cord progression is it makes seemingly terrible sounding cords sound fantastic like the cord dm7^(b5). dissonance in this song is everywhere as well.

My Second HookTheory Chord Progression (Harmonies)

  • i like that the progression uses some odd cords but still sounds fine.

What I Learned & Problems I Solved

  • i learned how part of how cords are named and used and how to take a normal cord and changing it to give it an emotion.

Grammar and Spelling

  • Write what tool(s) did you use to check your spelling and grammar?
  • DELETE ALL OF MR. LE DUC’s INSTRUCTIONS AFTER COMPLETING THEM

Editor

  • Austin

Resources

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