The_Complete_Idiot%27s_Guide_To_Music_Theory

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168 Part 4: Accompanying Working from a Lead Sheet A typical lead sheet—melody and chord symbols. Note Learn more about lead sheets and other types of arrangements in Chapter 19. Here’s the 411: You’re given a sheet of music that includes the melody and the chords—what musicians call a lead sheet. It will look something like this: With this lead sheet in hand, what do you play? The temptation for many novice musicians is to play the melody with your right hand and form the chords with your left hand. You should resist this temptation. When you read a lead sheet, the melody (also known as the lead) is provided for your reference only. Unless you’re playing solo piano in a cocktail bar, you’re not expected to play the melody—except, maybe, during instrumental breaks. No, what you’re expected to play are the chords—along with any kind of embellishment or harmony you can create to play behind the melody. But the main thing you need from this situation is to play the chords, which you have—printed in big, bold letters on your lead sheet. Play the chords themselves with your right hand, while you play the root note of the chord (the bass line) with your left hand. That’s all you have to play, and it isn’t hard at all. Tip When you’re playing chords with your right hand, try to avoid playing every chord in the standard 1-3-5 inversion. Try different inversions— different voicings—to better group the notes from adjacent chords together. (Turn back to Chapter 9 for more information on chord inversions.) For example, if you’re alternating between the C and the F chord, you might play the C chord C-E-G, but then play the F chord C-F-A (first inversion), which lets you leave your thumb on the C note for both chords. Working from a Chord Sheet A chord sheet is like a lead sheet, but without the melody written out. Working from a chord sheet is just like working from a lead sheet—play the chords with your right hand and the root of the chord with your left. A typical chord sheet looks like this:
A chord sheet—no melody. Working from a Melody Sometimes you get the melody (in the form of a lead sheet) without chords. All you have to go from is the melody—no chords, no bass line, no anything else. A melody sheet—no chords. What do you do now? First, don’t panic. Second, remember back to Chapter 10, in which you learned how to create a chord progression based on a melodic line. That is the skill from which you need to draw now. Take the melody you were given and go off by yourself for a half-hour or so. Play the melody on the piano, and try to figure out what chords sound good with that melody. If it’s a familiar song, the chords might come easily to you; if you’ve never heard the song before, you have your work cut out for you. In any case, apply the rules you learned back in Chapter 10, and write out your own chord progression for this melody. Tip When you’re trying to figure out the chords behind a melody, there are several different approaches you can take. The best approach, as you learned in Chapter 10, is to try some common chord progressions. See if I-IV-V fits the melody; if not, try I-ii-V, or I-vi-IV-V, or the “circle of fifths” progression. Chances are, one of the common chord progressions will fit—or at least come close. The key thing here is that the chords you write are now your chords. Even if they’re not quite the established chords for this melody, you can get away with it by claiming that this is your unique harmonization. You’re at the piano, and you’re in charge, so what you play must be right! Now, if you’re playing along with other musicians—perhaps a bass player or a guitarist—you don’t want to end up with three different sets of chords to this single melody. If you’re playing in a group, put your heads together and work out the chord progressions as a group. Heck, maybe one of you actually knows Chapter 13: Accompanying Melodies 169
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Music Theory Second Edition by Mich
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Contents at a Glance Part 1: Tones
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Contents Part 1: Tones 1 1 Pitches
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Finding Your Way ..................
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Instrumental Solo .................
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Good Keys and Bad Keys ............
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During the summer of 2001, I taught
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xvi The Complete Idiot’s Guide to
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xviii The Complete Idiot’s Guide
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xx The Complete Idiot’s Guide to
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xxii The Complete Idiot’s Guide t
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Pitches and Clefs In This Chapter
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Some instruments produce a broader
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If you’re reading ahead and want
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Notes on a Piano Keyboard A good wa
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Above—and Below—the Staff The b
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The grand staff looks like this: Th
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Exercises Exercise 1-1 Write the na
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Intervals In This Chapter ◆ Chang
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Two half steps equal one whole step
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Major and Minor Intervals When you
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Beyond the Octave You don’t have
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And take special note of those inte
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Scales In This Chapter ◆ Putting
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The Intervals of the Major Scale No
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Tip When you’re playing a piece o
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Scale Notes D minor D-sharp minor E
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Scale Notes E minor F minor F-sharp
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Scale Notes F minor F-sharp minor G
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The Intervals of the Ionian Note Ha
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F Lydian mode is relative to the ke
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B Locrian is relative to the key of
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Major and Minor Keys In This Chapte
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Key Key Signature and Scale D Major
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Same as This Scale Notes Major Key
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Accidents Will Happen When you assi
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How to change to the key of C. The
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2 Part Rhythms You don’t have to
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58 Part 2: Rhythms Taking the Measu
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60 Part 2: Rhythms Definition A not
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62 Part 2: Rhythms How to count var
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64 Part 2: Rhythms Tip Another way
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66 Part 2: Rhythms Exercise 5-4 Wri
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68 Part 2: Rhythms Note Classical m
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70 Part 2: Rhythms When you have an
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72 Part 2: Rhythms Tip In most musi
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74 Part 2: Rhythms Exercises Exerci
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Tempo, Dynamics, and Navigation In
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Italian Tempo Terms Tempo Means …
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When you see a fermata, hold the no
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Two accent marks and a marcato. Mor
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Another navigation technique uses a
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writing lots of individual measures
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3 Part Tunes Discover how to put to
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92 Part 3: Tunes The complete melod
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94 Part 3: Tunes The melody for Bac
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96 Part 3: Tunes Definition A passi
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98 Part 3: Tunes A four-measure mel
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100 Part 3: Tunes A simple four-not
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102 Part 3: Tunes Note Ironically,
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104 Part 3: Tunes Simplifying a rhy
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106 Part 3: Tunes You can achieve t
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108 Part 3: Tunes Note See Chapter
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110 Part 3: Tunes Exercise 8-3 Comp
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112 Part 3: Tunes Note The notes of
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114 Part 3: Tunes Note In this and
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116 Part 3: Tunes Chord Extensions
Page 142 and 143: 118 Part 3: Tunes Minor seventh cho
Page 144 and 145: 120 Part 3: Tunes Seventh, ninth, a
Page 146 and 147: 122 Part 3: Tunes Note In classical
Page 148 and 149: 124 Part 3: Tunes Changing chords i
Page 150 and 151: 126 Part 3: Tunes Exercise 9-3 Writ
Page 152 and 153: 128 Part 3: Tunes Let’s use the k
Page 154 and 155: 130 Part 3: Tunes Note These exampl
Page 156 and 157: 132 Part 3: Tunes Let’s put toget
Page 158 and 159: 134 Part 3: Tunes Note In classical
Page 160 and 161: 136 Part 3: Tunes I-ii-IV-V This pr
Page 162 and 163: 138 Part 3: Tunes Note The blues pr
Page 164 and 165: 140 Part 3: Tunes Old Johann was ab
Page 166 and 167: 142 Part 3: Tunes Writing a Melody
Page 168 and 169: 144 Part 3: Tunes Exercise 10-5 Cre
Page 170 and 171: 146 Part 3: Tunes Parts of a Song W
Page 172 and 173: 148 Part 3: Tunes Tip When you have
Page 174 and 175: 150 Part 3: Tunes ◆ Mass A vocal
Page 176 and 177: 152 Part 3: Tunes Exercises Exercis
Page 179 and 180: 12 Chapter Transcribing What You He
Page 181 and 182: Listening—Actively Before we get
Page 183 and 184: Hearing Intervals Lesson 2, Track 1
Page 185 and 186: Interval Song-Specific Phrase Major
Page 187 and 188: many measures long the melody is, a
Page 189 and 190: Exercises Exercise 12-1 Play each o
Page 191: Accompanying Melodies In This Chapt
Page 195 and 196: Block Chord Accompaniment The easie
Page 197 and 198: The benefit of this approach is tha
Page 199 and 200: Once you’ve figured out the chord
Page 201 and 202: 14 Chapter Transposing to Other Key
Page 203 and 204: These scenarios are more common tha
Page 205 and 206: The chord progression transposed to
Page 207 and 208: or hold to their original pitches.
Page 209: 5 Part Embellishing Discover how to
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Page 214 and 215: 190 Part 5: Embellishing A common c
Page 216 and 217: 192 Part 5: Embellishing Making Har
Page 218 and 219: 194 Part 5: Embellishing Definition
Page 220 and 221: 196 Part 5: Embellishing The lower
Page 222 and 223: 198 Part 5: Embellishing Avoid exte
Page 224 and 225: 200 Exercises Part 5: Embellishing
Page 227 and 228: Chord Substitutions and Turnarounds
Page 229 and 230: Altering the Bass Here’s another
Page 231 and 232: Replacing the I chord (C Major) wit
Page 233 and 234: Substitution Example (for the G7 ch
Page 235 and 236: Turnaround Example (in C) I-♭III-
Page 237: Exercise 16-6 Add a two-measure tur
Page 240 and 241: 216 Part 5: Embellishing Definition
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218 Part 5: Embellishing Tip If you
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220 Part 5: Embellishing What’s c
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222 Part 5: Embellishing Exercise 1
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18 Chapter Composing and Arranging
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Voice Range (Concert Pitch) Write I
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Brass Brass instruments typically a
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Transposition Range Sounds Instrume
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listed (they’re grouped by family
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Instrument Range (Concert Pitch) Wr
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Instrument Range (Concert Pitch) Wr
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Exercises Chapter 18: Composing and
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Lead Sheets and Scores In This Chap
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Make It Simple Even simpler than th
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A typical chord sheet. Chapter 19:
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A four-part choral arrangement. Jaz
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A score for big band. Note A marchi
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A score for full orchestra. Chapter
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Today, thanks to computer technolog
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The Least You Need to Know ◆ Lead
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Performing Your Music In This Chapt
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That means you need to know a littl
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3 1 Conducting in three. Finding th
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Just because you’re done with thi
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The Complete Idiot’s Music Glossa
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The Complete Idiot’s Music Glossa
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key A combination of a tonic and a
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pitch The highness or lowness of a
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transposition Translating pitch. tr
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276 Appendix B
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Answers to Chapter Exercises Here a
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Exercise 2-3 Exercise 2-4 Exercise
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Chapter 4 Answers to Chapter Exerci
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Exercise 5-7 Exercise 5-8 Chapter 6
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Exercise 9-7 Exercise 9-8 Chapter 1
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Exercise 14-2 Exercise 14-3 Exercis
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Exercise 17-7 Chapter 18 Exercise 1
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294 Appendix D 11. Lesson Two: Inte
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296 Appendix D 31. A 32. C 33. G 34
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298 Appendix D Scale Exercises (Tra
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300 Appendix D Melody Exercises (Tr
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302 Appendix D Chord Exercises (Tra
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Index Symbols/Numbers I chord, 130-
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preparations, 257-258 rehearsal rou
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Lydian mode, 40-41 lyrics melodies,
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performing music, conducting 2/2 ti
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tacet (dynamic marking), 83 tempo,
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