The_Complete_Idiot%27s_Guide_To_Music_Theory

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188 Part 5: Embellishing Note This chapter presents harmony and counterpoint from a popular music perspective. Classical musicians have a much different—and more formal—take on these concepts. Harmony is vertical. Counterpoint is horizontal. Two Ways to Enhance a Melody Two notes sounded together make a harmonic interval; three or more notes sounded together make a chord; and two or more melodies sounded together make counterpoint. Intervals and chords are used to construct harmony; counterpoint exists as separate melodic lines. Another way to think of it is that harmony is a vertical (up and down) combination of notes, whereas counterpoint operates horizontally (side to side). In reality, harmony and counterpoint are related concepts; both involve “vertical” combinations of notes and both involve a “horizontal” movement of individual voices or instruments. Still, harmony is more about singing or playing parts of a chord; counterpoint is more about creating a second (or third or fourth) melody line—albeit one that adheres to the underlying harmonic structure. Note Technically, the study of harmony includes chords and chord progressions—basically, anything that combines two or more notes simultaneously. Because we already covered this basic material in Chapters 9 and 10, in this chapter we’re covering the use of multiple voices or instruments to enhance melodies, based on the underlying harmonic structure (chord progression) of a piece of music.
Living in Harmony Harmony is like playing chords behind a melody, only using other instruments or voices. In fact, the art of adding chords to a melody is a harmonic exercise. We add harmony parts to our music because harmony lends richness to a song. It fills out a single melody line and reinforces the underlying chord structure. A melody with backing harmonies is the difference between a solo vocalist and a full chorus. It’s the difference between a folk singer with an acoustic guitar and a pop singer with a group of backup vocalists. It’s the difference between a jazz trio and a big band. In other words, harmony makes music bigger. You create harmony parts by using the notes in the underlying chord progression. If all you do is assign specific notes of a chord to specific instruments or voices, you’ve created harmony. It doesn’t have to be much harder than that. Harmony parts, whether vocal or instrumental, are typically less rhythmically complex than the main melody. It’s not uncommon to find harmony parts consisting of whole notes or half notes while the melody maintains a more complex rhythm. Harmony parts can also mirror the rhythm of the melody; in these instances, the harmony resembles classical counterpoint—which you’ll learn about later in this chapter. Harmony can also be used to punctuate the melody, fill in breaks in the melody, and function as a kind of call-and-response mechanism. (Think of the classic pop tune “Midnight Train to Georgia”; Gladys Knight is the call and the Pips are the response—woo woo!) In terms of harmonic complexity, you can have everything from a single accompanying voice to choruses and string sections with two and three and more voices. <strong>The</strong> more voices you have, the more challenging it is to create distinct harmony parts without doubling or duplicating other parts. Of course, writing a single harmony part is also challenging, but in a different way; that single part has to include just the right notes, suggesting the underlying chord without distracting from the main melody. For the purposes of learning basic theory, we’re going to concentrate on simple two- and three-part backing harmony, without a lot of rhythmic or melodic complexity. Once you master this type of rudimental harmony, you can expand to include more complex types of vocal and instrumental backing. Voicing and Inversions <strong>The</strong> order of the notes of a chord (top to bottom) is referred to as the chord voicing. (It’s also called the chord inversion, as you learned in Chapter 9.) Voicing is very important when you’re writing harmony parts, because you have to employ different voicings to avoid parallel motion between parts. Chapter 15: Harmony and Counterpoint 189
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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
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118 Part 3: Tunes Minor seventh cho
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120 Part 3: Tunes Seventh, ninth, a
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122 Part 3: Tunes Note In classical
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124 Part 3: Tunes Changing chords i
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126 Part 3: Tunes Exercise 9-3 Writ
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128 Part 3: Tunes Let’s use the k
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130 Part 3: Tunes Note These exampl
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132 Part 3: Tunes Let’s put toget
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134 Part 3: Tunes Note In classical
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136 Part 3: Tunes I-ii-IV-V This pr
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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 and 192: Accompanying Melodies In This Chapt
Page 193 and 194: A chord sheet—no melody. Working
Page 195 and 196: Block Chord Accompaniment The easie
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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
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Page 207 and 208: or hold to their original pitches.
Page 209: 5 Part Embellishing Discover how to
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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
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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
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Page 242 and 243: 218 Part 5: Embellishing Tip If you
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Page 251 and 252: Voice Range (Concert Pitch) Write I
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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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