Harmonize that bass/melody line any way you choose.
Make it in 4/4
Make between 6 and 12 measures long
Make it in a minor, or a harmonic minor, and if you choose to: modulate into the parallel Major (A Major)
Make sure and include at least one of the following items:
III+
ii dim or vii dim
V/V
V7
2, 9. 4, suspension
Thursday, May 21, 2015
Greetings Class,
As you know I've been having trouble with the posts for some reason. On Wednesday I put a melody up on the board. The exercise is the same as last week's except that I am giving you the melody. First of all, don't confuse a melody with a "riff" or a "motive". A melody is generally sung, and it moves through a repetitive sequence that is predictable. To do that it must arrive at certain logical cadences, or "resting/pause" sections within the overall melody. These pauses are points of important harmonic tension or release. Take the song "Yesterday" by the Beatles from the last century. Yesterday.... (pause) Life was such an easy game to play (.....) Now I need a place to hide away (....) Oh I believe in yesterday....(...) In the first line, if you listen to any original recording, you'll hear the harmony change AFTER the word "yesterday" At the end of line 2, you'll hear the harmonic tension rise. At the end of line 3 it resolves, but not completely. At line 4 there are chord changes, harmonic changes, on nearly every syllable that finally resolve to the Tonic I chord. What I gave you was not really a melody, but a melodic idea, that could serve to build a melody around. Harmonize the "melodicule" in at least two different ways. Look at harmonizing it as though it were in Harmonic Minor (changing the next-to-last line in the melodicule to g#), or as in pure minor,(either leaving the note as g naatural, or using b above instead). Explore the possibilities, it should be fun. It's short so you should be able to make several different versions. Keep the exercise in 6/8 and make sure and notate the chords rhythmically correct. Extra points taken off for any micro aggressions.
This is just a little introductory video to a more practical application of chord progression and scale/mode taken directly from the rock genre. We'll be actually spending more time with this next week.
Remember why the Tempered Tuning system came into being in the first place? Recall the old modal system versus the newer Diatonic system that we use?
First, the progression from the extremely simplistic harmonizing strategies to the very sophisticated but practical approach of the gospel/jazz harmonizations.
Second, with what you have learned from the fundamentals we've covered, everything will make sense to you with a little thought. However, you will also notice that you have a great advantage over whoever might be learning from these tutorials; they don't actually get the "big picture" like you should by now.
Why all of this works should start to become apparent to you. Yet the way it is taught below, even to people who have obviously had years of playing (the Gospel tutorial audience), the approach is for actually playing the keyboard or writing voices, but without really understanding very well the background from which all this arose.
So even though most of you have little to no practical performing experience you should still be able to follow the tutorials below even the sophisticated gospel/jazz ones. You've come much further than you may realize.
we noticed that the basic I - IV - V progression, whether in Major or Minor, can be, in a sense "interrupted" by inserting a VI or II chord (major, minor, or even diminished as in the ii or vii), and suddenly there is another exponential increase in variations. Play around withe the progressions on the site and 1. Chose one that particularly appeals to you 2. Come up with a melody line that you think would fit the progression 3. Come up with a meter, or rhythm pattern that you think would sound good with that progression
Come to class Monday, prepared to present, as best you can, the chord progression, melody, and rhythm that you chose.
Talk a little about what guided you in your decision making, why certain things appealed to you, etc.
Notice how you can simply, in a way "interrupt" the I-IV-V progression relationship with secondary chords, often taken right out of the key, and come up with an amazing variety of progressions with very different sounds. And that's without even considering variations in voicing, instrumentation, range, and rhythm
Try the progressions on the site below using "Cliche 1", Major, and Guitar settings. Then make a simple change in either/or the instrument and the mode (major/minor), and see how much diference you can get with a very slight change.
