{"id":14,"date":"2010-02-25T15:16:50","date_gmt":"2010-02-25T15:16:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.joesamuel.co.uk\/?p=14"},"modified":"2011-01-18T22:23:09","modified_gmt":"2011-01-18T22:23:09","slug":"seechord-a-new-approach-to-music-harmony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.joesamuel.co.uk\/wordpress\/2010\/02\/25\/seechord-a-new-approach-to-music-harmony\/","title":{"rendered":"SeeChord-A new approach to music harmony"},"content":{"rendered":"

J.Samuel<\/span><\/p>\n

Seechord.co.uk<\/span><\/p>\n

A New approach to understanding harmony.<\/span><\/p>\n

The \u201crules\u201d of harmony have consistently provided some of the greatest teaching and learning challenges in music.\u00a0 Even simple chord progressions can become dauntingly complex with the addition of a few extra notes, a different chord or a change of key.<\/p>\n

Notating chords as text or Roman numerals can give us some insight into the patterns that are inherent in all music, but quickly become cumbersome and often more confusing than the written music itself.<\/p>\n

SeeChord is trying to change all that.\u00a0 Using simple visual patterns to represent the harmony of a piece, the user can quickly identify certain important features of a piece of music that stand out as being conventional, or that break the \u201crules\u201d of harmony.<\/p>\n

A SeeChord chart is basically a graph, the root notes of the chords are laid out on the y-axis in fifths, time in bars and beats on the x-axis.\u00a0 An empty bar of a chart looks like this:<\/p>\n

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So, why are the chords laid out in fifths on the x-axis?\u00a0 Well, it comes down to the fact that a fifth (C-G or G-D) is probably the most important interval there is in music.\u00a0 Mathematically, a G resonates at 1.5 the frequency of the C below it.\u00a0 Our are are finely tuned to pick up these relationships and so we hear a C and a G as \u201cconsonant\u201d.\u00a0 Detune the G slightly and our ears pick up a nasty \u201cdissonance\u201d as this relationship is warped.<\/p>\n

Likewise, a C resonates at 1.5 the frequency of the F below it, and so F and G are the most closely related notes to C.<\/p>\n

A circle of fifths has traditionally been used to illustrate the movement of harmony.\u00a0 Here, the simple progression C-dm-G-C can be seen represented with arrows:<\/p>\n

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Problems quickly arise with longer sequences of chords as the circle becomes cluttered with lines.\u00a0 We certainly could not represent the harmony of an entire song or piece as the result would be unintelligible!\u00a0 On a SeeChord chart, the sequence looks like this.<\/p>\n

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Different symbols have been used to represent different types of chords as below:<\/p>\n

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The symbols have been joined up with simple lines to provide a little more visual clarity.\u00a0 Now we can easily extend this sequence for as long as we like.\u00a0 Let us look at the first 11 bars of this piece, which is The First Prelude from the first book of\u00a0 The Well Tempered Clavier by J.S.Bach.<\/p>\n

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Now we can start to build up a picture of how the harmony is moving in this piece without getting bogged down in chord symbols.\u00a0 Let us do some analysis of this simple and beautiful chord sequence. You can see a similar analysis online and hear the music being played at http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=JE5penT5_e0<\/p>\n

This piece is in the key of C major and as we would expect, C is the first chord (the chord is split into an arpeggiated pattern in the actual music).\u00a0 After a small journey through dm and G7, we return to C.\u00a0 This is a way of establishing the tonic<\/em> which gives us the sense that we really are at home in C.<\/p>\n

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Next, we can see a pattern that occurs in almost every piece of music at some point; a sequence of falling fifths.\u00a0 SeeChord highlights this pattern very well as the graph literally falls down through the chords.<\/p>\n

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Finally, at the end of the phrase, we can see a temporary modulation<\/em> into the key of G.\u00a0 It is only temporary as soon afterwards, the music returns to C again.<\/p>\n

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It is important to notice how this modulation or key change has been achieved.\u00a0 The new key is established with a perfect cadence<\/em> D7-G.\u00a0 This is the most convincing way of arriving at a new key.\u00a0 However, this cadence is really three chords, am-D7-G.\u00a0 The am chord strengthens this key change even more.\u00a0 This is often referred to as a ii-V-I, but is really easy to see on the chart.<\/p>\n

This kind of analysis is made simple by being able to see entire pieces on a SeeChord chart.\u00a0 Modulations, recurring themes, harmonic sequences and much more can be explored just by pointing out visual patters that leap from the page.<\/p>\n

However complex the music, SeeChord can give insight into its structure.\u00a0 Let\u2019s look at this excerpt from Prokofiev\u2019s Classical symphony.\u00a0 Again, to see this while hearing the music, visit http:\/\/www.seechord.co.uk\/resources\/topics\/cadences\/.<\/p>\n

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This example starts with a perfect cadence in the tonic of D.<\/p>\n

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Then we have two interrupted cadences<\/em>.\u00a0 These cadences occur when we expect the music to fall to the tonic as in the perfect cadence, but it goes somewhere else instead.\u00a0 In this example, the first goes to bmin, the second to G.<\/p>\n

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The grey arrows indicate where the ear expect the music to go.\u00a0 Finally, we are treated to the same perfect cadence that this section began with, giving a very satisfying sense of completion.<\/p>\n

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If we were to write out this passage in conventional chord notation, it would look like this:<\/p>\n

A7-D, A7-bmin, A7-G, A7-D.<\/p>\n

Or in Roman Numerals:<\/p>\n

V7-I, V7-vi, V7-IV, V7-I.<\/p>\n

The SeeChord chart really brings these to life. \u00a0Now we see the cadence structure of this passage and can discuss, teach or simply listen with a more educated ear to the beauty of Prokofiev\u2019s writing.<\/p>\n

SeeChord is already being used in Secondary schools to help students enter more meaningfully into the complex world of harmony.\u00a0 Song writers are using it to develop more interesting progressions, or to emulate their heroes.\u00a0 Composers can really construct beautiful harmonic sequences and negotiate tricky modulations by writing with a SeeChord chart close to hand.<\/p>\n

If you would like to know more about SeeChord, visit our website seechord.co.uk and see what it can do for you or email info@seechord.co.uk<\/a> with your questions.\u00a0 I hope we can provide a more meaningful musical experience for you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

J.Samuel Seechord.co.uk A New approach to understanding harmony. The \u201crules\u201d of harmony have consistently provided some of the greatest teaching and learning challenges in music.\u00a0 Even simple chord progressions can become dauntingly complex with the addition of a few extra … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joesamuel.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joesamuel.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joesamuel.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joesamuel.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joesamuel.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.joesamuel.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54,"href":"https:\/\/www.joesamuel.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14\/revisions\/54"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joesamuel.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joesamuel.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joesamuel.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}