Harmonic Vocabulary

In all my composing efforts, I feel my weakest point is my harmonic vocabulary. Obviously, I can write something 100% diatonic, or classical 1,5 sort of thing, but I find it hard to connect chords, and where to go with my ideas. My birthday is coming up quickly and if anyone can recommend any books for this sort of thing please do. I feel like I want to be so much more complex and flexible harmonically.

I suck at explaining stuff, but maybe a few will get what I mean. Any books or anything else would be great, specially if someone is speaking from selfexperiance with a book, or website, or whatever.

Thanks,

Scott

'Harmony' by Walter Piston, the book I studied harmony from, I strongly recommend it.

My birthday soon too :) I too am hoping for some more textbooks ;)

thanks...

i'll look it up

thanks alot :)

Remember though that a book doesn't do the work for you. If you haven't a teacher (in the UK, finding a secondary school teacher who can even teach this stuff grows increasingly rare), be sure to play through every example, mess around with it, play your answers to the questions.

Increasing harmonic vocabulary means learning how to enrich progressions so you have to learn how to move from simple chord sequences to more interesting ones. Like moving from I to ii in a major key can be achieved just by doing that: following chord I by chord ii - or you can get to chord ii with passing notes or a passing modulation via VI7 (which also gets you out of some pitfalls in traditional harmony).

To do all this in a convincing way takes a bit of time and practice so don't expect it to happen over night. You find you gradually introduce other elements into chords besides root, 3rd and 5th. A decent book should lead you along all right but note down any unusual or super sounds you make (sometimes happens by accident) so you can refer to them later. Don't be afraid to experiment. But don't get carried away either - sometimes the simplest progressions are most effective.

Another good source of tuition/experience, is taking a passage/piece apart and finding out how the composer did it.

Good luck.

My undergraduate composition professor had me create a chart of all the ways melodic notes can be harmonized. I found that the tonic can be harmonized 13 different ways. The same can be said for b3. (This includes triads, dominant 7ths, the augmented 6ths chords, half/fully diminished 7th chords.) I created the chart considering a traditional key but all chromatic notes for the melodies. This chart was a real revelation to me and affected my composing by leaps and bounds.

The tricky part came from then trying to make all this work etc. These have been fun problems to solve and really made me realize the incredible potential for harmony. Beethoven said that when he got into trouble with the flow of his pieces, he would throw a fully diminished 7th chord in. This requires the piece to go on. (Here is a 'cheap trick' to modulate. For example, if you are in the key of E major, and your melody note is F#, that can be harmonized with a B major chord, raise the B to a C and now you have the F#fully diminished 7th chord. (Here the D# is the enharmonic for the Eb needed for the fully diminished chord.) This resolves nicely to an F dominant 7th chord which leads to Bb Major or minor. The modulation of a tri-tone in two beats!) The key to finding the flow and expanded vocabulary, is to experiment. This is one of the greatest joys of composing.

One thing to always keep in mind, however, is the overall effect you are after. Are you trying different harmonies just for the sake of it or does it really enhance the music. This question is rethorical for the purpose of the forum but very much important in the act of composing.

Cheers!

My undergraduate composition professor had me create a chart of all the ways melodic notes can be harmonized. I found that the tonic can be harmonized 13 different ways. The same can be said for b3. (This includes triads, dominant 7ths, the augmented 6ths chords, half/fully diminished 7th chords.) I created the chart considering a traditional key but all chromatic notes for the melodies. This chart was a real revelation to me and affected my composing by leaps and bounds.

The tricky part came from then trying to make all this work etc. These have been fun problems to solve and really made me realize the incredible potential for harmony. Beethoven said that when he got into trouble with the flow of his pieces, he would throw a fully diminished 7th chord in. This requires the piece to go on. (Here is a 'cheap trick' to modulate. For example, if you are in the key of E major, and your melody note is F#, that can be harmonized with a B major chord, raise the B to a C and now you have the F#fully diminished 7th chord. (Here the D# is the enharmonic for the Eb needed for the fully diminished chord.) This resolves nicely to an F dominant 7th chord which leads to Bb Major or minor. The modulation of a tri-tone in two beats!) The key to finding the flow and expanded vocabulary, is to experiment. This is one of the greatest joys of composing.

One thing to always keep in mind, however, is the overall effect you are after. Are you trying different harmonies just for the sake of it or does it really enhance the music. This question is rethorical for the purpose of the forum but very much important in the act of composing.

Cheers!

How about actually posting this chart here? :)

I'll get you started with the chart but the best way to really understand anything is to do it yourself. As one of the other 'posters' for this said, "a book doesn't do the work for you." I'll be happy to look over anything you come up with. (Sorry, the teacher in me coming out!)

Here are the ways that the tonic can be harmonized:

Root: I,i

3rd: vi, bVI

5th: IV,iv

7th: ii7, ii half dim. 7

It+6: Yes

Fr+6: Yes

Ger+6: Yes

N6: No

Root: V7/IV

3rd: V7/N

5th: V7/bVII

7th: V7/V

Root: vii dim7/N

3rd: vii dim7/bVII

5th: vii dim7/V

7th: vii dim7/iii

Please excuse my error in my previous message, the tonic can be harmonized in 15 ways, not 13.

Be careful about enharmonics. There is a huge differance between a #2 and a b3, for example.

Cheers!

hey thanks alot :)

i've heard that tritones are pretty much amazing, but I haven't played with them much.

I might try to make one of those tonic harmonization charts, if i do, i'll be sure to post it.

thanks for the response, and a very through one at that.

thanks a ton,

Scott

oh.. and I ordered Harmony by Walter Piston for my b-day.

Listen and analyze composers that use unconventional progressions (that still sound good), such as perhaps Alban Berg or Lisa Gerrard.

If you want to hear tritones used in a tonal sense, check out the Dante Sonata of Liszt. He opens with huge tritones. It is a great piece.

Cheers!

Check out "Structural Functions of Harmony," by Schoenberg. That book changed my life.

I once heard that all music is based off of a simple chord progression and that the more interesting music was still a chord progression but it was a more interesting way of meandering to and from each chord in that progression. Is that true? What are your guy's opinions on that?

...all music is based off of a simple chord progression and that the more interesting music was still a chord progression but it was a more interesting way of meandering to and from each chord in that progression.

I think you're getting into Schenkerian analysis with the concept of foreground, middleground, and background (ursatz). I'm certainly no expert, but I think this is where you're headed. The background being the underlying structure (simple progression), which is overlayed with modifications and embellishments...

thanks, bill grahm, will do :)