Instructional Methods: 7th Chords

Today we're going to do something a little different. As you should know if you read the introduction to this site in my first post, I'm a Music Education major. While this site is doing wonders for helping me apply the knowledge I learn in class, it is also assisting me in refining my teach strategies. So in this post we're going to focus on the "educational" element of music theory.

Posted below is a video from YouTube that explains the concept of 7th chords. Watch it, and then we'll discuss it below. 

Alright. Let's break this teaching style down before we discuss the concept of 7th chord structure ourselves. 

In this video, the whiteboard behind the instructor is used as a visual tool for the students (audience). This is helpful because now we can physically "see" the examples that the instructor gives to break down the lesson. Now, I'm not a huge fan of how fast he speaks in the video, but it's compensated in the end as he does provide a summary of the concepts he covers. 

Moving on to the actual method of teaching he implements in the video, I have mixed feelings about his "Scale Method" in describing the structure of 7th chords. While he is correct in saying that the seventh chord is composed of the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th degrees of a scale, he fails to describe the relationship between the individual notes. Don't get me wrong, this is a excellent video for those that want a basic understanding of what 7th chords are and how to construct them, but fails to give insight as to "why" the chords sound the way they do. 

Seventh chords are essentially triads with the seventh scale degree played with them (He addresses this in the video). From the previous post we know that there are four different types of triads: Major, Minor, Augmented, and Diminished. These triads are created by manipulating the intervals that compose them (between major and minor). A similar concept is used in creating seventh chords. 

We know that triads are composed of three notes, and two intervals of 3rd's describe the relationship between the 1st and 3rd, and 3rd and 5th scale degrees. So, like the video says, to create a seventh chord we add the seventh scale degree on top of the triad. It's important to notice that the interval between the 5th and the 7th degree is also a third. Knowing this, we see a pattern of 3rds between each note. 

Let's look at an example: 

The chord to the left is a C Major 7th Chord. Notice that the relationship between each note and the note that immediately follows it is a 3rd. The resulting chord is composed of a triad (C E G) and a seventh interval (Between C and B). 

As you hopefully know, there are different types of seventh chords. These different chords are created by changing the type of triad along with altering the form of 7th interval on top of it. These details will be expanded on me in a later post. 

So overall, how can we summarize this instructors method? 

Good:

-Things on the board are written out and clear 

-Has his own method of instruction that is easy to understand

Bad:

-Speech is a little rushed and there is little review between steps, making the lesson hard to follow 

-The relationship between the notes in a seventh chord is not explained

-Skips around (whether by poorly editing the video or otherwise) to deliver a concept of seventh chords that cannot be expanded into physical musical notation. 

Again, this portion of the post is more for my benefit then anyone else's, as I'm trying to be analytical with instructional methods. If you feel I overlooked something, or didn't give a clear definition of your basic seventh chord, then please let me know so I can go back and explain it in more detail. 

Thanks for reading!

Sincerely, ZS 

The Basic Elements of Triads

Today I'm going to start talking about chords, how to identify them, and give some examples of them in musical context.

What is a Chord? A chord is (simply put) any harmonic set of three or more notes. Harmonic. This word means that the notes interact with each other musically through the use of intervals. Now, these intervals can be major, minor, 3rd's, 4th's, etc, almost anything as long as there is more than one interval identified in the chord. Right now, we're going to discuss the simplest form of a chord: A triad.

Triads are the most frequently encountered chords because they are composed of three distinct notes, known as the Root, 3rd, and 5th. The triad gets its name by the root note of the chord. Let's look at an example.


Shown to the left is a C Major Triad. We know it's a triad because there are three notes, and more specifically because these notes are a 3rd apart. In every triad, the interval between consecutive notes will always be a 3rd.





So we know that the interval between (C) and (E) is a M3, and (E) to (G) is a m3. This combination, or a M3 on the bottom of the chord and a m3 on the top of the chord, is what defines a Major Triad.

Since we're going to get to know all four types of triads in this post, I going to list them and describe their qualities (interval wise), and then we'll go over each of them individually. Now don't get overwhelmed with this information, I'll explain each one in more detail when we get to it.

Major Triad: C

(m3)
(M3)

Minor Triad: Cm

(M3)
(m3)

Augmented Triad: C aug

(M3)
(M3)

Diminished Triad: C dim

(m3)
(m3)

Minor Triads

To the left is an example of a Cm triad. Notice that the relationship between the notes is are thirds, and the bottom interval is a Minor 3rd, while the top is a Major 3rd. The chords are going to sound "minor", or sad you'll notice in popular music. 

Augmented Triads

To the right is an example of a C augmented Triad. An augmented triad is characterized by having a Major 3rd on the bottom, and another Major 3rd on the top half of the chord. Notice that the relationship of the 5th with the root of the chord also changes as the 5th is raised up a semitone, creating an augmented 5th (Hence where the interval gets its name)

Diminished Triads

To the left is an example of a C diminished triad. Diminished triads are characterized by two minor 3rd's on top of each other. Again, because the 5th has now been lowered to create the m3rd need, the 5th interval has become diminished. 

So let's work through a couple more examples to really understand how to construct triads;

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What is the triad above?

(D augmented)

Why?

(Because the relationship between (D) to (F#) is a Major third, and the relationship between (F#) and (A#) is also a Major third)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What is the triad above?

(Remember the Root of the chord gives its' name)

(B diminished)

Why?

((B) to (D) is a m3rd, and (D) to (F) is a m3rd)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What is the triad above?

(Gm)

Why?

((G) to (Bb) is a m3rd, and (Bb) to (D) is a M3rd)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, to recap: Triads are three note chords composed off thirds. Depending on the quality of these chords, the triad can be major. minor, augmented, or diminished. And remember, the name of the triad (Note wise) is always given by the root of the chord (The bottom note for now). 

In a couple days I will post an example of some triads in my choral music, and then next week we will talk about triads in inversion, an then move on to more complicated chords. 

Thanks for reading, and if you have any more questions, feel free to comment below. 

Sincerely, ZS

Enharmonic Notes and Key Signatures

      What is a Key Signature? What are accidentals? How is it possible for a note like (C) to have more than one name?

      Let's start with the basics. We know that notes (or pitches as some might refer to them), arrange themselves onto the master staff as displayed below.

          But what most beginning instrumentalists and singers don't understand is that there is a lot of space between each note on the staff. For example, between the notes (C) and (D) is the note (C#) right? And between (A) and (B) is (Bb) right? If you play the piano, you know these notes exist because they are represented by the black keys that sit in between the white keys.  

     So what is meant by the Sharp/(#) symbol? A sharp is a type of accidental that means to play the respective note "up" one semitone (or half-step). So if we drew a sharp next to a (C) on the scale, we would now call this note (C Sharp)/(#C). 

      What about the Flat/(b) symbol? A flat is another type of accidental that means the play the respective note "down" one semitone (or half-step). So if we drew a flat next to a (E) on the scale, we would now call this note (E Flat)/(Eb) 

But wait a second, the black keys in the picture have two names! How is that possible, and how do you know which name to call each note if they have more than one? 

           ^The question above brings up a good point. The black keys have more than one name for each note, and which name to call them all depends on what note you're using as a reference point. If a pitch can be represented by different names and different accidentals, then it can be labeled as enharmonic. For example, (D#) is the same as (Eb) because the raising of (D) one semitone or the lowering of (E) one semitone results in the same pitch. Now, how you know which name to call notes depends on the key signature you're in. 

           But without worrying about when to call which notes what, let's talk about how notes can have different names. First of all, it's important to remember that enharmonic names can only be given off the primary tones (my way of saying the "white keys"). So this means you cannot have a note called (F# sharp) or (Eb Flat). These notes *can* be expressed by other notes, but not by "black keys". 

The note (G) can be expressed from the note (F) by an accidental known as a Double Sharp (x). Instead of the note being raised "one" semitone, it is now raised "two" semitones. So (Fx) is another way of saying (G). 

      The note (G) can also be expressed from the note (A) by an accidental known as a Double Flat (bb). Now, instead of the note being lowered "one" semitone, it is lowered "two" semitones. So (Abb) is another way of saying (G). In this way we now have three names for (G). Most all of the pitches on the keyboard have three names except for one, which only has two. (see if you can figure out which one). 

      Anyway, let's now move along and talk about Key Signatures so we can tie in these note names with how they are expressed in different keys. 

Key Signatures are collections of accidentals (sharps and flats) that are found in specific scales (We'll talk about scales in more detail Friday). Key signatures are used in music because they eliminate the need to write out all the individual sharps and flats that unique scales are formed by. Let's analyze a couple examples for absolute clarity on this topic;

The key signature shown to the right is F Major. Note that a flat is drawn on the (B) line on the treble clef. This means that when notes are placed on that clef they are automatically played one semitone below the standard (B). So if a note was drawn on that line, we would call that note (Bb), even though no accidentals are written directly in front of the note, because of the key signature. 

The key signature to the right is Bb Major (We will discuss identifying key signatures at the end of the post). Keep in mind that any notes placed on the (B) line will still be flattened because of the accidental in the key signature, but now we're going to add another line that follows this same method: (E). Now if a note is drawn on either the (B) or (E) line, we know to flatten that note automatically. 

Does this make sense for the flats? I'm going to move on to some key signature that have sharps in them, but if you don't have a firm grasp on this concept, go to this site: Key Signature Help

The Key Signature to the left is G Major. Notice that a sharp has a been drawn on the (F) line in the treble clef. Because this accidental has been written on this line, all notes that will be one the (F) line will be "raised" one semitone (half-step). So if a note was drawn on the (F) line, we would call it (#F). 

The Key Signature to the left is D Major. Notice that an accidental has been placed on the (C) line, in addition to the one on the (F) line. Now, if a note is placed on the (C) line, we know to "raise" it a half-step along with any notes drawn on the (F) line. 

The purpose of these examples was to demonstrate how pitch notation is affected by key signatures. Keeping key signatures in mind, it removes the need to mark accidentals next to each note that is played above or below pitch in different key signatures. This is really setting the stage for the next post on my blog which will be about Scales and Relative Key Signatures, but it's nice to have this information now so we can apply it to the basic principles of Enharmonic Notes. 

Typically, we will define enharmonic notes by the key they are played in. For example, a (F#) will be known as F Sharp in the key of D Major because it's a sharp that's written on the staff. The same goes for (C#). 

Likewise, if we wanted to know whether to call a note (Bb) or (A#), we would look at the key signature. If the key was F major, then it would be called (Bb). 

Now, as you've probably guessed, there are more key signature than just the one's I've used as examples. Here's a picture that shows all of them. 

How do we identify these key signatures? Well, the process is actually a lot easier than it looks. This is because there are some simple tricks within the accidentals that help to identify these signatures. 

For flats: Look at the second to last flat. Identify what line it's on and the key signature is the flattened note on the line (Always major). 

For Sharps: Look at the last sharp in the sequence. Raise that not up an additional half-step and you'll have your major key. 

Notice that these rules apply for every signature except for C Major and F Major (Due to the lack of accidentals or two flats) Sadly, you have to memorize these, but it's a lot better than memorizing all TWELVE.

So tying this back to what we learned earlier, Key signature's allow musicians to write music without having to specify the accidentals of each note. There is one exception to this rule, where a note is written into the score that is indicated as sharp/flat, but is played "as written", meaning it is played without any sharps or flats. This is what the "natural" symbol looks like:
  

The last thing I want to talk about in this post is how notes retain their accidental properties till the end of the measure. As we know, key signatures allow notes to be written with their accidentals "implied" by the line or space they are drawn in. But what if we have a note that is out of the key such as a double flat/sharp or natural? Does that note retain it's new properties for the rest of the piece?

The answer is no. If a key signature indicates that a note is always played flat, then it will always be played this way "unless" specified differently. At the end of the measure that the difference occurred however, the note reverts back to it's form as instructed by the key signature. 

For example, let's pretend this measure to the right is in a key which specifies the note (A) to be flat. Now, we see that after the (C#) the (A) appears again, but this time it's (A) natural. So the difference between (Ab) and (A) natural is one half-step up. At the beginning of the next measure if (A) was to be played again, it would return to it's flattened form.





I'll post a couple examples of this later this week to provide clarity, but if you have any questions that I didn't address in the post feel free to comment below!

Sincerely, ZS

Application: Intervals, Sight-Reading, and Audiation

     Alright, let's apply what we talked about in my last post. As a refresher, last time I covered how to recognize various intervals using classic songs that we all know. What we're going to do now is look at some of the music that I've sung in the past and use this method to understand how to sight read specific intervals without playing them on a piano first.

Shown below is a 4-part choral arrangement for Francis Scott Key's "The Star Spangled Banner"

Let's quickly identify the intervals that are sung by each voice part.


"Oh -" : m3 (Frosty the Snowman)

"say-can" : M3 (Kum Bah Yah)

"can-you" : m3

"you-see," : P4 (Here comes t. Bride)

     By recognizing the intervals I'm going to sing, I can figure out in my head where the line is supposed to go.

Let's look at another example where we can see the intervals existing across voice-parts.

Look at the Bass and Tenor line (bottom two lines). Notice that neither one is that complicated, but remember that in a choir, the notes are being sung at the same time. So while the tenors are singing a "F" in "bursting", the basses are singing "F" an octave lower, forming a P8 interval.

But when the tenor's sing the "Eb" in "gave", the basses stay on their "F" on the same beat in the measure. Think about the notes "F" and "Eb". While in this instance they are in different octaves, the affect they create when played together is the same: M2 (Major Second)

What this does is create Dissonance in the music (we'll discuss this concept in a later post), and give the music a sense of motion as it moves to resolve to the M3 that is created in the beginning of the next measure (consonance). Like I said, don't worry about these terms because we'll cover them in a different post. Right now, just understand that intervals can exist in both individual melodies and across voice parts or chords.

        For some fun choral terms, let's talk about what sight-reading actually is, and how our newfound skill of identifying intervals can help us do this without the need of accompaniment. If you're in a high school choir right now, you might be familiar with what I'm talking about. Sight-reading is the ability to be sing a line of music after only being given the starting pitch/key signature. When I was in high school and learning a new piece,  teacher would usually have us listen to various recordings of the song before we even started figuring out the notes. After that we would go over the rhythm specific parts of the song, and only then, after days of looking at the music and discussing it's tempo/rhythm, would we actually start singing.
 
         For those of you that want to sing in college, let me give you some helpful advice. Most college choral directors will expect you to know how to sight-read. This doesn't mean get the music and practice it for a couple days with a piano to help you. This means they give you the music, tell you what key it's in (if you can't figure that our already), give you the starting pitch, and you start singing.

          So how do you do this? Well, it's a tricky little skill called audiation. This is the ability to hear music or pitches in your head without music being physically played. It's kinda like daydreaming, but with music. In this way talented singers can hear their pitch without disturbing others by trying to find their note out loud. Try practicing this skill at home or in choir next time your teacher wants you to sing a certain pitch. As long as you know the starting note and understand how intervals sound (remember our examples from the previous post), you'll be able to sing the pitch perfectly the first time without having to find it by humming or "sliding".

        Now these directors aren't going to expect perfection the first time you sing a song, but that's the difference between high school and college. Here, they expect you to have a basic understanding of intervals and chord progressions so you can accurately "guess" where your melody/harmony line is going to go. Don't get overwhelmed as a freshmen though, because usually you're going to be in at least one large ensemble at first, and you're going to get a lot of help from the older/more experienced member's of your section (this will help you really hone in your skills for when you get into smaller choirs).

          I hope this way helpful in explaining how to apply your newfound knowledge of intervals in choir or solo singing. Note that this can also be used in other instruments, but it requires more practice to understand which notes/hand positions will produce specific pitches. Nevertheless the concept is the same. With a basic understanding of intervals and how harmony lines interact with each other, you can sing on pitch with brand new music and quickly find how your voice-part works with the rest of the choir.
         
          Thanks for reading, leave any comments or questions below if you have them! Also if you have a piece of music that you want analyzed, take a picture of it and we can include it in a future post.

Sincerely, ZS

Interval Recognition (For those of you that despise Solfège)

    What are intervals?
          Well, to make a long video about relatable music theory a short sentence that describes their physical essence, a interval is a measure of the specific distance between two pitches. Now some of you might be crying out "What's it measured by? Inches? Centimeters?", but you're thinking about music like it's a form of math, and while it's technically possible to measure notes by the frequency and wavelength of their tone, we're going to stay focused on the bar staff.
          If you've ever sung in a choir or played an instrument before, you'll recognize that a standard Master Staff looks like this;

          As stated before, an interval is the measure between pitches. Each note (A whole note in this case) displayed on the staff above represents a audible pitch that we can distinguish on any variety of instruments. Now in this instance the notes are arranged in a scale (any set of musical notes arranged by fundamental frequency or pitch) and the intervals are very small. This is because the distance between the notes in a scale are small, but still distinguishable. Now as these notes begin to spread out along the staff, or be arranged so that they aren't separated by whole steps, we begin to hear and see intervals. 

         Notice that if intervals are labeled by the amount of "Lines & Spaces" that they span across. For example (assuming you can read a standard Treble Clef), the interval between middle C and F is a 4th because there are 4 lines and spaces involved in the interval (Thats two lines, and two spaces if you want to be picky).

        So using this method of basic interval recognition, we can discern that specific intervals will have a constant sound or "feeling" to them when played on an instrument or sung.

       This is the overall point of this post, because while some "good" choir students may be content in learning that the second of a major scale is always "Rae" and the seventh is always "Te", I find it's more helpful to recognize intervals in classical music by using examples from songs that we all learned as children when growing up.


But just in case you're curious about Solfège, this is how it line's up with music notation. ----------->
(For the basic gist of it, ignore the sharps and flats)


       Let me enlighten you with an example. We all know how the song "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" goes, but can you hear the major 5th in the song? It's when you sing "Twinkle Twinkle" in the song. That's an interval, and a great example of a perfect 5th (P5). Another example is in the wedding song "Here Comes the Bride". When you sing "Here-comes", you're singing a Perfect 4th (P4).

To make this simple, let's just plot everything out;

• Minor 2nd: "Jaws"
• Major 2nd "Happy Birthday"
• Minor 3rd: "Brahms Lullaby"
• Major 3rd: "Kum Ba Yah"
• Perfect 4th: "Here Comes the Bride"
• Perfect 5th: "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"
• Minor 6th: "The Entertainer"
• Major 6th: "My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean"
• Minor 7th: "There's a Place for Us" (West Side Story)
• Major 7th: "Superman Theme"
• Perfect 8th: "Somewhere over the Rainbow" 

Here's a link to a website that has a bunch of songs that help you memorize basic interval patterns;
VUC Music Theory     (It also explains what the symbols mean: "P"5 or "M"3)

        Now this post deals more with Ear Training than anything else, but it's still important to understand the critical theory behind it. By using this method, of recognizing that intervals are everywhere in modern music, it'll be a lot easier to sight read complex pieces of music and get the intervals right the first time. This skill is also invaluable in choral singing when one voice part has to find their next note based of one they sang a couple measure ago or one given by another voice part.

        Oh, and if you want to learn more about Solfège and the "classy" way to learn how to sing on pitch, check out this website;  Sol What? Some Thoughts on Solfège . This guy has some great reasons why solfège should still be used, so if you want clarification about it, go to him!

I hope this was helpful, I use this process all the time in the many choirs I'm involved in, so I hope you can put this to good use too!

Sincerely, ZS

*Also, I'll be allowing comments from now on. Please keep them appropriate and relevant to the topic at hand, and if you have an requests for what I should post next list them below! Thanks!*

The "Intro"

        Just like every song ever composed there must be a beginning, or some form of introduction, without which the audience would be left confused and lost in my symphony of words and observations. However, the overall point of this blog is not to be a composer of "words", but rather to understand composers of "music" and what they were thinking when they started scribbling little black dots on a lined-piece of paper. 

        In the future, I will be posting about various concepts of music and how I interpret them in both my choir life and my music theory class. If you want to know what dissonance is, you've come to the right place. If you want to talk about enharmonic notes and why they're so confusing, I can relate to you. And if you want to discuss the effect of relative keys in a piece of classical music, then I'd be happy to hear you out. But again, this is a site of observation and reference, because I'm sure in about three years I'll be graduating and still using this blog to lament upon all the technical theory that haunts most Music Majors. 

        Stay tuned because when I'm not in class or writing papers I'll most likely be posting something about music theory, trying to help others make sense of it and to help me apply it. 

"After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music." -Aldous Huxley 

Sincerely, ZS