Dissonance vs. Consonance: Essential Elements of Music

         Today we're going to talk about consonance and dissonance, how they are created in music and how they interact with each other.  
       
          We all know what a "utopian" society is right? It's a civilization that is the very essence of perfection. Everything is idealistic to the creators. There are no wars, no starvations, and no movements against the system, and this is what creates a seemingly perfect society. On the other hand however, there is chaos, "anarchy" as some might label it, and in this confusion no social structure or civilization can be made out from the clashing of people and their conflicting ideals.
           So we know what it means to live in a utopian society and a chaotic society, now let's connect this to music theory in the form of harmony. Harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches/tones/voices/chords in a phrase or piece of music. When listeners think of harmony, they'll think of interacting intervals being voiced by different instruments or vocals in an arrangement. Typically, people associate harmony as always sounding "good" or "etherial", when really harmony can sound heavenly or uneasy depending on what type of harmony you're going for.
 
    Let's put this into practice before we begin to break this down;

Here is an example of the song "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" written in two-part harmony. Notice that the melody (the primary line) is written in the treble clef while the harmony (complimenting line) is written in the bass clef. The affect of this is to provide support for the melody from a lower octave, giving the song a stronger sound and increasing the range of the piece.

When talking about how notes or chords interact with each other, it's helpful to think of two types of relationships; Dissonance and Consonance.

Consonance is a harmony in which (while sometimes spread out) form triads, chords, and intervals that are considered "stable" or at a resolved state. Dissonance is quite the opposite however, and is defined as an arrangement of notes or intervals that are "unstable", or unresolved. Occurrences of dissonance in music usually are compared to "harsh" sounds, or ones that make the listen expect a resolution. Different kinds of consonance can be further divided into subgroups such as "perfect" or "imperfect" harmonies, but the general idea is that these sounds "blend" well together and give off the illusion of fusion between two tones.

"A stable tone combination is a consonance; consonances are points of arrival, rest, and resolution."
-Roger Kamien

For example; The chords to the left are paired together in this manner because the second is resolving the first. Notice that in the Dsus4 chord, a major second is formed between G and A. Because of the quality of this chord, it is an unresolved version of a D major chord, and the use of the D major chord after it is what resolves the phrase. Similarly, the G7 chord is at a state of unrest and wants to resolve to the tonic chord of the progression (which is C major). Unresolved cluster's of seconds can also create dissonance because the pitches are clashing with one another and want to resolve into a more pleasant m3 or a triad.

But just as conflict is important in the plot line of a good story, so is dissonance in the harmonies of a good arrangement. Without this "clashing" or need to resolve there would be no feeling of movement throughout the piece, and as pretty as it might sound it would be uneventful and...boring. So be thankful of these points of musical interest! They are the embed flow of motion in music!

Here' a video I found that helps to explain this concept in a little more detail by providing excellent examples of what each form of harmony sounds like; Consonant and Dissonant Harmony

If you have any more questions about dissonance or consonance, feel free to leave comments below!

Sincerely, ZS

Diatonic Chord Progressions: The Baseline of Songwriting

Today we're going to talk about a subject that is very dear to my heart: Chord Progressions and how they relate to songwriting. If you've ever had the dream of becoming a songwriter and given up after little success, there are three things that probably got in your way of becoming famous.

 First of all, as my rhyming dictionary loves to remind me, writing good lyrics takes time and patience to master. Whether you become inspired to write a lyric or it just comes to you in the middle of the night, lyrics need to be refined and practiced in order to be "good". Now "good" is a flexible term because the quality of the lyrics all depends on your audience. Are you writing for the opening of the next concert center in your city, or for personal enjoyment?

This brings us to my second point. Self-confidence is needed in order to be a good writer. The ability to write down a couple lines of lyrics or a measure of melody and be *ok* with what you wrote the next morning is a skill that even I haven't learned yet. The important thing to remember is that no matter what you write down, you need to KEEP IT. Get a journal, take a note on your iPhone, or record it somehow, but don't just throw it away. Keeping ideas around, even if you think it's garbage, will stand as a milemarker to how far you have come as a write, and might even inspire you later on through the words that once didn't.

Finally, and most importantly, beginning song writers don't have a firm concept of chord progressions. To clarify, a chord progression is a series of music chords or notes with the goal of establishing a tonality within a specific key and is based on the succession of root relationships. Big definition right? Let's break this down in todays video, and then apply it to some popular songs so we can understand, as music writers, the fundamentals of chord progressions.

To start with, lets understand that today will only be spent discussing diatonic chord progressions. This means that all the triads and chords we will build our progression from will be within the same key. This means that if we want to make a progression in which the root, or tonic, is in the key of C, we will not find chords that are out of this key (such as Ab or Cm).

Diatonic Chords in the key of C Major

(the 2, 3, and 6 of this progression are minor, meaning that the roman numerals should have lower case (i's))

In the picture above the following chords are shown in the key of C major:

   I                 ii                  iii                   IV                        V                   Vi               Vii diminished
tonic      supertonic      mediant       subdominant         dominant       submediant            subtonic

As stated before, a chord progression is a series of of chords, so we know that in order to create a progression we're going to have to put these chords in some sort of order. But wait, is it really that simple? Well....yes. There are no set rules as to what chords follow others in a chord progression. This leaves room for creativity within compositions so we aren't constrained to a few styles of progressions. That being said, there are guidelines for deciding what chords should follow others in a chord progression.

Typically, root relationships revolved around the distances that chords have from each other. This distance is based from the interval space between the tonic (1st) note of each triad. For example, the root relationship between the (I) and the (iii) chord in the key of C Major is a major 3rd. This is because the root of the (I) chord is (C), and the distance between it and the root of the (iii) chord, (E), is a major third.

These types of relationships form strong connections between chords. In classical music the relationship between the (V) and the (I) chord is important in the context of many cadences. A cadence is a harmonic configuration which gives the phrase of music a sense of resolution or pause. Another relationship in chord progressions that can be heard is the (IV) to (I) cadence, which is often displayed in Church Music as the "A-men" phrase at the end of a prayer.

Lets now apply this to a song that I am currently singing in my Concert Choir.

*Note: This piece is in the key of E Major*

The focus of this picture is the cadence that occurs at the end of the crescendo ("home"). As a baritone, my line goes from an (E) to a (B), which is a 4th interval. But look at the other parts. If we connect the notes that the composer spread throughout the voice parts, then we end up with a (E6) and a (B) Chord. The relationship between these chords is a 4th, but because the piece is in E major this transition is from the tonic chord (I) down to the Dominant (V) if gives the phrase a sense of continuation. Instead of simply ending the phrase and moving on to the next musical idea, this composer decides to create anticipation within the music that brings about the main focus of the piece. 

Let's now look at the opposite within the same piece. 

This is a measure from a later section of the piece in which a cadence is used to end the phrase. Here, the notes I sing in the bass line still have the 4th relationship. The two chords (A6) and (E) also share this relationship. Now if you think about the two cadences we've looked at so far, you'll notice they they both incorporate movement in 4ths. But in the first cadence a 4th is used to introduce a new phrase by going down in tonal movement from the tonic to the dominant, while the second moves down from the subdominant to the tonic. By returning to the tonic chord it brings the phrase to a sense of closure, allowing the music to shift focus or enforce another idea. 

So through these examples we see the affect of movement between the chords. Movement away from the tonic, or any chord really, can have different affects on the music depending on if they're moving up or down the diatonic scale. Through this method, ideas in the music can be expressed as transitions or closing statements, all while using the same relationships between the chords. 

Thanks for reading and if you have any questions about the concept of root relationships and movement let me know by commenting on the post below!

Sincerely, ZS 

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

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!*