Harmony
Terms: Harmony , Functional Harmony , Chord , Scale, Chord Progression ,
Harmony
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'Funcional' Harmony
Harmony : Combination of simultaneous Pitches
This does not specify if the simultaneous pitches sound Good/Right or Bad/Wrong Together - it simply means multiple notes played/sounded simultaneously
HOWEVER
many times when we say harmony, it is implied that we mean FUNCTIONAL HARMONY , which is harmony that sounds good/right
RULE OF THUMB: All Music on the Radio uses Functional Harmony ( The point of the radio is for A LOT of PEOPLE to listen to the station == Good Ratings)
This is the type of Harmony we would learn in school or private lessons
I.E. : Major/Minor Scales , Major/Minor Chords etc.
The difference between FUNCTION HARMONY and NON FUNCTIONAL HARMONY is drastic and can be heard IMMEDIATELY
(Generally we would not even hear this unless we seek them out...)
This does not specify if the simultaneous pitches sound Good/Right or Bad/Wrong Together - it simply means multiple notes played/sounded simultaneously
HOWEVER
many times when we say harmony, it is implied that we mean FUNCTIONAL HARMONY , which is harmony that sounds good/right
RULE OF THUMB: All Music on the Radio uses Functional Harmony ( The point of the radio is for A LOT of PEOPLE to listen to the station == Good Ratings)
This is the type of Harmony we would learn in school or private lessons
I.E. : Major/Minor Scales , Major/Minor Chords etc.
The difference between FUNCTION HARMONY and NON FUNCTIONAL HARMONY is drastic and can be heard IMMEDIATELY
(Generally we would not even hear this unless we seek them out...)
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Functional Harmony
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Non - Functional
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Classical Vocal Music
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Classical Piano Music
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Jazz
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Pop??
There are very few examples of this type of Harmony/Music in Popular Music Genres ( i.e. R&B / Rock / Hip Hop / Country Pop etc.) -
We see it much more in Classical / Jazz music Where there is more experimentation
This is for obvious reasons as most people would not like listening to these examples (myself included!!)
It is a very small group of people who enjoy this type of music that is lacking in conventional functional harmony!
We see it much more in Classical / Jazz music Where there is more experimentation
This is for obvious reasons as most people would not like listening to these examples (myself included!!)
It is a very small group of people who enjoy this type of music that is lacking in conventional functional harmony!
Timeline of Harmony
Functional Harmony - how do we know what notes sound good together?
AND...
HOW did we arrive standard for what sound's Right (i.e. 'right' is the mostly the same for everyone)
There are a couple answers for this question.....
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All pitches are made by a frequency or sound wave
The Range of the pitch (high vs. low) is dependent on the speed of the sound wave FAST = HIGH SLOW = LOW Unit of Measurement Hertz or Hz Hertz gives us a numerical value for how many cycles per second a sound wave completes MORE CYCLES = FASTER SOUNDWAVE Tone Generator
So if we think of 2 tones together , or , 2 Frequencies / sound waves together SOME Frequencies sound better together because of how their sound waves actually line up |
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The other is simpler...
We (all of us, others before us) have been hearing the same notes put together for our whole lives , and those notes have been the same for along time before us
Pentatonic Scale
(****remember from the movie howard Goodall Talks about the Pentatonic Scale - a group of 5 notes that all civilizations have in common
These notes have been drilled into us for our entire lives.... Marry had a Little Lamb, Twinkle Twinkle... Alphabet...
Bobby Macferran Pentatonic Scale
The Pentatonic scale is a small example of how our ears have been trained to be partial to certain groups of notes when they are put together
(Some people say it is actually genetic - it is in our DNA that certain notes sound better together than other)
We have all been exposed to music that abides by all the same basic rules , and have trained our ears to know what
notes sound good together and what sounds bad according to those rules
When talking specifically about what notes/pitches sound good when played together, we break it down into 2 categories:
We (all of us, others before us) have been hearing the same notes put together for our whole lives , and those notes have been the same for along time before us
Pentatonic Scale
(****remember from the movie howard Goodall Talks about the Pentatonic Scale - a group of 5 notes that all civilizations have in common
These notes have been drilled into us for our entire lives.... Marry had a Little Lamb, Twinkle Twinkle... Alphabet...
Bobby Macferran Pentatonic Scale
The Pentatonic scale is a small example of how our ears have been trained to be partial to certain groups of notes when they are put together
(Some people say it is actually genetic - it is in our DNA that certain notes sound better together than other)
We have all been exposed to music that abides by all the same basic rules , and have trained our ears to know what
notes sound good together and what sounds bad according to those rules
When talking specifically about what notes/pitches sound good when played together, we break it down into 2 categories:
Scales and Chords
Scale
OR A group of notes played in succession that sound Good/Right together This is another concept that we take from the greeks
They called these MODES
they would choose notes only from the appropriate mode This is also something that we take from the Greeks, as even until this day we associate Major Scales/Chords with Happy and Minor Scales/Chords with Sad |
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Chords
Where scales deal with groups of notes played in succession, Chords refer to notes that are played/ sounded simultaneously
A Chord is : 3 or more notes simultaneously
Think of the timeline of Harmony - We started out with just one melody line of Gregorian chant, Then they added a Drone, then a second line of Melody, giving us 3 separate notes sounding at one time. this gives us a chord!
Many of the examples of innovation in that timeline were attempts to figure out how to successfully (in a way that sounds good) put scales with chords.
If we think of 2 components of a song : Melody and Harmony
in a Given Pop song these will be represented by a vocal melody, and a chordal instrument (such as piano or guitar)
A Chord is : 3 or more notes simultaneously
Think of the timeline of Harmony - We started out with just one melody line of Gregorian chant, Then they added a Drone, then a second line of Melody, giving us 3 separate notes sounding at one time. this gives us a chord!
Many of the examples of innovation in that timeline were attempts to figure out how to successfully (in a way that sounds good) put scales with chords.
If we think of 2 components of a song : Melody and Harmony
in a Given Pop song these will be represented by a vocal melody, and a chordal instrument (such as piano or guitar)
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Chord Progression: A Series of Chords played in Specific Order
Examples:
All of Me
Hello
Both songs repeat the Chord Progression right from the start of the song
This gives us a musical home and some familiarity before the vocals come in - now that we have that home established we can focus on the melody and lyrics
Further Repitition : Both songs are actually written with the same chord progression!
(The sound a little different because they are in different ranges as adele sings higher)
So we have 2 aspects of repetition: (1) The progression repeating within the song, (2) and the progression repeating from Other Songs
This happens a lot in popular music...