Counterpoint to Chordal Style 

In class we mentioned chord harmony. Chord harmony are 3 notes or chords that provides a harmony in the piece of music. We also talked about cadences. It means the end of a point in music. Some ends can have a slight pause into thinking they are ending but sometimes they can end perfectly or abruptly. 

We also looked deeply into the chords n what they are.

The 1 in music is considered the tonic and the 6 in a chord can also be called a tonic because it  has the first two notes in the tonic inside of it. 

The 2 and 4 are considered predominant chords because it can be carried into the dominant chord and the 5 and 7 are the dominant chords because it has the leading to in it.

 The 4 chord is considered a identity crisis or a miss understood chord why it because it does not really have no where to reside. 

I must say this video almost made me shed a tear because the chord harmony he is playing sounds very sweet and it harmonies with the bass and the arpeggio chords in the right hands matches with he bass which gives it a sweet harmony sound. He is just using the 1, 5 and 7 chords.

In one of our pervious classes we discussed suspensions and instead of using a piano he using a software to create the different suspensions and dissonances. The dominant chord does not have any dissonance in it.

In the first set of  chords it is dissonance and the second set of chords it is not consonance.

SUSPENSION

What is a suspension? Well some people may think it is a car part but it is much more than that.

Suspension is a note approached by the same note and resolves down by a step. In musical terms it means that accented non chord tones that occur on downbeat or strong beats. The repeated or held note is discordant and clashes with the new chord and creates tension. The chord then resolve down a note beginning into a new chord.  When putting or placing suspensions in music you must always start with a consonant note or interval. There are different parts of a suspension, they are preparation, suspension and resolution. 

Preparation is the pickup note from the last bar and its a consonant note

Suspension is the second note that repeats the previous note and it is dissonance.

Resolution is resolving the note at the end of the suspension.

Constance intervals occurs on 3,5,6 and 8.

Dissonance intervals occurs on 2,4,tritone and 7.

Most common suspensions occurs on the 9-8, 7-6, 4-3 and 2-3. Parallels 6th or 3rds are good places to add your suspensions. You must always move by steps or leaps to a consonant interval. 

 

These are examples of suspensions on 2 voicing. In the video i can see the different common suspensions and where they are placed.

 Motivic

This video shows how to identify the variations in music. Instead of it being played on a piano it is shown on a chart of the different phases. Brian Steves the youtube explains in the video what it is like when using motivic in music. 

I must say learning about motivic is very interesting. The video shows the different transformations or variations that is a phrase in music.

Half and diminshed Seventh chords

 Seventh Half or Diminished Chords

 Seventh chords are made up of the root, third, fifth, and seventh notes. It is a triad with an extra note at the top of it. There are different types of seventh chords such as major 7th, minor 7th, minor 7th, half, or fully diminished 7th. Today is all about half and fully diminished seventh chords. 

Half diminished chords are composed of a root minor third , diminished fifth and a minor seventh,

Seventh fully diminished chords are composed of a minor 3rd, and a diminished 5th.

When playing seventh chords they resolve to the one chord or first scale degree. In music, there are other scale degrees that resolve to a certain number. the 4th chord resolves down to the third 4th or can even resolve to the 4th because the 4th in a scale is the predominant chord. The 2nd which is a supertonic can either go down to the tonic which is the 1 or can go to the 3rd which is the mediant. Chords can resolve normally following each principle of progression.  

7th chords and 4th chords create a tri tone which is a tendency tone that creates dissonance.  

The picture goes into dept of the fully diminished seventh chords,

Even though the video explains what a 7th chord this video explains what 7th chords are and how they are formed.

In class, we discussed half and fully-diminished chords. In major keys, composers might want to put half diminished in a 6th scale degree so they can make it a half or fully diminished. 

In a minor key, they raise the leading tone to make it half-diminished
but also raising the 6th scale degree can make a fully diminished. 

Steven Jacks a youtube explains the half and fully diminished. 

 Embellishing or Nonchord Tones  

What are non-chord tones? Nonchord tones also known as nonharmonic tones are notes that do not belong in a certain chord. In music, they add a little topping or decoration to bring out the music rather than staying dry and boring.

There are several embellishing chord tones that we use in music. 

Passing Tone (PT) - a passing tone is noted that is approached by steps and continues other going up or down in the same direction by step. There is also accented passing tone that occurs on strong beats.

Neighboring Tone (NT) - a neighboring tone has notes that moves using steps. NT can step up or down but must turn to its original note. If a neighboring tone occurs on the second chord it is called accented neighboring tone and is played on weak beats.

Anticipation (ANT.) -  an anticipation note is approached by a step and remains the same note. Anticipation are non accented notes. It is basically a note of the second chord played early. 

Suspension (SUS.) - a suspension note keeps the original note the same and steps downward moving into a next chord. 

In this picture this explains the different types of non chord tones that I mentioned earlier. It shows where each notes goes after being played or after each chord.

Here you can see several more embellishing tones than what I mentioned. In the picture it gives a more dept exploration of how the notes move and which direction they move.

Whiles searching for nonchord tones I came across a video explaining how non chord tones should be certain chord.

Working with chord tones you want to understand the background of what your layering out to have the perfect chord and do not creat any dissonance. 

Seventh Chords

 Types of Chords

When ending a music it is called conclusive, but when it does not end it is called inconclusive.  When writing music you must determine wether the music is ending or not 

There are predominant chords, subdominant, and dominant chords. In the scale degree the 2 is considered a predominant chord becasue it comes before the 5th which is the dominant chord. The 4th in the scale is called a sub dominant because it comes just before the dominant and the 6th can be called a tonic because it has 2 notes similar to the tonic. 

The diffrent types of chords and where they are located in the scale. 

This is a next example of what happens in major and minor keys when playing chords. 

In major keys start on the tonic and go to teh predominant whihc can be either 2 or 4 and move to the dominant 5 or 5/ 7 then back to the tonic. 

In minor keys start on tonic but the predominant is a minor 2nd or minor 4th then to a dominant 5 to teh tonic

This video talks about the subdominant chords that is before the dominant chord. Soemtimes teh 4th chord can progress to the 5th or the 1 chord.  Moving to a 4th chord to the tonic is called a plagal cadence in music also known as amen chord. In jazz they use the chord 2 5/7 and 1.

In this video the main chord is the 5 chord. The 7th is usually called the leading tone because it leads to the tone which is one. The 7th is also called a dominant 7th chord.

Cadences

Authentic Cadences 

What are authentic adences in music?

Authentic cadences is a type of progression that uses a dominant to tonic chords to end a pharse of a music.

Authentic cadences are formed when the 5th chords moves to the 1 chord to the end of a musical pharse. 

These are the different examples of the type of authentic. Here you have perfect cadance that starts on the 5th and ends on the 1. Also imperfect authentic cadence thats starts on the 5th chord but first inverson and ends on the minor one. The melody ends on the 3 or 5 on a chord

This video explains to you the predominant and dominant and tonic chords and how you get each authentic cadence.

Voice leading is also a mjaor deal when learning about cadences. When deadling with voice leading which is also coming up with melody for the music or bass notes you need to have an idea of  how much space you need or how far you need to put each notes and chords. Also must neer double notes or over lap them. Overlapping notes means having a E in a tenor and a D in the alto. Also means that you can not have a lover voice higher thatn a upper voice.

When writing music you can use parallel motion and contrary motion. 

Parallel motion is when the upper voices in a music move up and the bass line moves the saem direction as them. 

Contrary motion is when the upper and bass line moves in different directions.

These are the different type of motions that are used in music.