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.