The Guide formerly known as the Ravenspiral Guide

an informal guide to music theory as it relates to composition

containing all that is worth knowing about anything musical* even more formerly known as the Raven's Spiral Guide to Music Theory Version !"!# $%ugust & #&'

This guide is a work in progress and is perpetually unfinished. Much like the art of music itself. For news and feedback, see the KVRA !"# thread$
http$%%www.k&raudio.com%forum%&iewtopic.php't()*+),This work is licensed under the .reati&e .ommons Attribution/0on.ommercial/0o!eri&s 1icense. To &iew a copy of this license, &isit http$%%creati&ecommons.org%licenses%by/nc/nd%+.2%au% or send a letter to .reati&e .ommons, --3 0athan Abbott 4ay, 5tanford, .alifornia 36,2-, 5A. Te7t and images in this document are .opyright 8 +22+/+2)+ 5imon 9ennett. 5ome rights reser&ed.
* eventually( i!e! by the time v#! is done

Table of Contents
:reface 9asic notations
0otations
Real notation Abstract notation

6 *

5cales$ The 0ew Menace

!iatonic scales
Ma<or The .ircle of Fifths Minor scales 0atural or &anilla minor =armonic or strawberry minor Melodic or chocolate fudge minor :entatonic scales

;
;
; 3 )2 )2 )) )+ )+

Minor se&enth +; Minor%ma<or se&enth +; =alf/diminished @minor se&enth diminished fifthA +3 0on/diatonic tonal se&enth chords +3 !iminished se&enth +3 5e&enth diminished fifth @se&enth flat fifthA +3 5e&enth augmented fifth @se&enth sharp fifthA ,) Ma<or se&enth augmented fifth @ma<or se&enth sharp fifthA ,) 0on/tonal diatonic se&enth chords ,) 5e&enth suspended fourth ,) Ma<or se&enth suspended fourth ,+

B7tended and altered chords

,+

5ynthetic and alternati&e scales

4hole tone scale 9lues scale .hromatic scale Microtonal scales More scales than a fat bastard fish, mate> Fi&e note scales 5e&en note ma<or scales 5e&en note minor scales 5e&en note scale pairs 5cales with more than se&en notes

)6
)6 )6 )))))* )* )* )*

The modes
Ma<or scale modes Melodic minor scale modes

)*
)? )?

Key "nter&als
0aming the inter&als$ ordinal names 0aming the inter&als yet again$ functions

); )3
)3 +)

.onsonance, dissonance, and the harmonic series )3

"f only it were always as simple as twel&e notes..+)

.hords
Manifesting chords "ntroduction to the &erbose chord dictionary Triads
!iatonic tonal triads Ma<or Minor !iminished 0on/diatonic tonal triads.. er.. triad Augmented 0on/tonal @suspendedA triads 5uspended fourth 5uspended second

+,
+6 +6 +6
+6 +6 ++++* +* +* +*

!iatonic ninth chords ,+ 0inth ,+ Minor ninth ,, Ma<or ninth ,, Minor%ma<or ninth ,, 0inth suspended fourth ,, CAlteredD non/diatonic ninths ,, 5e&enth flat ninth ,6 Minor se&enth flat ninth ,6 0inth diminished fifth @ninth flat fifthA ,6 0inth augmented fifth @ninth sharp fifthA ,6 5e&enth augmented ninth @se&enth sharp ninthA ,6 5e&enth flat ninth diminished fifth ,5e&enth augmented ninth diminished fifth ,5e&enth augmented ninth augmented fifth ,Minor ninth diminished fifth ,Ma<or ninth augmented fifth ,* 5e&enth suspended fourth flat ninth ,* Ble&enths and thirteenths ,* Ble&enth ,* Ma<or ele&enth ,? Minor ele&enth ,? Minor%ma<or ele&enth ,? Thirteenth ,? Ma<or thirteenth ,? Minor thirteenth ,? Minor%ma<or thirteenth ,? The most altered chord in the uni&erse ,; Altered chord ,; Added chords ,; 5i7th ,; Minor si7th ,; Added second ,; Added ninth ,3 Minor added ninth ,3 5i7%0ine ,3 Added ele&enth ,3

"n&ersions and fragments

E/n&ert' 4hen is an in&ersion not an in&ersion' .hord fragments

62
6) 6) 6)

.hords in keys
Ma<or keys and triads Ma<or keys and se&enths Minor keys, triads and se&enths .hords and modes

6+
6+ 6, 6, 66

The ebb and flow of tension and resolution Transcribing chords

Abstract or key/specific transcription' To spell or not to spell Transcribing music for analysis

66 66
66 66-

5e&enth chords
!iatonic tonal se&enth chords 5e&enth Ma<or se&enth

+?
+? +; +;

Atonalism and microtonality

6*

This is page 2

Tonality at snapping point Tonality finally snaps F atonality is born

Microtonality

6* 6*
6?

Rhythm$ beat and groo&e

!rum theory
"ntroducing the drum parts.

?2
?2
?2

Trying atonality and microtonality for yourself

Microtonality and alternate tunings Tone clusters Tone rows

6?
6? 6? 6?

Actual rhythm
Time signatures Three fours.

?)
?) ?)

9ass rhythm
.hord root bassline Melodic bassline 4alking basslines

?+
?+ ?+ ?+

Motion
4riting chord progressions
5tability and consonance !ynamism and chord relationships Voice leading

63
63
63 -2 -2

1yrics
=ow' And why'
4hat to sing about 9rian BnoHs way of writing lyrics =ow to lyricise

?,
?,
?6 ?6 ?6

Resolution

-2

0otes resol&ing to harmony -2 =armonies resol&ing to a key -) Modulation -+ !irect modulation -+ :i&ot modulation -+ 5umming up modulation and resol&ing to a key -, .hords resol&ing to other chords -6 .adences and carrier chords e7plained -6 .hromatic &oice leading with altered chords -*

Rapping
Rapnotation :honetic de&ices Rhythmic de&ices 1yrical de&ices

???* ?? ?3

More on chord progressions

" got the blues An original chord progression to stare at

-*
-? -;

5tructure great and small

!ifferent le&els of musical structure Musical maps My 9loody Valentine and :lastiGue 9ertrand
5tructural e7tremes at odds

;2
;2 ;2 ;)
;+

5pecific chord progressions 1isten around you

-; -3

Ietting it arranged

;+ ;, ;6

Melody
4riting a melody

*2
*2

Mind in sound Final/ish words of inspiration

:rinciples of writing a harmonic melody *2 An e7ample harmonic melody using nodes and paths *2 An e7ample melody from pop music *) 4hen melody dri&es harmony *) Melody as embellishment *)

Further reading and bibliography The 9rief .hord !ictionary

=e7 what'

;* ;?
;;

.ounterpoint, or 4hat Took Me 4eeks To Figure #ut *)

Melody on Melody *+ =a&e you heard it upside/down and backwards yet' *,

Ilossary of terms .adence Appendi7

;3 32 3;
3; )22 )22 )22 )2)

Timbre melodies

*,

Variation and reharmonisation

TechniGues for harmony
Vague alteration Matching chord forms :rogressions with harmonic melody Tritone substitution 5tatic motion substitution

**** ** ** *? *;

The Final 4ord

.hanges Find Me Thanks 5oftware 1icence

TechniGues for melody

!irect ma<or%minor melody transposition

*;
*;

This is page 3

Preface
With the abundance of free music software on the Internet, be it open source or just the sort you're not made to pay for, and the ready availability of music-ma ing apparatus available at reasonable prices on e!ay, there ought to be a free and relatively comprehensive guide to composing music in this day and age too on these, our Interwebs" "t was true when " wrote that many years ago, and possibly still true now. 5o welcome to the Iuide Formerly Known as the Ra&enspiral Iuide$ a freely a&ailable online resource for tune/bangers without formal musical training who want to know more about music theory F without the history lessons, staff notation, and so on. The difference between the Ra&enspiral Iuide and a formal music theory course is that "Hm not a music teacher. " wonHt try to make you use any of the knowledge in this book CproperlyD. " ha&e no way of typesetting music notation nicely so " wonHt use it / " donHt need it to e7plain what "Hm going to e7plain. All you want is a way to play in my diagrams and charts on a polyphonic musical keyboard of some sort. #r an old piano. #r a piano accordion. 4hate&er you ha&e. The style is informal. "Hll introduce you to useful music theory concepts without boring the piss out of you or wasting your timeJ iHll try to consolidate commonly disco&ered musical knowledge with more esoteric stuffJ iHll showing you the sense behind the strange naming con&entions of chordsJ iHll e7plain things as simply as possible, or half/e7plain it and lea&ing you to disco&er the rest yourselfJ mostly, iHll drop more useful knowledge on you than you can immediately assimilate, then refuse to make sense of it for you. Take these trinkets and make of them what you will. The musical repertoire of the people who actually compile music theory books is mainly restricted to fairly respectable kinds of music such as classical, <aKK, funk, blues, pop, country and rock. ThereHs this weird, pointy/nosed academic taint to them which bothers me. 0one of them write electronic dance music, which in my e7perience does ha&e its own interesting @they might say Cnai&eDA musical con&entions and has had them for se&eral years. ThereHs always a gap to be bridged. As for guides written by people into electronic dance music' They tend to go off into the technology of making music and keep the music theory part way too basic so as not to o&erwhelm. =ence, dubstep. Typically, both of the aforementioned groups of people usually want you to buy their knowledge in the form of a book, subscription or downloadable &ideo. " put this guide out for free because the information in it is too useful for me to want to restrict it. 0uff polemic, then$ who am " to declare this is how things are to be done' My nameHs 5imon. " stuck this knowledge together from my own musical e7perience going from #ctamed :ro ).2 on the Amiga -22 in )33) up to writing orchestral game soundtracks in +2)+, filled out with good stuff from &arious books and websites. @The best and most remarkable ha&e been assembled in the bibliography and further reading section.A This guide kicked off way back in +22+ when a good comprehensi&e music theory guide for people who couldnHt read music @and didnHt want toA was sorely lacking. "tHs now +2)+, and the 5cribd &ersion of the Ra&enspiral Iuide comes up second in a Ioogle search for Cmusic theoryD, so " suppose " must be doing something right. "ncidentally, this guide will probably ne&er be finished or ready for paper publication, though iHm amenable to the idea of it being a free e9ook. There will always be errors, omissions and complete nonsense somewhere in this guide. 5o then, on with the info.

This is page #

Basic notations
As promised, iHm going to use non/standard but easy to understand notations for the music in this guide. TheyHre non/standard because of necessity$ you need to understand what iHm talking about, and " donHt want to typeset standard notation either.

)otations
#ne sort of notation iLm going to use should be immediately familiar, the other perhaps not so. There will also be some <argon words in&ol&ed, but iLll e7plain those as we get to them. First off, notes$

Real notation
C# D# Db Eb F# G# A# Gb Ab Bb

C D E F G A B C
=ereLs a diagram of which notes are which on a standard issue piano keyboardMshould you need it, of course. The black keys are in bold and white keys are in normal type. And no, iHm not sure why AHs in the middle either. "n one single octa&e from . to 9 there are )+ notes, and iH&e included the . at the top end to make up thirteen notes to annoy the superstitious. And now for @wholeA tones and semitones / also known as steps and half/steps respecti&ely. 9etween . and .N is the distance of one semitone, because .N is one note up from .. ThereHs no note between . and .N). 9etween . and ! there is a distance of one whole tone because . is two notes away from ! @counting .N of courseA. 9etween B and F, howe&er, there is the distance of a single semitone, not a whole tone since thereHs no black key between them. The same goes between 9 and .. From !N to F is the distance of one whole tone, because between !N and F is B. From ! to F is three semitones. From . to B is four semitones. From . to I is se&en semitones. From . to the . abo&e is twel&e semitones. .ount them yourself if you donHt trust me. "n fact, iHll do it for you. 5tart at . and count upwards by semitones, then.. .N makes ), ! makes +, !N makes ,, B makes four. F makes fi&e, FN makes si7, I makes se&en. IN makes eight, A makes nine, AN makes ten, 9 makes ele&en, . makes twel&e. VoilO. 5harps and flats are the ne7t port of call. .N is one semitone up from .. "f you sharpen ., therefore, it becomes .N @pronounced . sharpA. !b is one semitone down from !. "f you flatten !, you end up with !b @pronounced ! flatA. 5o in music, to to sharpen something is to raise it by a semitone, and to flatten it is to lower it by a semitone. The usual sign for a flat is and the sharp is usually notated with , and in their place iH&e used b and N respecti&ely to sa&e typesetting time. 5harps and flats are sometimes known as accidentals, which i find somewhat pe<orati&e considering that when a note is neither sharpened nor flattened it is called a natural note. The musical symbol for a natural note is , and itHs used in common musical notation where a note should be played unaccidentalated where itHs otherwise been established that it should be played either sharp or flat. 0ote its hidden potential to be a subliminal 5chutKstaffel logo. " ha&e no handy A5."" eGui&alent of the natural sign and shanHt bother using it.
) This will later be revealed as a filthy untruth under certain tonally esoteric circumstances.

This is page $

Two notes are enharmonic when they refer to the same pitch$ .N and !b are enharmonic, as are FN and Ib. At least they are these days. They werenHt before the time of 9ach, which made lots of music sound rather out of tune when it was played in a different key. 4hat determines the name you use for a note with more than one name has much to do with the key or scale youLre using. KeysMnot the keys on a keyboard, the other sortMare e7plained in part )b. 5cales get e7plained around then too. The abo&e knowledge is fundamental / iLll be using it to teach you about other things like scales, so be sure you know what semitones and whole tones are before continuing. "n fact, pay close attention when we start on the ma<or scale or youHll be absolutely rooted+ by the time we get to chords.

Abstract notation
This notation is adapted from music analysis and will be used e7clusi&ely for talking about chords and chord progression, mainly where it concerns chord functions. @Pust nod to yourself.A " will not use it to talk about notes like other te7ts, because Roman numerals are Guite pretentious enough. The best reason for a musician to know them, in all honesty, is so that youHre better eGuipped to understand other far <uicier material that goes into chord progressions. Anyway, here they are.

#I bII

#II bIII

#IV bV

#V bVI

#VI bVII

I II III IV V VI VII I'

"n this guide, Roman numerals stand for the root @baseA notes of chords in a particular key, e7cept weLre not specifying which one. The e7ample diagram up yonder uses . as its root note, represented by the Roman numeral I; " itself would stand for a chord based on ., V would stand for a chord based on I, bV"" would stand for a chord based on 9b, and so on. "f it doesnHt make sense, compare the diagram abo&e with the diagram of note names on the pre&ious page. "f the relati&e root note were changed to F, then the abstract notes would map to the following real notes$

#V bVI

#VI bVII

#I bII

#II bIII

IV

'V 'VI'VII I II III #IV V

bV
=ere you can see that the " is now assigned to F. 4hereas with . as ", "V is assigned to F, with F as ", "V is assigned to 9b. . therefore shares the same relation with F that F shares with 9b. EouLll learn to
+ Rooted as in screwed, not as in someone will be cheering for you. Though I am cheering for you.

This is page %

describe that relationship when we get to inter&als. Abstract notation is particularly useful for talking about chords in seGuence without tying things down to a particular series of notes. As long as you can translate a string of Roman numerals in the place of actual notes to the key of your choice, any discussion of chord progressions wonLt seem as daunting. #ther guides tend to use it more than i do F there will always be easy/to/deal/with e7amples. Another con&ention youHll see other guides use in&ol&ing Roman numerals which i think is rather pants is putting minor chords in lowercase. For instance, a progression spelt i / "V / V would translate to .mi, F, I when played in the key of .. " prefer being less ambiguous and would spell such a progression "mi, "V, V. "n this document, capitalised Roman numerals with optional chord descriptions like ", V"mi and NVsus6 will refer to chords by their root note, relati&e to whate&er key you play them in. @:ersonally i test most progressions in ., being something of a simpleton.A V" in the abo&e e7ample is not representati&e of the note ! but a chord formed using ! as its root note. "nter&als will be represented with common or garden numbers such as ), 3 and 6 with sharpening or flattening put before them as reGuired @N), b6A, and will be used for spelling chords. @!onHt worry if you donHt know what an inter&al is yet, because they get co&ered in chapter +.A At one point iH&e started putting the spellings of specific chords underneath them, such as in the following e7ample$ F
FA.

!mi
!FA

F
FA.

!mi
!FA

Bb

9b

Bb

9b, .
9b ! F, . B I

Bb I 9b

9b ! F

Bb I 9b

:lay the notes underneath the chord at the same time, and youHll be playing that particular chord. " call these furinotesJ theyHre the notational eGui&alent of little miniature Papanese characters called furigana which are put abo&e kan<i characters @which might be pronounced any number of ways depending on conte7tA to gi&e learners an easy way of pronouncing them. 9ut before chords, "Hm going to write about scales.

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Scales The !ew "enace

5cales function as a series of notes to pick melodies from. The word scale comes from the "talian word scala, meaning ladder, and so musical scales ha&e more in common semantically with scaling sheer rock faces than the scales of <ustice, or the scales on a fish. 4hen a scale is presented in the abstract, itLs gi&en as a series of melodic inter&als of semitones, whole tones, and in some cases @like the pentatonicA whole/and/semitones. "n the diagrams these will be represented by w, s and wQs respecti&ely. Bach scale has a fundamental tone which lends itself to the scaleLs name e.g. . ma<or, 9 minor, ! wholetone 4hyLs it important to know your scales' As iL&e suggested before, each scale is like a palette of notes to pick your melody from. #f course the rules arenHt as simple as this at allJ you can make the opportunity for yourself to change scales midway through a song if you like. sing a note which isnHt part of the scale youH&e picked can also make your melody Guite striking. First i ha&e to teach you about scales. Then you can start bending the rules.

*iatonic scales
!iatonic scales ha&e nothing to do with diarrhoea brought on by drinking tonic water, so stop thinking that. They are se&en note scales @not counting the repeated note at the topA and being as common as they are make a good place to start.

"a#or
. ma<or is the first scale i co&er because itLs so easy$ "tLs the white keys on the keyboard starting at ..

C major scale

Bach of the coloured/in notes is part of the scale of . ma<or. The coloured notes are ., !, B, F, I, A, 9 and . again. :lay it on your keyboard from bottom . to top . and youLll ha&e done your first scale. 9ra&o. 9ut only a Guiet bra&o because itHs easy to play the scale of . ma<or. The blue note in the diagram is I, the fifth note of the scale. The fifth note of the scale ser&es many important harmonic functions which iHll co&er later. For now, it makes the diagram prettier. The classic ma<or scale has a special pattern of gaps between the different notes. 5tarting from the root note, you go up a whole tone for your ne7t note @!, the secondA skipping the note between them @in this case, .NA, then youHre up another whole tone for your ne7t note @B, the thirdA skipping !N. "nstead of going up a whole tone for the fourth note, you go only a semitone up to F. For the fifth note of the ma<or scale, you go up a whole tone @to I in our e7ampleA, skipping a note along the way @FNA. For the si7th note, you go up a whole tone again @to AA again skipping a note along the way @INA. For the se&enth note, you go up yet another whole tone @to 9A, yet again skipping a note along the way

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@ANA. And for the eighth and final note of the scale, you once again ad&ance but a semitone, and youHre e7actly an octa&e higher @at the rightmost orange ., in our caseA. 9y starting at different notes like ! or FN and rising up the scale with the same pattern you can deri&e any ma<or scale you need. 9ecause the patternHs the same but weHre starting off with a different root note, a couple of the black keys are used for the ! ma<or scale.

D major scale

=ere you can see that the ! ma<or scale goes up onto the black notes twice to preser&e the same pattern of semitones and whole tones as the . ma<or scale. The FN ma<or scale on the other hand spends most of its time up on the black notes.

F# major scale

All of these ma<or scales are the same simple rising melody started on different notes.

The Circle of $ifths

For those of you who like crudely formatted charts, hereLs all the ma<or scales ordered by the mystical .ircle of Fifths from bottom to top, or the .ircle of Fourths from top to bottom. @0o, iHm not changing it.A FN ma<or 9 ma<or B ma<or A ma<or ! ma<or I ma<or . ma<or F ma<or 9b ma<or Bb ma<or Ab ma<or * sharps - sharps 6 sharps , sharps + sharps ) sharps 0o accidentals ) flat + flats , flats 6 flats FN IN AN 9 .N !N BN @FA FN 9 .N !N B FN IN AN 9 B FN IN A 9 .N !N B A 9 .N ! B FN IN A ! B FN I A 9 .N ! I A 9 . ! B FN I .!BFIA9. F I A 9b . ! B F 9b . ! Bb F I A 9b Bb F I Ab 9b . ! Bb Ab 9b . !b Bb F Ib Ab

This is page (

FN ma<or !b ma<or Ib ma<or

* sharps - flats * flats

FN IN AN 9 .N !N BN @FA FN !b Bb F Ib Ab 9b . !b Ib Ab 9b .b @9A !b Bb F Ib

The way it works is this$ the fifth of any note is the fifth note in its ma<or @or minorA scaleJ in the scale diagrams, these notes were marked blue. I is the fifth note of . ma<or, and the scale of I ma<or has one sharp note in it, FN. ! is the fifth note of I ma<or and has two sharp notes in it, FN and .N. A is the fifth note of ! ma<or and has three sharp notes in it, FN and .N and IN. And so on until you get to FN. .on&ersely, . is the fifth note of F ma<or, and F ma<or has one flat in it$ 9b. F is the fifth note of 9b ma<or, and 9b ma<or has two flats in it, 9b itself and Bb. Bb is the fifth note of 9b ma<or, and Bb ma<or has three flats$ 9b, Bb, and Ab. And so on again. The circle of fifths becomes a circle when it reaches FN in the sharp series and Ib in the flat series. FN and Ib are of course enharmonic, being as they are the same note. And thatHs the circle. 5ince itHs Guicker to call the fifth note of a scale a HfifthH, this relationship between the different notes is called the .ircle of Fifths. And thatHs not my capitalisation either. Told you fifths were important>

"inor scales
4hat makes a scale ma<or or minor is the state of the third$ if itHs two whole tones up from the root note, the scale is ma<orJ if itHs a whole tone and a half up from the third, it is a minor scale. There are a few fla&ours of minor scale$ the natural minor, which is directly relatable to the ma<or scales, and the harmonic minor, which is a slight modification of the natural minor scale. ThereHs also the melodic minor.

0atural or &anilla minor

Eou can deri&e the natural minor scales from ma<or scales in a couple of ways. Eour first option is to flatten the third, si7th and se&enth notes of each ma<or scale, lea&ing the root, second, fourth and fifth notes all as they normally are in the ma<or scale. 4hen you do that to . ma<or to get . minor, it looks like this$

C natural minor scale

ThereLs another way to tell what notes are in a particular minor scale by using a special relationship between the ma<or and minor scales. Bach ma<or scale has a relati&e minor scale, and you can determine the relati&e minor by using the ma<or scaleLs si7th note. "n the case of . ma<or, the si7th note of the scale is A. This means that A minor uses e7actly the same notes as . ma<or, e7cept with a different starting point$ A 9 . ! B F I A.

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A natural minor scale C major scale

The scale of F ma<or uses the same notes as its relati&e minor, the scale ! minor$ ! B F I A 9b . !. Relati&e minors are useful in composition because they allow you to potter from one key to the ne7t without ha&ing to change notes. Again, keyHs co&ered in the section after this. =ere are the natural minor scales in chart form, again following the .ircle of Fifths upwards and the .ircle of Fourths downwards. !N minor IN minor .N minor FN minor 9 minor B minor A minor ! minor I minor . minor F minor 9b minor Bb minor * sharps - sharps 6 sharps , sharps + sharps ) sharps 0o accidentals ) flat + flats , flats 6 flats - flats * flats !N BN @FA FN IN AN 9 .N !N IN AN 9 .N !N B FN IN .N !N B FN IN A 9 .N FN IN A 9 .N ! B FN 9 .N ! B FN I A 9 B FN I A 9 . ! B A9.!BFIA ! B F I A 9b . ! I A 9b . ! Bb F I . ! Bb F I Ab 9b . F Ib Ab 9b . !b Bb F 9b . !b Bb F Ib Ab 9b Bb F Ib Ab 9b .b @9A !b Bb

The natural minor is the same as the Aeolian mode.

=armonic or strawberry minor

=armonic minor scales are e7actly the same as natural minor scales e7cept that the se&enth note of the scale is only a semitone lower than the octa&e note, instead of a full tone lower than the octa&e note. "n the case of A minor, this makes the scale run A 9 . ! B F IN A. The harmonic minor is also known as the Mohammedan scale. Alternati&ely, <ust flatten the third and si7th notes of a ma<or scale. The harmonic minor scale of I, for instance, goes like this$

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G harmonic minor scale

Melodic or chocolate fudge minor

The difference between the melodic minor scale and the ma<or scale is that the melodic minor has a flattened third note. ThatHs about it. "tHs barely a minor scale at all, but due to the flattened third note it manages to slip into this group. The melodic minor is much belo&ed of <aKKniks and pro&ides them with a few more modes and degrees to impro&ise in.

C melodic minor scale

Pentatonic scales
As their name suggests @at least it does if you know IreekA pentatonic scales ha&e fi&e notes instead of se&en. "Lm introducing them in detail alongside the ma<or and minor scales because they are much less likely to turn around and bite your ears off when you use them to write a melody. "tLs the truth. =ereLs the . ma<or pentatonic scale.

C major pentatonic scale

"tLs e7actly like the . ma<or scale with the fourth and se&enth notes @F and 9A missing. This is useful because it means there arenLt any notes a semitone apart, and any note you play ne7t to one another is unlikely to <ar horribly with the one ne7t to it. "f you want an easy/to/remember pentatonic scale, you can do no better than FN ma<or pentatonic.

This is page )2

This is why.

F# major pentatonic scale

Eep, that annoying song people play with their knuckles on the piano is in FN pentatonic. Much #riental music is in &arious pentatonic scales as well, and thatLs the mood pentatonic scales usually e&oke. =ereLs a chart of all the ma<or pentatonic scales, following the circle of fifths again. FN ma< pent 9 ma< pent B ma< pent A ma< pent ! ma< pent I ma< pent . ma< pent F ma< pent 9b ma< pent Bb ma< pent Ab ma< pent - sharps 6 sharps , sharps + sharps ) sharps 0o accidentals 0o accidentals 0o accidentals ) flat + flats , flats FN IN AN .N !N FN 9 .N !N FN IN 9 B FN IN 9 .N B A 9 .N B FN A ! B FN A 9 ! IA9!BI .!BIA. FIA.!F 9b . ! F I 9b Bb F I 9b . Bb Ab 9b . Bb F Ab !b Bb F Ab 9b !b Ib Ab 9b !b Bb Ib

!b ma< pent 6 flats Ib ma< pent - flats

The minor pentatonic scales can be deri&ed from the ma<or ones using the relati&e minor method discussed in the last part, e7cept itLs the fifth note of the pentatonic scale that forms the root note of the relati&e minor because the fourth note gets skipped. !eri&ed from the Bb scale, the . minor pentatonic scale is . Bb F I 9b .. 9ut letHs ha&e something other than the . minor pentatonic. =ere, letHs ha&e a diagram of BbHs minor pentatonic so the black notes donHt feel too left out.

D# minor pentatonic scale

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Synthetic and alternative scales

There are more scales than merely the pentatonics and the ma<or%minors. 5ome of them might turn out to be &ery useful for you, so theyLre worth taking a look at e&en if only in passing.

%hole tone scale

1ea&e a whole tone between each note and you end up with a se&en/note scale called a whole tone scale.

C wholetone scale

This is the scale you want when you feel like adding a touch of the mystical and strange to your music. "t sounds Guite distinct and fantastic when used right, and you can write acid lines with the whole tone scale &ery easily. The whole toneHs floatiness is partly to do with an inter&al named the tritone which iHll mention again in the chapter on inter&als, and partly because it hasnHt got a perfect fifth in it to anchor down the root note. All chords that e7clusi&ely use notes from this scale share its characteristic eeriness. "f youH&e got a copy of KraftwerkHs +pacelab, listen to the intro of it for a nice whole tone scale. "f not, donHt feel bad since i donHt ha&e that Kraftwerk album either.

Blues scale
The blues scale is slightly strange compared to the other scales iH&e co&ered here but it really really works. B&en the diagramHs got the blues this time.

F blues scale, brother

Told you. "t really works though. "tHs inspiringly functional, in fact. "tHs basically a minor pentatonic scale with an added sharp fourth note, singled out in the diagram with purple. This scaleHs got a whole lot of soul, and iHm sure i play more or less e&ery funk bassline i can think of with a &ariation of these notes.

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Chromatic scale
@4hat' This isnHt a scale. 4hat was " on when " wrote this bit' #h well, may as well get this o&er with now..A The chromatic scale is a funny sort of scale, because it uses all twel&e tones of the octa&e. This scale can be used in many ways and makes the ma<or and minor diatonic scales seem pretty conser&ati&e. The root note of the scale as well as the fourth and fifth are still as important in writing melodies in this scale, but the chromatic scale allows you to use any note you please. "t takes a bit more practice to use it than the diatonic scales, and takes way more practice to use than the pentatonic scales. "tHs not really worth doing a diagram for, since e&ery noteHs being used. Io and colour one of the other diagrams in with te7ta or something. The Aphe7 Twin has his fair share of Guite chromatic melodies and chordsMor maybe itLs <ust that he doesnLt bother staying in the same key for more than a second or two at a time because he ne&er learnt about proper music theory. @:hilip Ilass said so.A 5till, heHs got a tank and li&es in a bank, so iHll shut up.

"icrotonal scales
Microtonal scales go beyond the con&entional twel&e/tone scale and begin inserting notes in the semitone wide spaces between the notes. "L&e got e&en less e7perience with this sort of thing than i do with chromatic scales, but rumour has it that 4endy .arlos is a microtonal scale boffin. Microtonal scales are a bit further out than most composers need to consider, me included, but if you feel the need to in&estigate the sounds of these scales you should do a search for RmicrotonalL on Ioogle. ,ontano is a nice microtonal piece by Transyl&anian composer IySrgy 1igeti which was used in The +hining.

"ore scales than a fat bastard fish, mate&

<ts &ery helpfully pointed out a scale chart at http$%%www.harmony/central.com%Iuitar%e7otic/scales.t7t which was compiled by Ale7ander Bdward 5ager @aesagerTacs6.acs.ucalgary.caA. "Lll reproduce and analyse some of them into tones and semitones here. A lot of them are subtle &ariations of one another as youLll Guickly notice when you play them. The scales are usually spelt with . as the root note, so of course you can transpose them any way you like. From the names of these scales you might guess that many of them are tied to particular cultures. The 9yKantine scale for instance is distinctly Middle Bastern, and the fi&e note scales are generally @though not alwaysA used in Bastern Asia. "tLs not at all impossible that some of my analyses of the spaces between the notes are wrong if not a bit confusing, so when in doubt use the gi&en notes as your guide. Furthermore, "Lm not going to go into detail on how these are meant to be used as " honestly wouldnLt ha&e a clue myself. "H&e also spelt out the scales in terms of the notes in a ma<or scale. For instance, in the Mongolian scale you ha&e ) + , - * )HJ this means that if you play the first, second, third, fifth and si7th notes in a normal ma<or scale, then play the first note e7cept an octa&e higher, youH&e played a Mongolian scale. For the Papanese scale, ) b, 6 - b? )H , you play the first note of the ma<or scale, then the third note flattened one semitone, then the fourth and fifth notes as normal, then play the se&enth note flattened before mo&ing up to the eighth.

Fi&e note scales

Mongolian$ .!BIA. .w.w.wQs.w.wQs. ) + , - * )H

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major pentatonic -the blac eys starting at ./0 Papanese$ . Bb F I Ab . minor pentatonic -the blac eys beginning at 1/0 Bgyptian$ . ! F I 9b . in sen pentatonic -the blac eys beginning at 2/0 =ira<oshi$ A9.BFA Kumoi$ BFA9.B "wato$ 9.BFA9 9alinese$ . !b Bb I Ab . :elog$ . !b Bb I 9b .

.wQs.w.w.wQs.w. .w.wQs.w.wQs.w. .w.w.wQw.s.wQw .s.wQw.w.s.wQw. .s.wQw.s.wQw.s. .s.w.wQw.wQs.w. .s.w.wQw.wQs.w.

) b, 6 - b? )H ) + 6 - b? )H ) + b, - b* )H ) b+ 6 - b* )H ) b+ 6 b- b? )H ) b+ b, - b* )H ) b+ b, - b? )H

5e&en note ma<or scales

#riental$ . !b B F Ib A 9b . !ouble =armonic$ . !b B F I Ab 9 . Bnigmatic$ . !b B FN IN AN 9 . Ma<or :hrygian$ . !b B F I Ab 9b . also nown as the 3ewish and +panish scales Iypsy%9yKantine$ . !b B F I Ab 9 . :ersian$ . !b B F Ib Ab 9 . Ma<or 1ocrian$ . ! B F Ib Ab 9b . also nown as the 4rabian 1ydian Minor$ . ! B FN I Ab 9b . 1eading 4hole Tone$ . ! B FN IN AN 9 . =indu$ . ! B F I Ab 9b . #&ertone%Acoustic$ . ! B FN I A 9b . said to be the most psychoacoustically natural scale .s.wQs.s.s.s.wQs.s.w .s.wQs.s.w.s.wQs.s. .s.wQs.w.w.w.s.s .s.wQs.s.w.s.w.w. .s.wQs.s.w.s.wQs.s. .s.wQs.s.s.w.wQs.s. .w.w.s.s.w.w.w. .w.w.w.s.s.w.w. .w.w.w.w.w.s. .w.w.s.w.s.w.w. .w.w.w.s.w.s.w. ) b+ , 6 b- * b? )H ) b+ , 6 - b* ? )H ) b+ , N6 N- N* ? )H ) b+ , 6 - b* b? )H ) b+ , 6 - b* ? )H ) b+ , 6 b- b* ? )H ) + , 6 b- b* b? )H ) + , N6 - b* b? )H ) + , N6 N- N* ? )H ) + , 6 - b* b? )H ) + , N6 - * b? )H

5e&en note minor scales

Pa&anese$ =ungarian Iypsy$ Altered scale$ . !b Bb F I A 9b . . ! Bb FN I Ab 9b . . !b !N B FN Ab 9b . .s.w.w.w.w.wQs.w. .w.s.w.s.s.w.w. .s.w.s.w.w.w.w. ) b+ b, 6 - * b? )H ) + b, N6 - b* b? )H ) b+ N+ , N6 b* b? )H

5e&en note scale pairs

=ungarian Minor$ =ungarian Ma<or$ 0eapolitan Minor$ 0eapolitan Ma<or$ . ! Bb FN I Ab 9 . . !N B FN I A 9b . . !b Bb F I Ab 9 . . !b Bb F I A 9 . .w.s.w.s.s.wQs.s. .wQs.s.w.s.w.w.w. .s.w.w.w.s.wQs.s. .s.w.w.w.w.w.s. ) + b, N6 - b* ? )H ) N+ , N6 - * b? )H ) b+ b, 6 - b* ? )H ) b+ b, 6 - * ? )H

5cales with more than se&en notes

5panish ; Tone$ . !b Bb B F Ib Ab 9b . 4hole/half diminished . ! Bb F FN IN A 9 . =alf/whole diminished . !b Bb B FN I A 9b . .s.w.s.s.s.w.w.w. .w.s.w.s.w.s etc .s.w.s.w.s.w etc ) b+ b, , 6 - b- b* b? )H ) + b, 6 N6 N- * ? )H ) b+ b, , N6 - * b? )H

The modes+
, This bit sourced mainly from htt' ((en.wi)i'edia.org(wi)i(*a++,scale

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This is a set of scales with a history of use in the church, but these days modes are associated almost entirely with <aKK. "f youL&e e&er heard anyone talk about ionian, mi7olydian or lydian modes, theyLre easy enough to hear for yourself F and for the ma<or scale modes at least, you donHt e&en ha&e to touch the black keys on your keyboard.

"a#or scale modes

These are the modes of the ma<or scale. As you can see, thereHs no black keys to play, but each of these modes has its own specific harmonic colour. "onian !orian :hrygian 1ydian Mi7olydian Aeolian 1ocrian C!BFIA9. -BFIA9.! .FIA9.!B $IA9.!BF /A9.!BFI A9.!BFIA B.!BFIA9 no alterations b,, b? b+, b,, b*, b? N6 b? b,, b*, b? b+, b,, b-, b*, b?

The aeolian mode is the same as the natural minor scale, and the ionian mode is the same as the ma<or scale. " personally like the mi7olydian mode Guite a lot for its flattened se&enth. 5o did that 9eatles song +trawberry .ields.

"elodic minor scale modes

These are the modes of the melodic minor scale. "n all of these e7amples, thereHs one black key to play F <ust the Bb. ThatHs the one between ! and B. "tHs not so bad. 9ut one note out of place makes a heap of difference. Ascending melodic minor 1ydian augmented 1ydian dominant Mi7olydian flat *th =alf/diminished Altered scale C ! Bb F I A 9 . .b F I A 9 . ! B $ I A 9 . ! Bb F / A 9 . ! Bb F I A 9 . ! Bb F I A B . ! Bb F I A 9 b, b+, b,, b? N6, NN6, b? b*, b? b,, b-, b*, b? b+, b,, b6, b-, b*, b?

!orian +%:hrygian nat *th - Bb F I A 9 . !

#f course, the modes can be in whate&er key you like F . mi7olydian would be . ! B F I A 9b .. 9ut if you want to hear their harmonic character, thatHs the Cwhite keys onlyD &ersion. Bach mode, as with each scale, has a particular feel and use which youLre best off disco&ering yourself instead of being told how to use them. Miles !a&is, the pioneering trumpet player and <aKK composer, dusted modes off and <aKKed around with them, and itHs for that reason that <aKK reference books will ha&e the most to tell you about modes in general. The 3a55 Theory !oo by Mark 1e&ine is absolutely nuts about them, for instance, but itHs not worth touching on modes further until after weH&e dealt with chords, and thatHs a couple of chapters off yet. 0ot to mention that book actually talks about modes as though they actually are chords and " donHt want to go there <ust yet.

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0ey
4hatLs the difference between scale and key' 1etLs clear this up now that iL&e used the word RkeyL a few times before i say something stupid to the effect that the concept of a key is eGual to the concept of a scale. Though theyLre related to one another, theyLre not eGual at all. Though they may well refer to the same group of notes from time to time, their senses are &ery different. 4hen itLs said that a song is in the key of . ma<or, this means that the note . acts as the melodic centre of the song, and that the chord . acts as the harmonic centre. "f a song is in the key of 9b minor, this means that 9b is the melodic centre of the song, and that the chord 9bmi acts as the harmonic centre. "tLs not that the key note or chord is necessarily the most freGuent note or chord, or e&en played louder than other chords. To proclaim the key of a piece of music means that youLre anchoring the music on a certain note and tonality @ma<or%minorA. To state a key is to in&oke a matri7 of relationships between the key note and all other notes, and the key chord and all other chords. B&ery note you play is then of that key, and e&ery chord you play is also of that key, because using those relationships and that structure all of the music in a particular key points tacitly back towards the key note and the key chord. "f this sounds like a tricky balancing act and that youLd rather take up painting instead of writing music, let me tell you this right away$ music with no key at all is nowhere near as common as music with a key. "tLs only since the later );32s that the idea of key came to be challenged by composers like 5choenberg with twel&e/tone systems and serialism that threw out the idea of key centres to see what would happen. Music with a key comes far more naturally to a composer because with a centre comes a recognisable geography of sorts, whereupon the harmony and melody can come away from and head back towards this centre. 9ra&e new sounds aside, music with a key is familiar. #nce you remo&e the familiarity of the key centre, youLre na&igating into much stranger waters where it will help to know rules before you break them. "f youL&e e&er heard a piece of music referred 5uch/And/5uch "n ! Minor, youLll ha&e already encountered key designation$ in this e7ample, ! is the designated key note which plays the role of a central note, and the piece will tend towards using the minor scale of the key note. @That most infamous of songs reputedly in ! minor, KyleLs MomLs a 9itch in ! minor, isnLt in ! minor, for the recordJ it starts off around . ma<or and ascends in key a few times, probably more in the mo&ie &ersion. Anyone who thinks therefore that Trey :arker doesnLt know anything about music theory should immediately find .annibal The Musical and check out the argument that the trappers ha&e with the miners about singing off/key.A The key of a song can change o&er the course of the song through key changes. "f you can cast your mind back to the )3?2s and )3;2s where pop songs would freGuently <ump up a whole tone towards the end for the hell of it, thatLs an e7ample of a key change. Eou donLt hear key changes too much anymore in music, as they sound kind of retro. 5cales are like an e7pression of the key$ scales speak more of a palette of a&ailable notes, with a gi&en fundamental or root note that relates to all the other notes in the scale both harmonically and melodically. Key on the other hand describes a certain note along with a certain tonality which dominates the song and to which other notes and harmonies resol&e. Resolution gets discussed later in the section on chord progressions. Eou can go up and down scales, but you canLt go up and down a key. A song can make use of a scale but you wonLt e&er find a song designated in the key of . pentatonic. 0o such key e7ists.

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Intervals
"nter&als are measurements between notes, and the basis of harmony. Eou talk about inter&als when you want to describe the tonal nature of chords, as opposed to <ust spelling them with Roman numerals. To speak of inter&als in&ol&es two concepts, consonance and dissonance. Consonance @notes sitting together nicelyA and dissonance @notes <arring with one anotherA are elements of harmony you can manipulate to whate&er effect you please. This chapter will gi&e you some grounding in manipulating consonance and dissonance to your ad&antage to create whate&er musical effect youHre after.

)aming the intervals, ordinal names

unison !" major second #" major third $" per%ect %ourth &" per%ect %i%th '" major si(th, diminished se)enth *" major se)enth +" octa)e ," ninth -" %lat ele)enth b!!" ele)enth !!" thirteenth !$" b#" minor second b$" minor third b'" tritone, diminished %i%th #'" au.mented %i%th, minor si(th b+" minor se)enth b-" %lat ninth #-" sharp ninth #!!" sharp ele)enth b!$" %lat thirteenth #!$" %lat thirteenth

This chart6 gi&es us the inter&als relati&e from our old friend .. As with the abstract notation in section Kero, the notes that the inter&als denote change based on what the root note is determined to be. EouH&e already encountered a primiti&e &ersion of the inter&al spelling system abo&e in the scales section where i was spelling out scales for you.

Consonance, dissonance, and the harmonic series

The relationship between the root and the perfect fifth @with . as root, . and IA is &ery consonant indeedJ if the relationship werenLt consonant, guitar power chords wouldnLt sound as good as they do. The two notes fit together well when played simultaneously. 9y contrast, the root and the minor second @. and .NA played together sound &ery <arring indeed. The relationship between the root and the perfect fifth is described as consonant, and the relationship between the root and the minor second, one semitone up, is described as being dissonant. The root and the ma<or second @. and !A also create a bit of dissonance when played at the same time, but itHs much softer dissonance than the dissonance between the root and the minor second. 9y comparison, the root and the perfect fourth arenLt Guite as consonant as the root and the perfect fifth are either, partly due to simple physical relationships between the root note and its inter&al. 5ome notes are much more dissonant in combination with one another than others, and some sound more consonant in combination than others. Right in the middle of all this consonance and dissonance
6 I1ve mi2ed u' #a++ and conventional terminology here. -on1t get your )nic)ers in a twist.

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you ha&e an inter&al called by &arious names$ the tritone, the diminished fifth, and the augmented fourth are three of its most common names. To hear this inter&al in action, play a . and an FN at once. "tLs a bit floaty andH spooky, isnLt it' The clergy used to call it diabolus in musica and all but banned its use in religious music. 4hen i first heard the tritone being blatantly used, it was in the Assembly :arty intro by Future .rew and i demanded to know from my friend what that chord seGuence was. The tritone is notable for being the only inter&al relationship that is symmetrical. . is the tritone of FN, and FN is the tritone of .. 9y contrast, I might be the perfect fifth of ., but . is only the perfect fourth of I. "tHs definitely worth e7ploring the inter&al relationships yourself using a keyboard, because theyLre e7cellent to know when you want to make up your own chords from scratch or pull apart e7isting ones to get how they work. Very consonant inter&als$ perfect fifth, octave Fairly consonant inter&als$ major or minor third, major fourth, si6th7diminished seventh 4eird floaty inter&al$ augmented fourth7diminished fifth, a a the tritone Fairly dissonant inter&als$ major second, minor seventh Very dissonant inter&als$ minor second, major seventh Any chord you make will ultimately be characterised by these dissonances and consonances. 1etLs look at the . ma<or chord for an e7ample$ . B I. :lay all three notes at once. =ere we ha&e a root note, a ma<or third and a perfect fifth @., B and IA. The perfect fifth is totally consonant, and the ma<or third is Guite consonant. 9ut also note that the perfect fifth note of the root @IA is the minor third note relati&e to the chordHs ma<or third note @BA. This adds to the chordHs consonance. "f we were to add an FN to a . ma<or chord and play it . B FN I, weLd ha&e a note that would clash badly with I @minor secondA, Guite a bit with B @ma<or secondA and would unsettle . a bit @augmented fourthA. The sound of the chord doesnLt change that much as it would if we were to change the boundaries of the chord by adding something lower than . or higher than I, though. =ereLs an inter&al chart with ! as the root note, <ust to scuttle any intentions you might ha&e of writing e&ery piece of music possible in .$

unison !" major second #" minor third b$" per%ect %ourth &" per%ect %i%th '" major si(th, diminished se)enth *" minor se)enth b+" octa)e ," ninth -" sharp ninth #-" ele)enth !!" thirteenth !$" sharp thirteenth #!$"

b#" minor second $" major third b'" tritone, diminished %i%th #'" au.mented %i%th, minor si(th +" major se)enth b-" %lat ninth b!!" %lat ele)enth #!!" sharp ele)enth b!$" %lat thirteenth

"Hd like to finish off the inter&als chapter with a colourful and hopefully useful reference chart for your delectation, colour coded to make it easier to use, but bollocks to that idea because iH&e <ust spent ele&en hours on this guide and i need a rest. 0e7t edition perhaps. $A

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)aming the intervals yet again, functions

As luck would ha&e it, the inter&als ha&e a completely different set of somewhat older names which run parallel to the ones that iH&e <ust gone through F these names are describe harmonic functions and usually refer to chords. 5ome of these names are more important to know than others. The root note is known as the tonic, because it is this note that is the fundamental tone. :laying two tonics one after the other is more a thing of rhythm than of melody. The ma<or second is known as the supertonic, since itHs one note abo&e the tonic. +uper is 1atin for abo&e. "f itHs a minor second, then itHs a minor supertonic. 9oth supertonic inter&als grate against one another somewhat played in unison, moreso the minor than the ma<or. The ma<or third is called the mediant, being as it is right between the root and all/important fifth. "tHs from the 1atin word medio, in the middle. The minor third is identified as the minor mediant. The full mediant o&er the tonic has a strong and happy Guality, while the minor mediant o&er the tonic has a sombre Guality to it. The fourth is called the subdominant, and the fifth is called the dominant. 4hat these names refer to is that if you go up fi&e notes on a normal scale from the root note, you come to the fifth. The fifth is indeed the dominant note of the scale after the root. Thus the fourth, being one note below the dominant, is the subdominant. +ub is the 1atin word for below and has nothing to do with healthy sandwiches or underwater &essels. The subdominant o&er the tonic has a sort of planted strength to it, while the dominant o&er the tonic has a more forthright strength. 9etween the dominant and the subdominant lies the diminished fifth. "tHs this naming system that ga&e it the name tritone, because itHs three whole tones @si7 semitonesA away from the root. Remember, the tritone relationship between two notes is symmetrical. A tritone o&er the tonic sounds floaty and weird. The ma<or si7th is called the superdominant, since itHs one note up from the dominant, or the submediant, since itHs the e7act same amount of notes downward from the root note as the mediant is upward. "f itHs a minor si7th, itHs the minor submediant. The ma<or submediant o&er the tonic has an almost lilting Guality, while the minor submediant is somewhat spooky. The ma<or se&enth is called the leading note, because it leads into the tonic so naturally. The leading note is an inter&al unlike any other in sound, e&en more striking than the tritone when played o&er the tonic> The minor se&enth is so important compared to the other flattened inter&als that itHs got a special name for itself$ the subtonic. The subtonic has a suspended, unresol&ed Guality o&er the tonic.

-f only it were always as simple as twelve notes!!

Barlier on i mentioned mathematical relationships between notes making them more consonant or more dissonant. This consonance%dissonance thing e&en comes down to the precise indi&idual freGuencies of the notes, which far from being absolutely set in stone in the &aults of the Vatican ha&e changed and de&eloped o&er time. Thanks to the wonders of technology, you can now tune your notes precisely how you like them. 1etHs say you record a note on a keyboard to tape, and youH&e got a way of speeding this tape up as fast as you like. "f you speed the tape up to twice its original speed, you get a note an octa&e up from the original which is the same tone. Three times faster and you get a fifth tone. Four times faster and you get the same tone as the root note, and then fi&e times faster gi&es you a ma<or third tone. 5i7 times faster nets you another fifth tone, se&en times faster produces a tone which is an out/of/tune minor se&enth, and eight times faster returns you to the original tone. "f you keep increasing the freGuency up and up until about fifteen or si7teen, youH&e co&ered most of the notes in the ma<or scale at least once with a couple of out/of/tune ones to spare. This is called the harmonic series. "n modern eGual temperament where all the notes are spaced e&enly apart across the octa&e, two

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notes a semitone apart ha&e a freGuency relationship roughly eGual to )$).2-36*J a whole tone means a freGuency relationship of appro7imately )$).)++6* between the pitch of two notes. 5o I is in fact the freGuency of . times ).63+ or so, not times ).- as youHd e7pect from the e7planation of the harmonic series i <ust ga&e you. 5o why isnHt the freGuency of I the same as the freGuency of . times ).-' ThereHs a story to be told in that. #nce upon a time in a far/away land, people used to tune their musical instruments using easily/ figured/out freGuency ratios. Anyone whoHs e&er tuned a guitar will know that sounding the same two notes simultaneously on two different strings will result in a sort of wa&ering effect. This wa&ering effect is called a beat freGuency, and always eGuals the freGuency difference in the two notes. Tuning the notes closer and closer together makes the beat freGuency slower and slower until e&entually the notes are identical enough for the beat freGuency to be completely undetectable. This beat freGuency effect also occurs between two notes which are mathematically related. For instance, a perfect fifth inter&al is one where two freGuencies ha&e a freGuency ratio of ,$+ F **2=K is the perfect fifth of 662=K for instance. A perfect fourth inter&al in&erts that ratio to make it 6$, F ;;2=K is the perfect fourth of **2=K. @=K stands for =ertK, or cycles per second. The freGuency of A below middle . is 662=K.A #ther freGuency ratios include -$6 for the ma<or third, ;$- for the minor si7th, *$for the minor third and -$, for the ma<or si7th. These are relati&ely mathematically simple ways of determining the different freGuencies of the notes in your scale, and this is part of the tuning practice known as <ust intonation. The problem is that ha&ing tuned all your notes off the same note and ha&ing a mathematically stable scale as long as you work with that note, wandering from key to key can and does lead to the notes sounding &ery out of tune. "f you tune all your notes off of an A using simple maths then play in the key of 9, 9 is going to sound out of tune F the notes will by and large be sharp or flat relati&e to 9 e&en though they sound fine in A. "f you can keep retuning the notes to fit the scale youHre in thatHs fine, but doing this with actual physical instruments is not all that practical. The compromise was to e&entually split the notes of the octa&e up e&enly instead of using simple mathematical relationships that fa&oured one key o&er another. 5plitting a twel&e note octa&e up eGually means designating a semitone as the twelfth sGuare root of two. @5ince the distance between a freGuency and a freGuency an octa&e up is always going to be two, you need a number that will end up double its &alue when you multiply it by itself twel&e times.A This magic number is around ).2-36*, and powers twel&e/tone eGual temperament. This is all well and good, but why should you, a likely confused reader, care about all this underlying mathematics' :erhaps itHs because once twel&e/tone eGual temperament came about, it was possible to start e7ploring some far more interesting places in harmony because composers didnHt ha&e to worry about sounding out of tune in one key. @9ach in particular used to torment his instrument tuners by playing the most gratingly out/of/tune inter&als at them when they came to tune his Moog or whate&er he used.. 9ach used a Moog didnHt he'A :erhaps itHs also to let you know that alternate tunings are out there. Pust intonation is noteworthy because gi&ing notes simple mathematical relationships means they sit together far more consonantly, remo&ing a lot of the &ery subtle dissonance in twel&e tone eGual temperament. #nce that last tiny bit of dissonance is gone, the difference is remarkable. 5ome people describe <ustly/intoned scales as sounding dull and lifeless compared with the eGually tempered eGui&alentsJ personally i think that stillness lends itself wonderfully to ambient music. And of course you can get different degrees of eGual temperament by splitting the octa&e up into chunks other than twel&e. "H&e written ten/tone eGual temperament ambient before, using an octa&e consisting of ten eGually/spaced notes. 5ome of them sounded a bit flat around the middle but it was definitely an interesting e7ercise. Pust another couple of ideas to throw into the pot anyway.

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Chords
A chord, in simple terms, is a combination of three or more notes -, often sounded simultaneously. .hords will always ha&e a root note, which is the harmonic anchor of the structure, but it wonLt necessarily be the lowest note in the combination of notes being played. Three/note chords are called triads, and ha&e nothing to do with Asian gangs with a penchant for sharp kitchen utensils. Atop of the triads you can stack e&en more notes deri&ed from the root to form si7th chords, se&enth chords, ninths, ele&enths, or e&en thirteenths. Fifteenths are neither reGuired nor allowed. 5e&enteenths are right out. The simple triad will always ha&e some fla&our of fifth note, be it perfect @normalA, augmented @sharpenedA or diminished @flattenedAJ it will also commonly ha&e a third which will be either ma<or or minor, although you can swap the third for a second or fourth which turns it into a suspended chord. 4hether the third is ma<or or minor determines the tonality, and this third sets the mood for pretty much the entire chord. "tLs so important that whether a chord is ma<or or minor is second/fiddle only to what its root harmonic tone is. The o&erall harmonic colour of a chord or simultaneous combination of notes is called its sonority. 5onorities can be altered significantly by the accompanying bass notes, as well as the low/to/high order that the notes are played in @inversions and voicingsA. For instance, a . ma<or triad @. B IA can be &oiced from low to high as . I BH @spreadA, I . B, B I ., etc. More will be said about in&ersions and &oicings later. For now, itHs enough to know what CsonorityD refers to. Although you only need to sound three particular tones to play a triad, and e&en then not , you can sound them with as many actual notes as you like and itLll still be that chord. To take an e7ample, consider a common/or/garden guitar. A guitar has si7 strings, tuned B 9 I ! A B from top to bottom @easy to remember$ Baster 9unny Iets !runk At BasterA and co&ering about two octa&es, and hence you can play chords with up to si7 distinct notes o&er that more or less two/octa&e range. 4hat usually happens is that a few of the notes are doubled up.* "f you play the chord B ma<or on a keyboard for e7ample, youLll typically use three notes because thatLs all you need to sound this particular chord. Those notes are B, IN and 9. #n a guitar, you can play <ust one instance of each of these three notes but thatLs unusual$ the usual B ma<or chord on a guitar has three Bs @one at the bottom, one at the middle, and one at the topA, two 9s @one second/from/the/ bottom and one second/from/the/topA, and one IN. B&erythingLs more harmonically complicated on guitarsJ you may as well accept that right away. That said, itLs good fun to e7periment by lea&ing notes out of chords to create chord fragments. =ow much does the character of a chord change with the loss of one note, after all' B&en better, <ust hold sound notes simultaneously at random until you find something you like. 1ea&e out the notes you donHt like. .hange their order around. 5ee how it affects the sonority F is it better without the fifth' "s it better with an added second' 4hat we get with chords are inter&al comple7es, and a comple7 of inter&als creates harmony. "tLs harmony thatLs fundamental to the way i for one think about music, no matter how weird and a&ant garde that CharmonyD is. Tones working in unison, drones sounding in unison, anything sounding in unison creates a harmony where the parts are both there in and of themsel&es, and creating this whole. .hords are truly the easiest introduction to that concept in music. B&en a simple melody playing solo by itself can form the shapes of the chords youLre about to be introduced to. Eou <ust canLt escape the chords. @0or can you easily escape the fnords, but thatLs for another book entirely.A My point is that you could concei&ably play a chord progression @a series of chordsA with power chords on one instrument and spell out the tonality on another.
* Arguably two or more notes, since some notes are more obvious than others. .ven on a u)ulele, the C ma#or triad is doubled u' at an octave interval with only four strings.

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!eciding which instruments are going to do what is called arranging, and chords are also more or less the first opportunity youL&e got to think about that kind of thing. Arranging gets a look/in in the last chapter on structure, and progressions are co&ered later in this chapter and in the &ariation chapter.

Manifesting chords
"t goes almost without saying, bar this short note, that you can ha&e a chord instantly by playing all of its notes at once. 4hatHs more interesting than simply sounding all of the notes at once is spelling out the notes of the chord one by one in a melody. "n musical terms, this is called an arpeggio. A contri&ance or de&ice which lets you hold down a chord to produce an arpeggio is therefore an arpeggiator, which you may or may not ha&e already known. 5entence e7ample$ 8any trance producers could easily be replaced by arpeggiators.

-ntroduction to the verbose chord dictionary

The format of this dictionary wonLt make it immediately ob&ious what all these chords are, nor does it seek to make ob&ious how the chords relate, how to use them, how to twist and permute them, how to make people spontaneously e7plode into orange shafts of <oy with them, or anything that complicated. "t will tell you what their names are, why theyHre called that, how to spell them, and what they sound like. " want to show you how many different chords there are, and what they sound like. The complicated stuff about how to use them CappropriatelyD, iLll lea&e for a later chapter. The best thing to do at this point would be to ha&e a polyphonic keyboard of some sort ready @0utchords includedA, and when you want to hear what a chord sounds like, <ust play it. The chords are spelt mainly in the key of . for your con&enience, but i strongly encourage you to try to spell them based on other notes in order to get familiar with them. 0utchords will do that sort of thing automagically for you if youHre laKy. Eou will notice in the descriptions that certain chords are linked to modesJ modes are discussed at the end of chapter +.

Triads
Triads are chords which are composed of three notes, hence the term RtriadL. Tradition tells us that there are four basic triads, and two others which are probably more useful than the two more obscure basic ones. These first two triad chords F the ma<or and minor triad F really should be thought of as the two main primary colours of modern 4estern music, with the much more rare diminished triad and the suspended triads rounding things out. "tHs also worth pointing out that chords are tyipcally named for their important bits, with certain features @like the perfect fifthA assumed to be implicit and not worth mentioning unless otherwise stated.

-iatonic tonal triads

The following triads are diatonic, meaning that they e7ist inside ma<or or natural minor scales. @More on that later.A And theyHre tonal because they e7press a tonality F ma<or or minor.

Ma<or
Transcription$ " @., !, FA 5pelling$ ) , - @. B I, ! FN A, F A .A 5tructure$ root, ma<or third, perfect fifth 0amed for$ the ma<or third
C D

This triad is so fundamental to music in general that itLs hard to think of music without it. "tLs so basic, so unbelie&ably ubiGuitous and so useful that itLs reGuired knowledge for anyone who wants to know anything about music. At all. Eeah. #f the two

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harmonic primary colours @the other one comes ne7tA, ma<or chords more often suggest a certain brightness, warmth and%or &itality. The first, fourth and fifth inter&al chords of any &anilla ma<or scale are always ma<or, so in a . ma<or scale, ., F and I all ha&e ma<or triads. "n fact, if you combine the notes of the . ma<or triad, the F ma<or triad and the I ma<or triad, you get all the notes of the ma<or scale. seful mental shortcut, that. "f youHre in a particular key and use a ma<or triad chord in its first in&ersion based on the minor second of your key @!b if youHre in ., 9b if youHre in AA before continuing onto the dominant se&enth for your key @based on I if youHre in ., B if youHre in AA, then youH&e <ust completed a harmonic manoeu&re called a 0eapolitan si7th. Iood on you.

Minor
Transcription$ "mi @.mi, !mi, FmiA 5pelling$ ) b, - @. Bb I, ! F A, F Ab .A 5tructure$ root, minor third, perfect fifth 0amed for$ the minor third

Cmi

Dmi

The second deeply fundamental triad, this is the more melancholy of the two main triad chords in music. EouLll know it when you play it. A minor triad suggests a more sombre, subdued and cool kind of going on than a ma<or triad. "n a ma<or scale, the second, third and si7th notesH chords are all minor triads. 5o from . ma<or, you can make ! minor, B minor and A minor triad chords.

!iminished
Transcription$ "dim or "U @.dim, !U, FdimA 5pelling$ ) b, b- @. Bb Ib, ! FN Ab, F Ab 9 @9AA 5tructure$ root, minor third, diminished fifth 0amed for$ the diminished fifth
Cdim Ddim

This chord is built on two minor third inter&als between the root and the minor third, and the minor third and the diminished fifth. As such itLs not a &ery cheerful chord at all, and it prefers to resol&e to something else rather than carry the weight of any melody for too long by itself. The tritone inter&al that spans the chord also lends it that nifty floaty tritone Guality. "n a ma<or scale, the se&enth noteHs chord is a diminished triad. 5o for . @againA, the 9 is a diminished because 9 is the se&enth note of the scale of . ma<or. @.ount if you donHt belie&e me. ThereHs a little keyboard up there you can point at to count up.A

!on3diatonic tonal triads.. er.. triad

Actually thereHs <ust the one non/diatonic triad$ the augmented one.

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Augmented
Transcription$ "aug or "V @.aug, !V, FaugA 5pelling$ ) , N- @. ! IN, ! FN AN, F A .NA 5tructure$ root, ma<or third, augmented fifth 0amed for$ the augmented fifth

C/

D/

A chord that was meant for sci/fi, truly ruly. Replacing the perfect fifth of the ma<or and minor triads we ha&e instead a raised or augmented fifth. This chord likes to resol&e down to a ma<or chord with the same root for a sci/fi sound, or e&en a minor chord with a root a semitone abo&e @.aug, .NmiA. #r, if youHre 4endy .arlos writing the TR#0 soundtrack, you treat the augmented chords as a perfectly legitimate sonority unto themsel&es and thatHs that. Eou might ha&e noticed also that the augmented chord splits the octa&e e&enly in half using ma<or third inter&als. This means that .aug, Baug and INaug are all enharmonic, i.e. they ha&e the e7act same notes as one another in a different order. This can be useful. ThereHs only one other chord like this, and youHll meet it soon enough.

!on3tonal 4sus'ended5 triads

The ne7t two triads introduce the use of ma<or second inter&als$ notes which are only two semitones apart from one another. This inter&al can ha&e a slightly discordant yet generally pleasant sort of rubbing, buKKing, fuKKing feel to it as the two side/by/side notes Guietly <ostle. TheyHre both diatonic.

5uspended fourth
Transcription$ "sus6 @.sus6, !sus6, Fsus6A 5pelling$ ) 6 - @. F I, ! I A, F 9b .A 5tructure$ root, perfect fourth, perfect fifth 0amed for$ the lack of a third, in its place is a perfect fourth
Csus& Dsus&

5uspended chords are chords without a ma<or or minor third in them. TheyLre called suspended because without the third to determine whether itLs ma<or or minor, it has a certain suspended neutrality about it which wants to resol&e to something else. The suspended fourth is the more common of the suspended chords, and works pleasantly as a &ariant with the ma<or. The ma<or scale allows you the notes to fourth/suspend its root, second, third, fifth and si7th chords. That means in . ma<or you can ha&e .sus6, !sus6, Bsus6, Isus6 and Asus6 without using notes outside that scale. @Fsus6 uses a 9b, 9sus6 uses an FN.A

5uspended second
Transcription$ "sus+ @.sus+, !sus+, Fsus+A 5pelling$ ) + - @. ! I, ! B A, F I .A 5tructure$ root, ma<or second, perfect fifth 0amed for$ the lack of a third, in its place is a ma<or second

Csus#

Dsus#

1ike the sus6, this is another chord that you can put in place of the ma<or for &arietyLs sake. 5ome people say thereHs only one sort of suspended chord, being the suspended fourth, since you can spell the suspended second as a suspended fourth of the perfect fourth of the sus6Hs root note in first in&ersion, which in Bnglish means that .sus6 uses the same notes as Fsus+, but theyHre in a different order. "n&ersions will be touched upon later. The ma<or scale lets you ha&e sus+ of its root, second, fourth, fifth and si7th notes. 5o in . ma<or, thatHs .sus+, !sus+, Fsus+, Isus+ and Asus+. Bsus+ and 9sus+ both use FN @and 9sus+ also uses .NA. 5uspended chords are bloody useful in chord substitution because of their neutralityJ if you donHt want to use a minor chord because itHs got all the subtlety of bare breasts painted fluorescent orange, go

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with a suspended chord instead. Bspecially if it means creating a harmonic melody. More about those in a bit. "f you include both the suspended second and the suspended fourth at the same time, you end up with an in&erted se&enth suspended fourth, which is a most useful chord indeed. More about that sooner rather than later.

Seventh chords
Take a triad, add either a minor or ma<or se&enth on top of it, and you get one of many fla&ours of se&enth chord. 5e&enth chords all ha&e four notes, and come in many different tonalities and feelings. The se&enth comes in fi&e or so main fla&ours with perfect fifths @dominant, ma<or, minor, minor%ma<or, dominant suspended fourthA, but once you start to augment or diminish the fifth the many possibilities start to unra&el. "f youHre going to use these chords, you may as well <ust resign yourself to e7perimenting to see what works. Most se&enth chords donHt fit neatly into scales, so itHs by messing around with the se&enth chords that youHll hopefully start to get a feel for the more esoteric harmonic colours that are possible with the addition or alteration of <ust one or two notes. "tHs here that things will start to sound a lot <aKKier, potentially, because <aKK lo&es the hell out of its se&enth chords.

-iatonic tonal seventh chords

These fla&ours of se&enth all occur naturally in ma<or and natural minor scales and are as good a place to begin as any. They all ha&e four notes and theyHre all tonal, ha&ing a ma<or or minor third in the hiKKouse.

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5e&enth
Transcription$ "? @.?, !?, F?A 5pelling$ ) , - b? @. B I 9b, ! FN A ., F A . BbA 5tructure$ ma<or triad plus minor se&enth 0amed for$ the minor se&enth inter&al at the top

C+

D+

The bluesiest of all the chords is the se&enth. A straight ma<or triad with that minor se&enth o&ertone to add a touch of melancholy to the proceedings, this is the hard/drinkinL chord. "tHs often called a dominant se&enth because itHs based on the fifth @or dominantA note relati&e to the key youHre in. 5ay youHre in the key of ! ma<or and you pop in a A? / youH&e used a dominant se&enth chord and youHre probably about to follow it with a !. ThatHs what itHs for. Traditionally, the dominant se&enth is one way of telling whate&er key youHre working in, since a key only has the one dominant se&enth @the other se&enths are either ma<or se&enths or minor se&enths or minor se&enth flat fifthsA. More on that when we get to progressions. PaKKniks know this oneHs amenable to mi7olydian melodies. "f youHre in a particular key and use a dominant se&enth chord based on the minor si7th of your key @IN if youHre in ., F if youHre in AA before continuing onto the dominant se&enth for your key @based on I if youHre in ., B if youHre in AA, then youH&e <ust completed a harmonic manoeu&re called a Ierman si7th. @1ea&e out the fifth in this chord to get an "talian si7th.A

Ma<or se&enth
Cma+ Dma+

Transcription$ "ma? @.ma?, !ma?, Fma?A 5pelling$ ) , - ? @. B I 9, ! FN A .N, F A . BA 5tructure$ ma<or triad plus ma<or se&enth 0amed for$ the ma<or se&enth @and sort of the ma<or third tooA This <olly chord has a ma<or se&enth o&ertone which gi&es it a blissed out fla&our, tailor/made for any sort of music which aims to inspire. #ne of my former personal fa&ourite chords until i o&erused it. 5till an old mate nonetheless. #ne for ionian melodies, this chord.

Minor se&enth
Transcription$ "mi? @.mi?, !mi?, Fmi?A 5pelling$ ) b, - b? @. Bb I 9b, ! F A ., F Ab . BbA 5tructure$ minor triad plus minor se&enth 0amed for$ the minor third and the minor se&enth

Cmi+

Dmi+

The moody and sophisticated minor se&enth, much lo&ed by drum LnL bass producers when played on a 4urlitKer electric piano. Also one of my fa&ourite barre chords on the guitar since you can form it with <ust one finger. This chord is fit to accompany the dorian mode.

Minor%ma<or se&enth
Transcription$ "mi%ma? @.mi%ma?, !mi%ma?A 5pelling$ ) b, - ? @. Bb I 9, ! F A .NA 5tructure$ minor triad plus ma<or se&enth 0amed for$ the minor third and the ma<or se&enth inter&al

Cmi0ma+

Dmi0ma+

The chord that ate hope. Recalling the fruitier minor scale, the harmonic minor, this combines a stern ma<or third with a suddenly e&il ma<or se&enth. ThereHs an awful, unseelie finality to this one, as though it wants to stay still and fidget at once. " blame the minor si7th inter&al. PaKKniks know this one as the chord o&er which you play in the melodic minor

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scale.

=alf/diminished @minor se&enth diminished fifthA

Cmi+b' Dmi+b'

Transcription$ "mi?b- @.mi?b-, !mi?b-A 5pelling$ ) b, b- b? @. Bb Ib 9b, ! F Ab .A 5tructure$ diminshed triad plus minor se&enth 0amed for$ itHs a diminished se&enth e7cept that the se&enth is only minor and not diminished, so the diminution is only half/done This is a somewhat subdued, spooky, nowhereish kind of chord @itHs that tritone againA and seems to work well alongside the minor%ma<or se&enth chord on the same root note. The traditional music theory use for this chord is a bit uninteresting but weHll get to that later this chapter. PaKKniks know this as a chord to accompany the locrian scale.

!on3diatonic tonal seventh chords

The following chords are se&enth chords but operate outside ma<or and natural minor scales. This is not an implicitly bad thing, because chromaticity is fun. Rather than saying Cyou should only use these chords if you absolutely mean toD, <ust go and use them and in doing so find out how to use them. H.ept this first one. The first one sounds all sophisticated but itHs a teddy bear of a thing and bloody useful to be able to wield in a pinch.

!iminished se&enth
Transcription$ "dim? @.dim?, !dim?A 5pelling$ ) b, b- bb? W*X @. Bb Ib 9b, ! F IN 9A 5tructure$ dim. triad plus diminished se&enth 0amed for$ the diminished se&enth and the diminished fifth

Cdim+

Ddim+

The diminished se&enth is a strange one, and re&eals why the ma<or si7th is enharmonic with a se&enth inter&al. The &enerable dim? is made up of stacked minor thirds, and since you can break the octa&e up e&enly into minor thirds.. well.. shenanigans e&en more shenaniganly than the augmented triad may ensue forth. 9asically, when you play this chord, youHre playing four different chords at once. 1etHs take .dim? up there F that chord is enharmonic with @i.e. has the same notes asA !Ndim?, FNdim? and Adim?. Ii&en that this is a chord with a dominant function, this means those four notes can resol&e to a tonic chord of F @from .dim?A, IN @from !Ndim?A, 9 @from FNdim?A or ! @from Adim?A. !dim?, F is the minor third of !, IN%Ab is the minor third of F, 9 is the minor third of IN%Ab, and ! is the minor third of 9. "tLs a useful substitution for any minor se&enth chord, and thereHs only really three of them if you only count the notes of the chord and not which order theyHre in. @"n&ersions again. Eay.A .hord substitution gets a looking o&er much later in the book, although it does bear Guick e7amination in the ne7t chapter. PaKKniks will know this as the chord you use with the whole/half diminished scale. "nter&al/wise, itHs two tritone dyads set a minor third apart, gi&ing it that natty tritone floatiness along with a tension/filled dose of the sombre minor third. Ienerally, ha&ing a diminished se&enth @enharmonic with F the same note as F a ma<or si7thA in the same chord as a minor third inter&al makes for a whole lot of tension.

5e&enth diminished fifth @se&enth flat fifthA

Transcription$ "?b- @.?b-, !?b-A

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5pelling$ ) , b- b? @. B Ib 9b, ! FN Ab .A 5tructure$ root, ma<or third, diminished fifth, minor se&enth 0amed for$ the presence of the minor se&enth and the alteration of the fifth

C+b'

D+b'

An odd chord to its odd core, made up of whole/tone scale notes with two ma<or third pairs @one starting at the root and one starting at the diminished fifth of the rootA. PaKKniks will recognise this as a chord o&er which to diddle in the whole/tone scale, or the lydian dominant scale since itHs enharmonic to ?N)). This chord substitutes well for a dominant se&enth. "f youHre in a particular key and use a dominant se&enth chord based on the minor si7th of your key @IN if youHre in ., F if youHre in AA before continuing onto the dominant se&enth for your key @based on I if youHre in ., B if youHre in AA, then youH&e <ust completed a harmonic manoeu&re called a French si7th. @1ea&e out the diminished fifth in this chord to get an "talian si7th.A The wholetone scale was a fa&ourite stop/and/muddle/the/tonality de&ice of !ebussy, one of my fa&ourite composers, and this chord is a &ersatile implementation of wholetone. 4ith any ?b- chord, youHre playing something that can function as two different chords F both whate&er youHre playing, and a tritone away from whate&er youHre playing$ .?b- and FN?b- use the same notes @albeit in a different order, though that doesnHt really matter as youHll see when you skip ahead, read about in&ersions and skip backA.

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5e&enth augmented fifth @se&enth sharp fifthA

Transcription$ "?N- @.?N-, !?N-A 5pelling$ ) , N- b? @. B IN 9b, ! FN AN .A 5tructure$ augmented triad plus minor se&enth 0amed for$ the same stuff as the last chord Again using only notes from the whole tone
Cma+b' Dma+b'

C+#'

D+#'

series, this is another fairly odd chord. 0ote the presence of the tritone between the ma<or third and the minor se&enth instead of off the root note. 0ote also that the two notes at the top of the chord are snuggling up to one another, only two semitones apart.Ma<or se&enth diminished fifth @ma<or se&enth flat fifthA Transcription$ "ma?b- @.ma?b-, !ma?b-A 5pelling$ ) , b- ? @. B Ib 9, ! FN Ab .NA 5tructure$ diminished triad plus ma<or se&enth 0amed for$ the ma<or se&enth and the altered fifth Rather spooky from that tritone again, and not a chord that sounds like it wants to really do anything but float around in midair during the early hours of the morning bothering wandering cats with moans and wails. PaKKniks will recognise this as the lydian chord, named for the lydian scale from which it is deri&ed.

Ma<or se&enth augmented fifth @ma<or se&enth sharp fifthA

Cma+#' Dma+#'

Transcription$ "?N- @.ma?N-, !ma?N-A 5pelling$ ) , N- ? @. B IN 9b, ! FN AN .A 5tructure$ augmented triad plus ma<or se&enth 0amed for$ the same as the last chord 0ot all that tonally different from the ma<or se&enth diminished fifth to my ears. These ones are slightl more subtle chords than i myself know how to use effecti&ely. PaKKniks will recognise this strange little beast as the lydian augmented chord, being as itHs the same as the lydian chord abo&e e7cept with an augmented fifth instead of a note enharmonic to a diminished fifth. Technically if you wanted to you could sound the augmented fourth note as well, but it sounds Guite dense.

!on3tonal diatonic seventh chords

Ees, suspended chords come in a se&enth fla&our as well.

5e&enth suspended fourth

Transcription$ "?sus6 @.?sus6, !?sus6A 5pelling$ ) 6 - b? @. F I 9b, ! I A .A 5tructure$ suspended fourth plus minor se&enth 0amed for$ the minor se&enth inter&al and the suspension of the third to a fourth

C+sus&

D+sus&

The se&enth suspended fourth is an odd beast among the se&enths$ with no ma<or or minor tonality but a relati&ely complicated set of relations between its constituent notes, itLs an interesting sort of chord. To listen to a ?sus6 would seem to indicate that it precedes something, but itLs hard to say e7actly what. "tHs all aloof and sci/fi, and e7tremely useful as the sort of chord you can reach for in times of doubt. The ?sus6, like the other suspended triads, can sub for se&enths with ma<or or minor thirds as a way

This is page 3)

to use the chordHs root note without committing to whether itHs ma<or or minor. The resulting ambiguity can come in handy for duplicitous acts of modulating to different keys. " went through a period of hammering the se&enth suspended fourth chord to death and Guickly tired of it, but i didnHt get around to diminishing or augmenting the fifth or se&enth notes too much. 5o thereHs still the possibility of a .ma?sus+b- @that would be a . ma<or se&enth suspended second diminished fifth, or ./!/FN/9 for shortA but iH&e personally no clue when iHd use it. Alternating it with a .ma? sounds lo&ely though. 4ait, no, thatHs more of a 9addb3. Though " suppose it depends on the harmonic function of the chord. " dunno.

Ma<or se&enth suspended fourth

Transcription$ "ma?sus6 @.ma?sus6A 5pelling$ ) 6 - ? @. F I 9A 5tructure$ suspended fourth plus ma<or se&enth 0amed for$ guess

Cma+sus&

Dma+sus&

1ike the dominant se&enth, this chord has a tritone in it which makes it float a bit. This is a se&erely fussy chord with limited usefulness, and the best way to find out e7actly what itHs good at is to take a look at Appendi7 K when youH&e got the afternoon free. "t seems to ha&e a hard time making friends.

./tended and altered chords

B7tended chords are chords which e7tend up past the se&enths and include the ninth @but not the added ninthA, the ele&enth and the thirteenth inter&als. Finding out what the actual notes are is Guite easy$ play the minor triad rooted a whole tone abo&e your root note. 5ay your root note is F$ Imi has the notes I, 9b and !. 5o relati&e to F, I is your ninth, 9b is your ele&enth, and ! is your thirteenth. All of the e7tended chords are based on se&enths and are named by the same con&ention. "f you ha&enHt picked it up, the @dominantA se&enth has a ma<or third and a minor se&enth, the ma<or se&enth has a ma<or third and a ma<or se&enth, and the minor se&enth has a minor third and a minor se&enth. 5o when you think of a ma<or ele&enth, remember that the Yma<orY describes the ma<or third and ma<or se&enth, and that the ele&enth is always the same note until it gets altered. Eou can alter the ninth by sharpening or flatteningJ the ele&enth may only be sharpened @since if it were flattened it would end up being a ma<or thirdA and the thirteenth may only be flattened @since if it were sharpened it would be a minor se&enthA. For <aKKniks there is an actual chord called the altered chord which is spelt longhand as ?b),N))N3b3J the . altered chord would contain the notes . B I 9b !b !N FN and Ab. 4ith this many notes there are many &ariations, and much of the use of altered chords, con&entionally speaking, is in chromatic &oice leading. ThatHs co&ered in its own section. "n all, thereHs fifteen &ariations on ninth chords with ma<or or minor tonalities that arenHt synonyms of other ninth chords. The most useful ninth chord i know is not one of these, being as itHs built off a suspended triad chord, but weHll come to that chord in a while. Take a deep breath, and get ready to use fi&e fingers.

-iatonic ninth chords

1ike it says on the label. 0ot to want to completely recapitulate the section on se&enths.. but thatHs whatHs going to happen anyway.

0inth
Transcription$ "3 @.3A

This is page 32

5pelling$ ) , - b? 3 @. B I 9b !LA 5tructure$ se&enth plus ninth inter&al 0amed for$ ninth inter&al @minor se&enth is implicitA The plain old ninth is deri&ed from the se&enth and adds a ninth @second inter&al plus a full octa&eA on top. "tLs a . connected to a Imi at the I. 9ittersweet.

C-

Minor ninth
Transcription$ "mi3 @.mi3A 5pelling$ ) b, - b? 3 @. Bb I 9b !A 5tructure$ minor se&enth plus ninth inter&al 0amed for$ minor third and unaltered ninth @minor se&enth is still implicitA
Cmi-

The minor ninth is deri&ed from the se&enth and adds a ninth @second inter&al plus a full octa&eA on top. "tLs a .mi and a Imi connected at the I. 5olemnly blissed out.

Ma<or ninth
Transcription$ "ma3 @.ma3A 5pelling$ ) , - ? 3 @. Bb I 9b !HA 5tructure$ ma<or se&enth plus ninth inter&al 0amed for$ unaltered ninth, ma<or third%se&enth The ma<or ninth is deri&ed from the ma<or se&enth and adds a ninth @second inter&al plus a full octa&eA on top. "tLs a . and a I connected at the I. Merrily blissed out.

Cma-

Minor%ma<or ninth
Transcription$ "mi%ma3 @.ma3A 5pelling$ ) b, - ? 3 @. Bb I 9 !HA 5tructure$ minor%ma<or se&enth plus ninth inter&al 0amed for$ Minor third, ma<or se&enth and unaltered ninth. As spirit/sapping as the minor%ma<or se&enth, but moreso>
Cmi0ma-

0inth suspended fourth

Transcription$ "3sus6 @.3sus6A 5pelling$ ) 6 - ? 3 @. F I 9b !HA 5tructure$ se&enth suspended fourth plus ninth 0amed for$ unaltered ninth, third suspended to fourth @implicit minor se&enthA
C-sus&

This is a much more useful chord than its apparent obscureness would first let on, especially before a ma<or with the same root note. "tHs like a ma<or chord was in&aded and anne7ed by the ma<or chord of a whole tone lower. "n the case of ., thatHs 9b / thereHs an entire in&erted 9b chord in the .3sus6 in fact @F, 9b and ! are the notes from left to rightA. 5o, use it well>

6Altered7 non3diatonic ninths

Eou can add the ninth inter&al on top of all the other permutations of the se&enth, as well as sharpening and flattening the ninth to taste. A sharpened ninth is enharmonic in tone to a minor third, e&en though you can ha&e a dominant se&enth sharp ninth and it still sounds great, and the flat ninth is enharmonic in tone to a minor second. Flat nines ha&e a tendency to sound good as long as youHre popping them on top of a minor se&enth, i find, with the e7ception of the ma<or%minor se&enth which

This is page 33

sounds rather spiff indeed with a flat ninth on top of it. =ereHs some e7amples of altered ninth chords to whet your appetite.

5e&enth flat ninth

Transcription$ "?b3 @.?b3A 5pelling$ ) , - b? b3 @. B I 9b !bHA 5tructure$ se&enth plus flat ninth 0amed for$ being a se&enth chord with an altered ninth
C+b-

This is a gossamer, gloomy chord which nibbles away at the souls of all who hear it @as opposed to the minor ma<or se&enth which takes big chompsA. " Guite like it. PaKKniks will note its relation to the half/ whole diminished scale.

Minor se&enth flat ninth

Transcription$ "mi?b3 @.mi?b3A 5pelling$ ) b, - b? b3 @. Bb I 9b !bHA 5tructure$ minor se&enth plus flat ninth 0amed for$ being a minor se&enth with an altered ninth
Cmi+b-

Zuite likeably <arring. Again, a good replacement for the dominant se&enth, sounding more like someone raising a large wooden club to whack you on the head with the root ma<or.

0inth diminished fifth @ninth flat fifthA

Transcription$ "3b- @.3b-A 5pelling$ ) , b- b? 3 @. B Ib 9b !HA 5tructure$ se&enth diminished fifth plus ninth 0amed for$ the diminished fifth, plus the unaltered ninth @minor se&enth is implicitA

C-b'

0ot Guite so <arring. Again a good replacement for the dominant se&enth, sounding like someone raising a conductorHs thingy to poke you in the back of the head with the root ma<or e7cept more ci&illy than the minor se&enth flat ninth which is a most unci&il chord indeed as you should ha&e found out by now.

0inth augmented fifth @ninth sharp fifthA

Transcription$ "3N- @.3N-A 5pelling$ ) , N- b? 3 @. B IN 9b !HA 5tructure$ se&enth augmented fifth plus ninth 0amed for$ the augmented fifth, plus the unaltered ninth @minor se&enth is implicitA !oes e7actly what the ninth diminished fifth does, replacing the dominant se&enth, e7cept itHs far sassier about it. =as an awesomely wistful tension to it.
C-#'

5e&enth augmented ninth @se&enth sharp ninthA

Transcription$ "?N3 @.?N3A 5pelling$ ) , - b? N3 @. B I 9b !NHA 5tructure$ se&enth plus sharp ninth 0amed for$ being a straight se&enth chord with an altered ninth on top !oes e7actly what the ninth augmented fifth does,

C+#-

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e7cept itHs sassier yet> They used this chord at the end of Animaniacs episodes sometimes in place of the dominant se&enth. More famously, Pimi =endri7 played the hell out of this chord in his tune .o6y ,ady. The sass in this chord comes from the chromatic distance between the ma<or fifth and the augmented ninth. The chord has a split ma<or%minor tonality, gi&ing it an almost sarcastic sonority. Pimi knew it. 0ow you know it too. 5e&enth flat ninth augmented fifth
C+b-#'

Transcription$ "?b3N- @.?b3N-A 5pelling$ ) , N- b? b3 @. B IN 9b !bHA 5tructure$ se&enth aug fifth plus flat ninth 0amed for$ what it says 5ad to say that while this oneHs pretty sassy, itHs no match for the awesome cadencial power of the se&enth aug ninth. Eou may as well make note of it anyway since ha&ing an alternati&e sassy chord to choose from canHt hurt for &arietyHs sake. 5till, that se&enth aug ninth is the bomb, isnHt it' "f you think this chord sounds better, i canHt see what you see in it. 9ut ok.

5e&enth flat ninth diminished fifth

Transcription$ "?b3b- @.?b3b-A 5pelling$ ) , b- b? b3 @. B Ib 9b !bHA 5tructure$ se&enth flat fifth plus flat ninth 0amed for$ you know, itHs pretty late here 5orry, this one isnHt anywhere near as charming and sassy as those last three. 0ot all chords are created eGual, it would seem.
C+b-b'

5e&enth augmented ninth diminished fifth

Transcription$ "?N3b- @.?N3b-A 5pelling$ ) , b- b? N3 @. B Ib 9b !NHA 5tructure$ se&enth flat fifth plus sharp ninth 0amed for$ youH&e probably got the hang of this too
C+#-b'

Ietting sassier, almost <aKKy/sounding is this chord. Another head/smacker that <ust wants to resol&e dominant se&enth style to the root note, though itHs definitely wearing a fedora and has a big cigar sitting in its mouth. :ossibly e&en toting a tommy gun in a &iolin case as well.

5e&enth augmented ninth augmented fifth

Transcription$ "?N3N- @.?N3N-A 5pelling$ ) , N- b? N3 @. B IN 9b !NHA 5tructure$ se&enth aug fifth plus sharp ninth This chordHs almost consonantly tense enough to stand by itself, and in amongst all these other chords that <ust want to resol&e, thatHs a rarity. Very tense is this customer.
C+#-#'

Minor ninth diminished fifth

Transcription$ "mi3b- @.mi3b-A

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5pelling$ ) b, b- b? b3 @. Bb Ib 9b !bHA 5tructure$ se&enth aug fifth plus sharp ninth

Cmi-b'

#K. 1ook. This chord has a diminished fifth, and " donHt for a second hold that against it. 9ut somehow, this chord seems to function @at least for meA as a potential tonic. As in, other chords can potentially resol&e to this one. This might be a good one to slip in as a substitute for a straight minor. "t ooKes apocalyptic style with a fruity sonority thatHs part/<aKK, part/=itchcock. Actually, " think " might know whatHs going on with that whole sonority thing. "f " ha&enHt written about third substitution yet, " ha&enHt e7plained it yet.

Ma<or ninth augmented fifth

Transcription$ "ma3N- @.ma3N-A 5pelling$ ) , N- ? 3 @. B IN 9 !HA 5tructure$ ma<or se&enth aug fifth plus ninth #ther chords will do the <ob of this chord better than this chord can do its own <ob, which is pretty much being yet another dominant se&enth replacement.
Cma-#'

5e&enth suspended fourth flat ninth

Transcription$ "?sus6b3 @.?sus6b3A 5pelling$ ) 6 - ? b3 @. F I 9b !bHA 5tructure$ ma<or se&enth aug fifth plus ninth This <aKKy chord is linked to the phrygian mode. "tHs Guite likeable and floaty, if a bit difficult to wield, and seems to function nicely as a dominant/type chord.

C+sus&b-

ThereHs more ninth chords than this but iHm so uninterested in them that iHll ha&e to recommend you to a book to find out more about them. Really what it boils down to is that you can take any of the se&enth chords in the pre&ious section, pop an unaltered or altered ninth on top of it to taste, and &oila. 0ew chord. And the same goes for ele&enth chords. And thirteenth chords. Keep adding contrasting notes.

.levenths and thirteenths

The ele&enth series is most definitely in the realm of classical and <aKK musicians than ordinary human beings. Knowing a bit more theory about how these chords best function against other chords will probably endear me to them a bit more, but as is theyHre <ust harmonically cumbersome and probably not worth knowing the theory of$ stuff this esoteric is better disco&ered as needed. 4hen i get o&er my fear of them and suss them out on my own terms, iHll be kinder. "Hm sure. Also itHs late and my mind is confusing the word eleventh with the rather more charming word elephant. "Hm sure iHd prefer elephant chords, e&en though it would take si7 trained elephants to play an ele&enth chord in its full tonality.

Ble&enth
Transcription$ ")) @.))A 5pelling$ ) , - b? 3 )) @. B I 9b !H FHA 5tructure$ se&enth plus ninth and ele&enth This is a bigger and more harmonically complicated chord than i know what to do with. "tHs got a sort of drifty, floating thing going.

C!!

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Ma<or ele&enth
Transcription$ "ma)) @.ma))A 5pelling$ ) , - ? 3 )) @. B I 9 !H FHA 5tructure$ ma<or se&enth plus ninth and ele&enth The usually benign ma<or se&enth inter&al forms the root of a diminished triad with the 3th and ))th here, adding wriggly tritone floatiness to this giant beast of a chord.

Cma!!

Minor ele&enth
Transcription$ "mi)) @.mi))A 5pelling$ ) b, - b? 3 )) @. Bb I 9b !H FHA 5tructure$ minor se&enth plus ninth and ele&enth #f all the unfancy ele&enth chords, this one is the most internally consonant sounding of them all and the one youHre most likely to ha&e use for.
Cmi!!

Minor%ma<or ele&enth
Transcription$ "mi%ma)) @.mi%ma))A 5pelling$ ) b, - ? 3 )) @. Bb I 9 !H FHA 5tructure$ ma<or%minor se&enth plus ninth and ele&enth The minor%ma<or thing honestly gets pushed too far when thereHs an ele&enth inter&al on top of it.

Cmi0ma!!

ThereHs no ele&enth suspended fourth because the ele&enth and the fourth are e7actly the same tones. ThereHs no real point in it. 1ike ninths, you make up ele&enths and also thirteenths by basing them on se&enths. =ereHs the basic thirteenth chords. " dislike them so much that i shanHt e&en make up diagrams for all of them. "tHs common to lea&e out bits of thirteenth chords since theyHre so bloody full of notes.

Thirteenth
Transcription$ "), @.),A 5pelling$ ) , - b? 3 )) ), @. B I 9b !H FH AHA 5tructure$ se&enth plus ninth and ele&enth and thirteenth

C!$

Ma<or thirteenth
Transcription$ "ma), @.),A 5pelling$ ) , - ? 3 )) ), @. B I 9 !H FH AHA 5tructure$ se&enth plus ninth and ele&enth and thirteenth

Minor thirteenth
Transcription$ "), @.),A 5pelling$ ) b, - b? 3 )) ), @. Bb I 9b !H FH AHA 5tructure$ se&enth plus ninth and ele&enth and thirteenth

Minor%ma<or thirteenth
Transcription$ "), @.),A 5pelling$ ) b, - ? 3 )) ), @. Bb I 9 !H FH AHA 5tructure$ se&enth plus ninth and ele&enth and thirteenth

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The most altered chord in the universe

The following chord is so barmy it deser&es a category of its own.

Altered chord
Transcription$ "?alt @.?altA ) , - ? b3 N3 N)) b), @. B I 9b !bH !NH FNH AbHA 5tructure$ se&enth plus all hell breaking loose

C+alt

This is it. The <aKKiest chord in the world. This chord should mark the point where you seriously start thinking about lea&ing notes out of the chord for the sake of tidiness. 5eriously. " recommend ditching the fifth, the flat ninth and the sharp ele&enth myself. Eou wonHt miss them too much, because then youHre left with the tritone between the se&enth and the third @important to the harmonic character of the se&enthA, the ma<or third inter&al between the root note and the third, and the sharpened ninth inter&al rubbing against the ma<or third an octa&e and a bit away, plus the flat thirteenth note which is the upper boundary of the chord. ThatHs about all the character it needs. Eour own e7perience may &ary somewhat.

Added chords
Added chords are chords which ha&e e7tra notes added to them, such as the si7th, the added second, the added ninth, ele&enth and thirteenth. They differ from e7tended chords in that you donHt ha&e to ha&e all the notes underneath the added inter&al. Think of added chords as normal triads with a little e7tra harmonic spice. PaKKniks will know to add si7th and second%ninth notes to chords e&en when theyHre not specifically asked for, because it sounds smoooooth.

5i7th
Transcription$ "* @.*, !*A 5pelling$ ) , - * @. B I A, ! FN A 9A 5tructure$ ma<or third plus si7th inter&al 0amed for$ the unaltered si7th on top of an implicit ma<or triad

C*

D*

The si7th is a <olly and slightly smug sort of chord that has a secret drug habit. The peripheral si7th note means it doesnLt Guite resol&e to a much more solid ma<or triad, but lends it sort of a pompous flourish instead. A nice way to end a bossa no&a chord progression, as Martin Ialway may tell you of his Wi5ball high score music.

Minor si7th
Transcription$ "mi* @.mi*, !mi*A 5pelling$ ) b, - * @. Bb I A, ! F A 9A 5tructure$ minor third plus si7th inter&al 0amed for$ the minor third of the triad, plus the unaltered si7th
Cmi* Dmi*

The minor si7th has that tritone inter&al between the si7th and the minor third, and as per all other tritone/ containing chords this makes it somewhat spooky and brooding. "tHs also got a secundal inter&al between the perfect fifth and ma<or si7th notes. Rub rub rub.

Added second
Transcription$ "add+ @.add+, !add+A

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5pelling$ ) + , - @. ! B I, ! B FN AA 5tructure$ ma<or third plus second inter&al 0amed for$ the second inter&al added to an implicit ma<or triad The added second sounds like a normal ma<or chord but <ust a bit richer for ha&ing the second snuggled in between the root note and the third. The slight dissonance between the root, the second and the third is &aguely agreeable, i reckon.

Cadd#

Dadd#

Added ninth
Transcription$ "add3 @.add3A 5pelling$ ) , - 3 @. B I !L, ! FN A BLA 5tructure$ ma<or third plus ninth inter&al 0amed for$ an implicit ma<or triad that youH&e added a ninth inter&al to

Cadd-

The added ninth chord is a ma<or third with a ninth inter&al floating o&er the top of it forming a fifth with the fifth note of the triad itself. "t uses the same notes as the added second but with the second kicked up e7actly one octa&e to form a ninth.

Minor added ninth

Transcription$ "miadd3 @.miadd3A 5pelling$ ) b, - 3 @. Bb I !L, ! FN A BLA 5tructure$ minor third plus ninth inter&al 0amed for$ a minor triad with a ninth inter&al added o&er it

Cmiadd-

Zuite depressing. The added ninth floats lonely as a grey cloud abo&e the triad, a long way from anywhere, wanting to resol&e somewhere but not ha&ing the energy to <ust get it o&er with. :oor ninth.

5i7%0ine
Transcription$ "*%3 @.*%3A 5pelling$ ) , - * 3 @. B I A !A 5tructure$ ma<or triad plus si7th and ninth inter&als 0amed for$ the si7th and ninth inter&als added o&er an implicit triad
C*0-

4hen the si7th puts aside the se&enth and brings a ninth along for company, you end up with a si7%nine chord. Again with that floating ninth on the top it can be a pretty sparkly/sounding chord, and itLs also got that smug si7th chord sound. Again, a nice &ariation on a simple ma<or chord to end a song with.

Added ele&enth
Transcription$ "add)) @.add))A 5pelling$ ) , - )) @. B I FL, ! FN A ILA 5tructure$ ma<or third plus ele&enth inter&al This is <ust an e7ample of a chord i donHt appreciate &ery much. 9ut. 4hy does one need all of these chords' "n this dictionary alone there are si7 triads, twel&e se&enth chords, si7teen ninth chords... that seems a lot if all youHre familiar with is the four on a .asiotone keyboard @ma<or, minor, dominant se&enth, minor se&enthA. This is an easy enough Guestion to answer$ you don1t need them all, but it doesnHt hurt terribly to know that theyHre there. 1ots of these
Cadd!!

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chords ha&e specific useful colours of their own, subtly different to the other chords, and as such thereHs a massi&e range of different harmonic colours on offer which you can pick and choose from as you please. And " like to think that gi&en you know these many and &aried sonorities are yours to do with as you please, youHre more likely to go disco&ering other ones yourself. For instance, you might ha&e noticed a distinct lack of minor se&enth and minor ninth chords$ go and meet them> $A

-nversions and fragments

Ees. Finally itHs time to re&eal all about in&ersions. To in&ert a chord is to change the order of the notes around. "n an in&ersion, the notes stay the same but their lowest/to/highest @effecti&ely left to rightA order changes. "f you donHt want to spell the notes out, you can write down in&ersions in the form of a slash chord. B7amples of slash chords are A%B, .%B and B%9. Take the humble F chord @F A .A.
F, unin)erted

"ts first in&ersion is A . F, spelt F%A @F with A as the lowest noteA

F0A, %irst in)ersion

and its second in&ersion is . F A, spelt F%. @F with . as the lowest noteA
F0C, second in)ersion

To transcribe in&ersions, first write the name of the basic chord, then a slash, then the name of the lowest note. !escribing an in&ersion in words is a different story$ you can say RA minor slash .L if you like, but tradition has it that you say Rchord, nth in&ersionL or Rthe nth in&ersion of chordL. The number of the in&ersion tells you which note of the unin&erted chord is the lowest @e7cepting the root noteAJ A is the first note after the root in the chord F ma<or, so the red chord in the diagram abo&e is the first in&ersion of the chord F ma<or. 5imilarly, . is the second note after the root in F ma<or, so the grey chord is the second in&ersion of the chord F ma<or. .hords with more than three notes can ha&e more in&ersions than <ust two, for instance.

This is page #*

83nvert9
9ecause of the outside notes of each different in&ersion, they differ in tonality and therefore in useJ by using chord in&ersions, you can tweak the feel of your chord while retaining its function. nin&erted, a ma<or and a minor sound pretty &anillaJ on their first in&ersion they acGuire a sort of CtenderD, emotional sound with the ma<or%minor tonality on the bottom, good for those climactic moments. 4ith the fifth on the bottom, the chords sound more subdued and grounded, like the musical breaks engaging at the end of a song. 4hen you mo&e into the third in&ersion of se&enth chords with the se&enth as the low note, things start to get complicated/sounding and more interesting. The best thing about in&ersions is that they allow you to morph from one chord to the other by using common or close notes, relati&ely speaking, and with that in effect your music becomes more tonally subtle and nuanced. ThereHs potentially more of an ob&ious melody to be created from in&erted chords, for instance. Io from . to F playing normal triads$ the leap is Guite huge. Io from . to .%F @. F AA and you sa&e the calories reGuired to mo&e one of your fingers, because it can stay where it is. Eou also mo&e the two notes B and I up to F and A, a minor and ma<or second inter&al respecti&ely, which makes the F feel as though itHs grown out of the . chord more. A well known no&elty hardcore tune in the early )332s used the following in&ersion/laden chord seGuence to Guite nice effect here and there. 5ee if you can guess which of the hundreds "Lm talking about from playing these chords$ .
.BI

F%.
.FA

!mi
!FA !FA

I%!
!I9

F%.

!mi

I?%!
!FI9

.%B
BI.

.BI

.FA

ThatLs right$ itLs 5esameLs Treat by the 5mart Bs. 0ow youL&e got no basis whatsoe&er to think in&ersions are too fancy, not if they turned up in a song whose main claim to fame was sampling the theme of a kids TV show. Io to it.

%hen is an inversion not an inversion9

A criticism that classical musicians like to le&el against <aKK%pop notation @which is what "Lm usingA is that itLs ambiguous with in&ersions and bass notes outside the chord. The reason for this is that theyLre written e7actly the same way$ if you want to play a . chord with an A bass note, you write it .%A. ThatLs when an in&ersionLs not an in&ersion. @ sing bass notes under chords where the bass notes arenHt part of the chords themsel&es will be discussed in a later chapter.A .lassical musicLs solution to this is to use a numerical system for notating chords, and the first time you see it you will run screaming <ust the same as " did. "tLs based on the inter&als from the root note$ .*6 to them is .%I to us @the root note is assumed to be I, which is four notes down from . and si7 down from BA, and .*, to them is .%B to us @by reasoning along similar but corresponding linesA. "t gets e&en uglier where se&enths and other e7tended chords are in&ol&ed. Fair enough though, if your brain works that way then by all means use that sort of notation. 9ut donLt ask me for ad&ice on chord progressions if you do.

Chord fragments
Eou donHt ha&e to play the entire chord, e&en. Eou can lea&e notes out and retain a fragment of the chord. A useful use of this techniGue would be dropping the perfect fifth of a se&enth chord and maybe in&erting it. EouH&e still got the third gi&ing it its tonality, and youH&e got the se&enth on top of the third and the root con&eying its se&enthy fla&our. As long as youH&e got a bass note playing the root note of the chord or something like it, people ought not be too confused about which chord youHre playing. I?@no -A%F
FI9

.%B
BI.

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Truly, some inter&als characterise a chord more than others. The most important character/forming notes of the chord in terms of its inter&als are, in order$ the thirdJ the se&enth and any alterationsJ the root noteJ and finally the fifth. A perfect fifth is more or less e7pendable because it con&eys not so much information as harmonic structure F if that fifth is altered @diminished or augmented, doesnHt matter whichA, it con&eys characteristic harmonic information about that chord and canHt be dropped so easily. "f you want to go two/handed on your keyboard for a minute @presuming itHs large enoughA, try playing a I down low and holding down 9 and F higher up. ThatHs all you need to know to make out a I?. 0ow fill in the I and ! around the 9 and F to make the se&enth chord. More ob&iously a I? now, but hopefully you can hear that whatHs missing when you drop the root and fifth is ob&ious anyway, especially when you get the I from the bass part. Eou can go without. 4ant to get really minimal' I in the left hand down low, F in the right a couple of octa&es up. :lay it. ThatHs <ust two notes and it still has some of the character of the se&enth because thatHs the se&enth inter&al?. "s this impression enough character, though' That depends entirely on the piece, and whether you want that all/important third to set the tone. And of course by lea&ing the all/important tonality/determining third out of your se&enth chord @I low down, ! and F two octa&es upA, you arenHt committing to any particular tonality for the chord, gi&ing it a certain hollow stability. "t can be fun to be as minimal as possible with fragments, especially in cases where your polyphony is limited F ukulele, chip music, harmonic singing, etc. "t can be fun to see how little you ha&e to do to e&oke the harmony you want.

0hords in keys
For con&enienceLs sake, letLs think of keys as being synonymous with full diatonic ma<or or minor scales. Bach key pro&ides a palette of notes to form melodies and chords from, and since this is the chord section weLll look at chords in a gi&en key first.

"a#or )eys and triads

"H&e mentioned this in the chord guide already, but now itHs time to get e&en more The key of . has the following notes$ . ! B F I A 9 .. sing each of these notes as a root note for a chord, and using only other notes from the scale, we can form the following triad chords$ ma<or triads$ minor triads$ diminished$ . F I !mi Bmi Ami 9dim .BI FA. I9! !FA BI9 A.B 9!F ( " @tonicA ( "V @sub/dominantA ( V @dominantA ( ""mi ( """mi ( V"mi ( V""dim

4e can then group these triads into three harmonic groups$ dominant, subdominant and root. The dominant group, I, Bmi and 9dim, are so named because Bmi and 9dim share two notes each with the dominant V note I. The fifth is also known as the dominant, and itHs this chord that resol&es the firmest back to the root. The subdominant group, F, !m and Am, are so named because !mi and Ami share two notes each with the subdominant "V note F. The fourth is also known as the sub/dominant, being as it is one note below the dominant, and itHs this chord that carries most effecti&ely away from the root. The tonic group has only . in it, but .Ls such an important chord in its own ma<or key that it deser&es its own group. "tHs what all of these chords harmonically point to, in combination.

This be the stuff from which counter'oint is made. "ore on that later.

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4hen you use a subdominant chord, the harmony tra&els away from the tonic, and when you use a dominant chord it tra&els back towards the tonic. Try playing a chord seGuence starting with ., then use a couple of subdominant chords, then use some dominant chords and finish again on .. Then play the same thing backwards. The first one should sound much more definite and decisi&e in the way it ends, because dominant chords mo&e back towards the keyHs tonic chord more decisi&ely than do the subdominant ones. For the ultimate in decisi&e endings, finish any chord progression with the V chord @I in this e7ampleA before slamming the " chord home @. in this e7ampleA. 0early all classical music does this, especially the final two chords of the last mo&ement of a symphony. The V/" progression in a symphony, and especially the V?/" progression, is the audienceLs cue to awaken themsel&es and start applauding. This V/" progression is called a perfect cadence. More about cadences shall be re&ealed in the chapter on chord progressions, including the reason i kept pointing out all the dominant se&enth @V?A substitutes in the chord guide while i was co&ering the ninth chords. 9y the way, writing that bit did my wrists in so i do hope you appreciate it. 5o for any key, the following can be said$ Mthe following chords are dominant and mo&e towards the root harmonically$ """mi, V, V""dim. Mthe following chords are subdominant and mo&e away from the root harmonically$ ""mi, "V, V"mi

"a#or )eys and sevenths

The key of . still has the following notes$ . ! B F I A 9 .. sing each of these notes as a root note for a chord, and using only other notes from the scale, we can form the following se&enth chords$ ma<or ?ths$ . F dominant ?ths$ I minor ?ths$ !mi? Bmi? Ami? .BI9 FA.B I9!F !FA. BI9! A.BI ( "ma? ( "Vma? ( V? ( ""mi? ( """mi? ( V"mi?

4ith the V"" as root note you get a half/diminished se&enth / in the case of . ma<or thatHs 9mi?b-, 9 minor se&enth flat fifth. 9mi?b9!FA ( V""mi?b-

4hen would you use such a chord' "Lm not sure myself. 9ut for the sake of completeness, there it is.

"inor )eys, triads and sevenths

Remember what i said about relati&e minors, how theyLre intimately related to their ma<or scale' The chords a&ailable in a ma<or scale are the e7act same chords you get in the relati&e minor scale, e7cept that in the minor scale another chord becomes important. 1etLs see about A minorLs triad chord palette, then. "t should look pretty familiar, although note that the abstract designations of the chords ha&e changed to reflect A as a root note. 0ote that the "V and V chord share the same tonality @i.e. ma<or%minor statusA as the root noteLs chord in both the ma<or and minor keys. minor triads$ ma<or triads$ diminished$ Ami !mi Bmi . F I 9dim A.B !FA BI9 .BI FA. I9! 9!F ( "mi ( "Vmi ( Vmi ( b""" ( bV" ( bV"" ( ""dim

As for the se&enths of A minor, itLs the same story$ the e7act same chords of . ma<or e7cept with reassigned function within the A minor key. minor ?ths$ Ami A.BI ( "mi?

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ma<or ?ths$ ?ths$

!mi Bmi . F I 9mi?b-

!FA. BI9! .BI9 FA.B I9!F 9!FA

( "Vmi? ( Vmi? ( b"""ma? ( bV"ma? ( bV? ( ""mi?b-

Eet again, the chords can be classified into dominant and subdominant groups. To the dominant @VA group belong the Vmi chords Vmi and Vmi? as well as the b""" chords b""" and b"""ma? and the the bV chords bV and bV?. To the subdominant @"VA group belong the chords "Vmi, "Vmi?, bV", bV"ma?, ""dim and ""mi?b-. The characteristics of mo&ing towards or away from the root that the dominant and subdominant ha&e @respecti&elyA also function for the minor key chords as they do in the ma<or key.

Chords and modes

The way you can deri&e chords from scales, you can also deri&e palettes of chords from modes. The "onian and Aeolian, aka the ma<or and minor scales, weH&e <ust done, so letHs see what other chords we get. "n this table, you can also read any mi? chord as a minor triad, any ma? chord as a ma<or triad, and any mi?b- chord as a diminished triad. For instance, in the !orian mode if you want a chord rooted on the fifth note, it can be either Vmi? or <ust Vmi. !orian$ :hrygian$ 1ydian$ Mi7olydian$ 1ocrian$ "mi? "mi? "ma? "? "mi?b""mi? ""ma? ""? ""mi? ""ma? """ma? """? """mi? """mi?b"""mi? "V? "Vmi? "Vmi?b"Vma? "Vmi? Vmi? Vmi?bVma? Vmi? Vma? V"mi?bV"ma? V"mi? V"mi? V"? V""ma? V""mi? V""mi? V"ma? V""mi?

PaKK takes this particular breakdown e&en further, citing chords enharmonic to the following for the . ma<or scale$ .ma?, !mi?, B?sus6b3, F?b- @or F?N))A, I?, Ami?addb*, 9mi?b-. 5pelling the chords &ery specifically lets the <aKK player know which mode heHs meant to be playing in. #r something.

The ebb and flow of tension and resolution

Mo&ing away from and towards the root, along with the listenerHs e7pectations and mood, creates the tension dynamics of your music. .hord progressions get their &ery own chapter after all this formati&e stuff about what chords ha&e what forms, what chords belong to a certain key and how to bend those rules to your own whim. For now, let it be said that the flow of any music is based on tension and resolution. Any piece of music is a dynamic, dramatic, self/contained little world of sound, after all, be it classical or grunge or techno or whate&er. "f it mo&es you in some way through rhythm or melody or harmony, itLs doing its <ob. "t pushes and pulls you. 5oon, youHll learn how to animate the static chords in this chapter into a dynamic, mo&ing creation. ThereHs <ust one last administrati&e thing$ how to write the chords down.

Transcribing chords
Transcribing what music you write @or music other people ha&e written F reading is as important as writing>A means you can share it on paper without ha&ing to actually play it to someone else.

Abstract or )ey3s'ecific transcri'tion9

"f you ha&e the melody in front of you, write it down with the notes itHs already in. "f you want to go back and analyse it or transpose it, thatHs the time you want to be writing it down in something more abstract notation. "f youHre writing down someone elseHs music to analyse it, make sure you get the outer notes right F that is, the bass note and the highest note of the chord @or chordal melodyA. The lowest and highest notes lend a lot of character to the harmonic colour at that moment, so those are the ones you not only want to get right, theyHre also probably the easiest notes to start with.

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To s'ell or not to s'ell

"f youLre not sure what a chord is but you need to write it down anyway, spell it note for note. "f you happen to write down the name of a chord wrong in some transcription only to come back and disco&er the chord progression you once lo&ed now sounds horrible.. well.. better to be safe than sorry. 0utchords really comes into its own here. Eou can spell a chord in it on its <olly little keyboard and it will tell you what chord youH&e got. :ress the R key and it will in&ert that chord to show you how the first in&ersion of that chord would be spelt. :ress it again and itHll in&ert the chord once more, telling you how that is spelt. Too easy. 5peaking of 0utchords$ e&en if you donHt know the guitar fretboard that well, try displaying and then manipulating chords on the guitar fret at the top of the interface. 5ee what interesting &ariants you can find and then press the shift key to translate it onto the keyboard when you find something you like.

Transcribing music for analysis

This is how " do it. "Hm &ery much a play/by/ear composer, so this may work for you or it may not. Eou will need one notepad, !A4 software, a M"!" controller and your fa&ourite software synthesiser ready to go. "n the notepad, reser&e fi&e horiKontal lines$ one line for the part of the song youHre analysing @e.g. Cbit where choirs come inDA, one line for the chord name, one line for the chord spelling, one line for the bass note and one line for miscellaneous comments. 1oad the piece of music you want to analyse into your !A4. =a&e your soft synth loaded and ready to go. Make sure your M"!" controller can control your soft synth li&e. Find the first one or two of chords of your song. 5et them to loop. Figure out the bass note by matching the note with the soft synth. 4rite the note down. Figure out the high note by matching the note by playing o&er the top of it and write it down at the top of the chord spelling. Then figure out the rest of the chord. "f the bass note seems to fit it but the bass note is not the root note of the chord, try looking for the bass note in the chord as the perfect fifth or the third @ma<or or minorA. "f thereHs too many notes to figure it out, loop one chord only and slap a long clear re&erb on it with no CdryD signal let though. This should smear out the fine detail and allow you to hear all the notes without the distraction of anything else. Mo&e ahead a couple of chords at a time. Make a note of where the piece starts repeating itself.

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Atonalism and microtonality

This bit is entirely optional reading. Approaches to harmony can get weirder. This is the +)st .entury, and in the pre&ious century people got &astly more e7perimental with music theory than mere elephant chords. :roceedings went from diatonicity to chromaticity to atonality to who knows where. 4e <ust left a craKy century for music, thatHs for sure. A short, inaccurate and irre&erent history lesson follows;, biased hard towards my fa&ourite period in 4estern art music because thatHs when atonality all kicked off.

Tonality at snapping point

The musical pioneers in the era of the late Romantics and early Modernists @ten years or so either side of )32-A had composers like !ebussy, 5tra&insky and 5choenberg asking Cwhere to ne7t'D. 4agner had already dropped the almighty Tristan chord in the mid/)3th century, continuing a steady erosion of classical harmonic language and mo&ing it towards finely controlled dissonance and chromaticity. The sonorities in the music were growing more difficult and out there with the introduction of tritones and augmented fifths. The power of eGual temperament was being fully unleashed, like some sort of !eath 5tar. !ebussyHs stated attitude was Cpleasure is the only ruleD, and so he wrote swooning pieces about bodies of water or mythological figures F pieces that occasionally started riots when they were being performed. @:aris can be like that.A =eHd <ump in and out of whole tone sonorities and <am on the pre&iously forbidden tritone like it was nothing, making people scoff at these unlistenable modern music con&entions. @"f only those snooty bastards knew what was coming ne7t...A !ebussy still has a fairly low barrier to entry compared to most composers F heHs not trying to defibrillate the sonata3 for the millionth time. "tHs said that he liberated sonority from tonality F he was more interested in harmonic colours than worrying about what key he should ha&e been in. =eHs the only composer iH&e e&er tried to call on a telephone during a lucid dream to ha&e a chat. 5tra&insky, he of the .irebird and The 9ite of +pring, began stacking chords and unaligned phrases to create polytonality and polyrhythms. To be clear he wasnHt the first human being to actually disco&er polyrhythms F African drumming has known about polyrhythms for yonks. 5tra&insky ended up working in a field now called neo/classicism F the mo&es were often old school but a few new/school ones were thrown in for modern colour. 5till, 5tra&insky @at firstA and !ebussy were both working within tonality of a sort, e&en if they were stretching it to breaking point / as opposed to Brik 5atie who was writing ambient music for restaurants F e7cept :e6ations, that oneHs pretty out there. " wouldnHt eat at a restaurant if the pianist was playing :e6ations, put it that way.

Tonality finally snaps 1 atonality is born

5choenberg and the 5econd Viennese 5chool went e&en further, deciding that it was time to do away with tonality altogether. They did it, " suppose, because it was the right time for it to happen and someone had to go ahead and ask that Guestion$ what does music sound like when we deliberately stop using the notes to create traditional sonorities like ma<ors, minors, se&enths, and so on' They definitely found out. 5choenberg compared these newfound atonal sonorities to Cbreathing the air of another planetD. "tHs an acGuired taste to actually listen to the stuff. The problem is, they found themsel&es ha&ing to de&ise compositional methods like serialism and tone rows to keep themsel&es from lapsing into comfortable familiar tonal sonorities. The old
; 3 $or a long, accurate and thought3'rovo)ing history of music, chec) out :eonard Bernstein1s 6The ;nanswered <uestion7 !orton :ectures from =>?@. They1re on 8ouTube but might not be by the time you read thisA they are definitely available on -B-. Bery long but bloody bloody good, es'ecially once he gets to %agner. Sonatas are a conventional form for classical music, somewhat analogous to the standard issue 'o' song in its own genre. If you can1t wait for a 'iece of classical music to finish and it1s re'eating the same bloody melodic 'hrase over and over again in different variations, you1re 'robably listening to a sonata. .ither that or "o+art. Possibly a "o+art sonata. 8ou 'oor bastard.

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sensibilities ne&er stopped wanting back in. The conductor 1eonard 9ernstein pointed to the harmonic series and said, C0o wonder they couldnHt resist it F tonality is innate.D Much of the atonal music from the 5econd Viennese 5chool is kind of unlistenable, but not all of it F later on in the century, composers were familiar enough with atonal sonorities to understand theyHre <ust like any other sonority. #nce the dust had settled and tonality wasnHt a dirty word anymore, many composers were taking a more eclectic attitude which continues to this day F and happily, part of that eclecticism includes atonality. 4hatHs worth listening to, then' Iyorgy 1igeti, definitely F CAtmospheresD, C1u7 AeternaD and CA&enturesD youHll already know if youH&e seen C+22)$ A 5pace #dysseyD. :endereckiHs Threnody to the :ictims of ;iroshima is highly recommended for any noiseniks who think an orchestra canHt cut it for sheer noise terror. The more far out strains of acid house can be a good place to find atonal melody as well.

"icrotonality
!id " mention that people started cutting up the octa&e into smaller pieces than )+ as well' As in, notes between . and .N' 0o' 4ell, they did. This we call microtonality. The human ner&ous system can definitely discern if thereHs a pitch lying between . and .N so itHs not <ust a case of academics and audiophiles. At the moment microtonality is still pretty a&ant/garde and not that well known about, and its uses are somewhat limited.

Trying atonality and microtonality for yourself

Make no mistake$ itHs hard to lea&e tonality behind. "t <ust sounds nicer. 9ut a full toolkit is a good one, so letHs gi&e you a taste of some of atonalityHs more generally useful tricks.

"icrotonality and alternate tunings

"f youHre going to make atonal music anyway, you may as well take it to further e7tremes and work outside eGual temperament too. "f you want to ha&e a play with microtonal tunings yourself, you should pick up a tuning program called 5cala. "t should let you output T 0 files which you can then load into certain software synthesisers like [ebra +. The T 0 files o&erride the internal tuning tables of the synths. "tHs hard to describe e7actly what microtonal tunings sound like, so your best bet is to e7periment and see what you come up with.

Tone clusters
A tone cluster or cluster chord is what it says on the bo7 F a cluster of notes. TheyHre referred to as a cluster because at least some of the notes are a minimal distance apart, at most a whole tone for diatonic clusters, and only a semitone for chromatic clusters. Eou can hear a small chromatic cluster by playing ., .N and ! simultaneously. For a slightly larger cluster, try . .N ! with F FN I. For a larger tone cluster, try playing all the white keys from . to 9 simultaneously. For an e&en larger tone cluster, all the white A0! black keys from . to 9. That <arring chromaticity can go all sorts of places F for instance, you can do things like put mini/ clusters into triads / . !N B I is a . dyad @. and IA with both ma<or and minor tonalities sounding at once. 4hy would you make a chord both ma<or and minor' 9ecause you can and besides which, it sounds hilarious.

Tone rows
"f you start making tone rows, itHs already too late. A tone row is an arrangement of the )+ notes of the chromatic scale in such a way that they donHt repeat, and this non/repetition can be in&erted, re&ersed and permuted in other ways to create serialist music. "f you want to find out more about serialism, google it. "Hm not writing another word about it. " donHt like

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it enough to find out more about it.

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"otion
4ith the dump of knowledge youH&e <ust had laid on you, writing a simple chord progression using triads and se&enths, sticking to a single key or mode, shouldnHt present a challenging task. Eou know enough principles of harmony by now to write something listenable, whether you follow those principles or not. At this point itLs fair to say iL&e been pretty spare with regards to talking about melody. Melody isnLt my forte, and to hear o&ert melodies in my own music when iHm not singing them is a rare thing indeed. The good thing about harmony is that once you know enough about it you can more or less fake melody by Cconnecting the dotsD between specific notes in the chord progression. Melodies often play with the chords obediently, <ust as they follow scales. #&er time you can learn to bend those rules to make melodies more striking and interesting.

2riting chord progressions

" can prattle on until the cows come home about what chords are which in isolation, but unless youHre playing drone rock thereHs no such thing as a chord in isolation. .hords in a seGuence are called chord progressions, and these progressions take you somewhere. " had a dream once where i was talking to someone about harmonies. "t might ha&e been Ke&in 5hields. =e was talking to me about the contrast between bold, bright chords and slightly more intro&erted ones. The bright chords are the ma<or and minor triads and their &arious different e7tensions, and the more intro&erted ones are where the fifthHs been altered or the thirdHs been suspended one way or the other. =e said he liked to use the bright chords for impact and then use the intro&erted ones to carry things away again. " think. 0ot e&ery chord in the progression is going to ha&e the same effect or impact as e&ery other chord. That would be silly. 5ome chords are always going to hit home more than othersJ listen to any song and youHll sense that certain chords are more important to the story in the music than others. #ther chords fill the space between those prime chords in interesting ways. "f you canHt write a chord progression yet, iHm not sure how to e7plain how itHs done, really. Maybe itHs better that i donHt e7plain it and let you <ust do what you like. There is the following to say all the same.

Stability and consonance

The most stable chord is whate&er triad matches your key, the tonic triad. "f youHre in F ma<or, that chord is the F triad. "f youHre in ! minor, that chord is the !mi triad. The tonic is your back to base chord, and itHll typically ha&e a fairly big role to play in your song. The second most stable chord in your arsenal, as hinted at before, is the dominant triad. "n the key of F ma<or, thatHs .. "n . ma<or, itHs I. The subdominant is also fairly stable, though it will tend to want to wander off to something else. The secondary chords @read$ anything bar the tonic, subdominant and dominantA are fairly unstable in their key and tend to want to mo&e off somewhere else as well. B&en chords themsel&es can be stable or unstable. The most consonant chords are the ma<or and minor triads$ they ha&e a root, a third and a perfect fifth. The root/third inter&al is Guite consonant, and the root/fifth relationship is &ery solid. .hange the third to a suspended second or fourth and it becomes slightly less stable, though more portable since it can double for a ma<or or a minor chord. 4hen you start flattening or sharpening the fifth, howe&er, the chord loses its most consonant element of all. Bspecially flattening the fifth makes life fairly interesting because it gi&es the chord a tritone inter&alJ the tritone is &ery useful for its floatiness. 5o if, say, youHre working in a ma<or key and you want to increase the instability of an already unstable chord to make the ne7t chord sound e&en more stable, tinker with it to put a tritone in it, either by adding notes or altering notes which are already there.

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#f course you can go in the opposite direction and hold unstable chords for a long amount of time. Then you get lots of build/up because these chords will be dying to resol&e to something more stable. Try it. Io play a ?b- chord for a bit, then a ?b3b- chord on the same root note for a bit, and then play a ma<or triad afterwards. Feel that' "tHs the sound of relief. Tension, then more tension, then resolution.

-ynamism and chord relationshi's

:laying a progression of chords with similar notes isnHt as dynamic as playing a progression of chords where the notes do &ary a lot from chord to chord. A dynamic chord progression will always feel like itHs going somewhere, which may or may not be the effect you want in any gi&en part of the song. Many patterns can be broken down to increments of semitones and whole tones, two Guite elementary distances. Maybe the chord I resol&es down to the chord . @in the key of . of courseA more solidly than any other chord because the 9 note in I can be heard to Cturn intoD the note of ., which is the fundamental note of the key. #ne semitone up to get to that all/important progressing resolution. The ! of the I chord can also be heard to rise up to the B of the . chord, which is a whole tone. Meanwhile, the I acts as a pi&ot point between the two chords, an effecti&e link from one chord to the ne7t. Pust an idea.

Boice leading
An easy/ish way to form your chord progressions is to use &oice leading to get you from A to 9 to . to ! to B and back to A again. The &oice in Guestion is simply a melody charted through the harmonies of your chords. "t could literally be a melody painted out boldly by a particular instrument against a harmonic backdrop, or it could be e&en more subtle than that. "t could be a couple of melodies at once, resulting in a sort of counterpoint.. which gets e7plained in a bit. 1etHs look at these chords for a starting point. .
.B<

!mi
!F4

Bmi
BI!

9b*%!
! F I !b

ThereHs a seGuence . ! B !, a seGuence B F I F, and a seGuence I A 9 9b.. little melodies playing off one another. All Guite audible in and of themsel&es they are. B&en the V/" or V?/" progression &oice leads to an e7tent. The minor se&enth of the V? and the ma<or se&enth of the V lead into the root note &ery nicely being two semitones and a semitone away from it, respecti&ely. The ma<or se&enth is also called the leading note, donHt forget. The setup works. "n the "V/" progression, the perfect fourth leads to a ma<or third a semitone downwards. "n a V"mi/" resolution, the ma<or si7th leads to the perfect fifth. And so on. 0ow iHm going to talk about the different sorts of resolution, some of which isnHt technically resolution at all.

Resolution
"L&e been using the words resol&e and resolution e7tensi&ely throughout this document so far, so it would help to e7plain e7actly what i mean. Musically speaking, resolution can mean a couple of things. Ienerally itHs about elements fitting against other elements, whether that fitting happens at the same time or from one musical moment to the ne7t.

!otes resolving to harmony

"t can mean how and whether a particular note fits into a harmonic structure @chordA or clashes with it. This can be thought of more as simultaneous matching of harmony and melody. For instance, the stray sharpened fourth note in the blues scale doesnHt resol&e properly with any of the chords used for the blues, so it strikes against the harmonies naturally and sounds interesting. The list of notes outside of . B and I that resol&e nicely with the . chord, gi&en the criteria that you

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should try to keep simultaneous notes at least a whole tone apart @and that you want to work in a diatonic and not chromatic systemA, is as follows$ !, A, AN%9b. That gi&es you a palette of si7 resol&ing notes, three of which will resol&e directly to harmonic elements of the chord, and three of which will resol&e for the reason that they donLt clash with any other notes. "f you want to stay strictly to the scale of . ma<or, the 9b is out of the running too. EouLre now left with fi&e notes to play o&er the chord of .$ . ! B I A. #h look, itLs our old mate the ma<or pentatonic scale. "f you want to use a melody with F or 9 o&er a . ma<or chord and ha&e the notes resol&e to the harmony, get the note into the harmony of the chord and if you can remo&e any notes in the chord with which F or 9 clash. For instance, F is part of .sus6, and 9 is part of .ma?. @:lay a 9 o&er the top of .ma? and itLs instant blissy territory.A 5o. ThatLs one sort of resolution e7plained and an early introduction to the ne7t chapter about melody, the sense of resolution where melodies match, e7press and reinforce their harmonic base.

Carmonies resolving to a )ey

:ieces of music tend to be in a certain key. #nce atonal composition took hold and took a perfectly good thing too far in the +2th .entury under the likes of 5choenberg and 4ebern, this was no longer the case. 9e that as it may, music that doesnLt establish a fundamental or root note and some sort of tonality at any point is still &astly less common and easy to hear on the radio than music that does. All pop music resol&es to a key. Blectronic dance music @with the possible e7ception of certain older styles of acid and the newer styles grouped together under the heading of leftfieldA does. "tLs not hard to spot music that doesnLt resol&e to a key at allMwhate&er melody and harmony there is in it sounds unhooked and may e&en seem to be a series of almost random, disconnected, dauntingly toneless melodic and harmonic structures. "t has a drifting Guality and tends to not Cget to the pointD, at least not using melody or harmony. !ebussyLs =relude to the afternoon of a faunMhighly recommended listening to anyone whoLs interested in hearing the philosophies of ambient music in the framework of orchestral composition, not to mention because itLs a fantastic bit of musicMhas a Guality of floatiness not too far remo&ed from atonal and chromatic music, but itLs not without resolution of any sort itself. The music changes its key with unprecedented speed and freGuency to achie&e its distinct Guality as the lo&ely formless and floaty piece of music it is. Atonal music takes this philosophy of keylessness and enforces it much more thoroughly, deliberately a&oiding diatonic harmony and lea&ing the main points of interest to be, for instance, permutations of the actual sounds of the instruments themsel&es. 4ebern for one made use of these >langfarbenmelodien @timbre melodiesA more statedly than most, and iHll come back to him later when melody itself is up for discussion. Most music isnLt as harmonically progressi&e and complicated as !ebussyLs or 4ebernHs, howe&er, and a key centre isnHt usually too hard to find. Much of the time the &ery first chord in the piece of music will tell you the key of the rest of the piece, although o&er time itLs been disco&ered that you can begin pieces of music in other more interesting ways and introduce the key properly later on. "tLs this central key in the form of either a chord or a simple note that notes and harmonies are anchored to, and the key brings resolution to the song. "tLs the tonal anchor of the song. Eou can usually whistle it as a note if youHre intuiti&e enough. "n the form of its chord and its note, the key is intimately in&ol&ed in the songLs structure as long as it remains the key in useJ keys can change within songsJ there are ways of making the transition between keys smoother using the right set of chords, too. "tLs perfectly possible to pop into one key briefly and then shimmy back to the original key if thatLs whatHll ha&e the desired effect. 4hen a song gets back to its key chord, the harmony of the song is said to ha&e resol&ed. 4hen a chord in a song is followed by the key chord, itLs said to ha&e resol&ed @to the key chordA. Resolution in this sense is relati&e to the key of the songJ if youLre in the key of ., . canLt resol&e up to F unless you make F the key and start using the F keyLs chords. This sort of resolution is a series of harmonic choices that e&okes a certain key.

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"odulation
" hinted before that youHre not necessarily stuck in one key all the time, and so it is during this e7ponence of key that iHll suggest how to get from one key to another. This is called modulation, and traditionally thereHs a few different ways of doing it. 9ut why would you want to modulate' EouHd want to modulate for the simple reason that staying in one key can be &ery boring, and modulating li&ens things up a bit. EouH&e probably already done some key modulation yourselfJ not caring that 9b isnHt part of the key of . ma<or, youH&e probably followed . with 9b @without being in the key of F ma<orA because it sounds good. The 9b chord is one of the chords of . minor, howe&er, and in this day and age you can change between ma<or and minor keys with the same root note without causing &ery much confusion. 5wapping between ma<or and minor keys is such an omnipresent practice these days that it doesnHt sound as striking as it once might ha&e, but it still does sound a bit special. .
.BI

.*
.BIA

Ami
A.BI

9b

9b ! F .BI modulate to 2 minor modulate bac to 2 major

!irect modulation
!irect modulationHs the easiest sort of modulation there is. Eou <ust go into your target key without bothering to anticipate it &ery much. Key changes in much )3;2s pop music are a prime e7ample of this techniGue. Modulating from the key of . to the key of ! directly could go something like this .
.BI

F
FA.

I
I9!

.
.B!

!
! FN A modulate to 1 with no anticipation

4hen you hear that !, itHs clear weH&e <ust <umped into a different key. "tHs made e&en clearer once you start using chords that are part of the key of ! ma<or but arenHt part of the key of . ma<or. B7amples of such chords are FNmi, A, 9mi and .dim. @. and ! ma<or share the chords Bmi and I.A

:i&ot modulation
:i&ot modulation is the more flowery way of heading from one key to another. Eou pi&ot by using chords in your progression which e7ist in both your starting key and your target key. #ne way this is done is by following the circle of fifths 5o say if we want to get from a . chord in the key of F to an B chord in the key of B. 4e follow the circle of fifths. .
.BI

I
I9!

B*

! FN A A .N B modulate to 1 major

B IN 9 B IN 9 .N modulate to ? major and resolve ey with ? majorish chord

Bach of those chords is rooted on the fifth of the root to its left, as you can clearly see in the furinotes unless youH&e been drinking in which case i wonder why youHre reading this. This is called dominant pi&ot modulation since the other term for the fifth is the dominant note. 4e arenHt restricted to using <ust dominant pi&oting though. 4e can also pi&ot using fourthsJ this is called subdominant pi&ot modulation. 1etHs &isit Ab using this method. .
.BI

F
FA.

9b

Bb

Ab

Ab*

9b ! F Bb I 9b modulate to !b major

Ab . Bb Ab . Bb F modulate to 4b major and resolve ey with 4b majorish chord

Bach of the root notes of the abo&e chords is the sub/dominant note of the chord root on its left. 0ow the abo&e two e7amples are pretty linear. 4eHre going directly to the root chord of the target key and adding a si7th chord subsitution afterwards to cement the identity of the key. 5ubstituting gets co&ered later.

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4e can announce e&en more loudly that weH&e arri&ed at a particular key by using the dominant se&enth chord in a "V/V?/" chord progression in the target key. "n the following e7ample, 9? is BHs dominant se&enth. "t needs to resol&e to B or it will e7plode> @That happens to it sometimes.A "n the following progression, ! ma<or and B ma<or share the chord A, so the key is slightly up for grabs at A. "tHs definitely not . ma<or or I ma<or, and gi&en that weH&e seen a ! chord the A could &ery well be part of ! ma<or. This is how youHre most likely to hear it, in fact. Following the A chord with a 9? chord locks the working key into B ma<or, since only B ma<or can lay claim to that particular chord. .
.BI

I
I9!

9?

B*

! FN A A .N B in 1 major here ambiguity

9 !N FN A B IN 9 B IN 9 .N modulate to ? major and resolve ey with ? majorish chord

Actually, that V?/" progression sounds really mothballed, doesnHt it' 4eHre definitely sophisticated enough to be able to handle something a bit more interesting, something that obli&iously crosses the ma<or%minor keys.. .
.BI

I
I9!

!?
! FN A . ambiguity

B
B IN 9 resolves to ? major

At that ambiguity, weHre potentially in both I ma<or @since !? is part of the I ma<or scaleA and B minor @since !? is also part of the B minor scaleA. 5ince itHs #K to modulate between B minor and B ma<or directly, that chord progression works. The following modulationHs slightly cle&erer but works by the combination of normal direct modulation, wanton direct ma<or%minor key modulation and the relati&e minor key. .
.BI

!
! FN A d" mod to 1 major

9
9 !N FN d" mod to ! major

9?
9 !N FN A targeting ? major

B
B IN A resolution at ? major

As i hope to ha&e taught you, 9 minor is the relati&e minor key of ! ma<or. 9oth keys use e7actly the same notes. #ne way to tell this is that the middle note of the ! ma<or triad, FN, is also the top note of the 9 triad. This note forms a sort of pi&ot making the transition from ! ma<or to 9 ma<or less <arring.

5umming up modulation and resol&ing to a key

As with e&erything in music theory, no amount of theory can tell you what youHll like. :retty much e&ery theory book you can lay your hands on will mention the V?/" chord progression, e&en though it sounds limp and tired. "t definitely puts you in a key but thereHs <ust so many other more interesting chords you can use. Rrgh. Those chords will be co&ered when i get to substitution, in the chapter on permutation. Io and listen to !ebussyHs =relude to the afternoon of a faun if you ha&enHt already. 5ee how much this song changes key' 4ithin a few seconds of establishing a key itHs fluidly and perfectly found its way o&er to another one. This harmonic floatiness from a lack of regular key is definitely something that !ebussy definitely has in common with the atonal and serialist composers, and was something that made it initially difficult for him to hold performances without being bagged by narrow/minded twats of critics. :erhaps iHm <ust as narrow/minded a twat to some for repeatedly slagging off 5choenberg et al, but !ebussy found his way onto the soundtrack of @cean's )) @that would be 2lair de ,une, the orchestral music thatHs playing when theyHre all looking at the fountain after theyH&e pulled off the heistA and 5choenberg didnHt. .ome to think of it, the &ery same piece also makes an appearance during the mo&ie 1og +oldiers as well. 0ow for a wee tip$ thereHs a chord called the diminished se&enth @spelt ) b, b- *A which is in&aluable when modulating. "t is a uni&ersal modulation adapter. "t is harmonic a7le grease. 9eing such an unstable chord, it resol&es to almost any chord you can handle with a minimum of fuss. "H&e tested it and can &ouch for its results. And that brings me to the third sort of resolution$ chord to chord resolution.

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Chords resolving to other chords

!ifferent chords ha&e differing amounts of a Guality thatHs often called stability. Eou may ha&e noticed that in the chord guide i inferred that some chords are more stable than others. 5table chords are usually bold and free/standing affairs, the real meat of the song. nstable chords, with which modern <aKK is absolutely infested, seem to want to go somewhere else. They ha&e a tension to them that seems to set up another chord. Then again, e&en relati&ely stable chords can set up another chord. =armonically unstable chords like the diminished se&enth are often useful in the capacity of carrier chords. .arrier chords take you along to the ne7t chord, and the more unstable ones often ha&e the seeds of their own harmonic self/destruction inside them due to dissonant inter&al relationships. An effecti&e carrier chord helps to accentuate the chord that comes after it in an interesting way while contrasting against the pre&ious chord in an interesting way too. .arrier chords can be used cle&erly to make harmonic progressions wiggle interestingly to all sorts of strange places. !welling on an unstable carrier chord creates tension, and a nice stable landing chord like a triad or unaltered se&enth afterwards releases that tension. That much <aKK is made up of so many unstable chords should e7plain to some e7tent why it sounds as flighty and restless as it does. The most stable of all chords in any key is the triad which shares the tonality and root note of your key. "f youHre in B ma<or, itHs B @B IN 9A. "f youHre in ! minor, itHs !mi @!miA. Eou can carry to this, the final landing chord of its key, in many different ways. #ne uninteresting way to carry to the tonic chord which youH&e already been introduced to is the V?/" progression. I?, .. B?, A. 9?, FN. !ominant se&enth to tonic. The V?/" progression is a twist on the perfect cadence, V/". 5o letHs talk about cadences and dominant se&enth chords.

.adences and carrier chords e7plained

A cadence is a two/chord progression where things get stable. "tHs either a resolution to the root chord or something that pretends to be and then surprises you. .adences ha&e been around long enough to ha&e been systematised slightly. The perfect cadence, already introduced to you in a pre&ious section, is any V chord resol&ing to the " chord. 5o if youHre in ., that would mean any chord with I as a root being followed by . @either <ust . or .mi, or if youHre feeling fruity .*%3A. The imperfect cadence goes in the opposite direction, from " to V chords. The interrupted cadence starts with a V and goes anywhere e7cept for the safe predictable " chordJ itHs called the interrupted cadence because itHs as though the masterful perfect cadence were interrupted. The plagal cadence is the "V chord resol&ing to the " chord. "f youHre in ., that means any chord with F as a root being followed by .. "n I that would be a . chord resol&ing to I. "n !, that would be a I chord resol&ing to !. "tHs a slightly mode understated resolution than the mighty perfect cadence, but a useful one to use sometimes all the same when itHs not Guite time to pull out the old V/". "tHs sometimes called the YAmenY cadence because .hristian prayers set to melody often feature this cadence on the last line of the prayer. @"t has nothing to do with the Amen break, being as the Amen break was from a song called 4men !rother by the 4instons.A The deceptive cadence, so called because at one point music was so horribly predictable that people took aberrances on its established rules as tantamount to treason punishable by being made to bare oneHs bottom to red hot pokers, is a V chord that resol&es to the minor V" chord. "n ., that would be from I to Ami. "n F, that would be from . to !mi. "n !, that would be A resol&ing to 9mi. 0ow the perfect cadence is the most forceful of these, so it makes sense that this would be the one that gets the most &arieties. 4hat i didnHt e7pound upon earlier is that e&en in traditional harmonyM sub<ect to an easy/to/follow rule and one e7ceptionMyou can stick dominant se&enths nearly anywhere you like. 4hat iHm about to show you here properly belongs with the chord substitution stuff in chapter si7, being as it deals with horiKontal tweaking, but it wonHt hurt to bring some of the science forward on you.

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4hen you use the dominant se&enth of whate&er key youHre working in, thatHs <ust a boring old dominant se&enth. 9ut when you start using dominant se&enths from outside that key to boost the presence of other chords, youHre entering the realm of secondary dominant se&enth chords. 1etHs say weHre in the key of ., and we ha&e a chord progression that goes .
.BI

I
I9!

!mi
!FA

F
FA.

@.A
.BI

The secondary dominant rule says that you can lead into any chord @e7cept for the V"" in a ma<or key and the "" in a minor keyA using the relati&e dominant se&enth chord of the root note. To lead into the !mi, we first ha&e to work out what the dominant note of ! is. "tHs A. Therefore, this rule allows us to follow I with A? before leading into !mi. This lea&es us with .
.BI

I
I9!

A?

!mi

F
FA.

@.A
.BI

A .N B I ! F A

and now this progression now sounds rather </poppish. 1eading into the F with .? sounds Guite odd. 1eading into the I with !? sounds rather odd, like iHm modulating from one key to another. ThatHs the traditional rule for using dom ?th chords. Ii&en that itHs the +)st century and that particular secondary dominant se&enth rule has been flogged to death, let me dissuade you from using that particular substitution formula with any strictness. "t sounds naffly classical and Buropean. 9etter to put the dom ?th somewhere it sounds a bit odd. 1eading into the F with !? for instance sounds nicely striking> 9ut sometimes you need something a shade different to either smooth things o&er or ruffle them up. For instance, now that iH&e got .
.BI

I
I9!

!mi
!FA

!?
! FN A .

F
FA.

@.A
.BI

i notice that the !? is a bit too close to the !mi to really carry the harmony along. 5o now itHs time to try swapping things in for the dominant se&enth. Mainly itHs the switch from minor to ma<or third that sounds a bit shite, so my first instinct is to start suspending the minor third of !mi to either a fourth or a second in the se&enth chord that follows it. First candidate on the list is my good old mate the se&enth suspended fourth$ .
.BI

I
I9!

!mi
!FA

!?sus6 F
!IA. FA.

@.A
.BI

0ow thatHs a fine harmonic progression right there. 1etHs get ad&enturous. .
.BI

I
I9!

!mi
!FA

!?/ F /b-sus+
! B Ab . F A .

@.A
.BI

ThatHs right, a !?b-sus+, or a se&enth flat fi&e suspended second. 0utchords informs me that its simplest name is B?N- / both chords use ! B Ab and .. 1etHs try something else. .
.BI

I
I9!

!mi
!FA

!ma?/ F /N-sus6
! I AN . F A .

@.A
.BI

#K, that sounds slightly o&er the top. 9ut try whipping in some of those sassy ninth chords where that dom se&enth was and it sounds more than groo&y. 4hat iHm getting at is where&er you can put a dominant se&enth without it sounding horrible, thereHs heaps of other chords you can use to &arying degrees of success in the same spot. 5o. ThatHs what a carrier chord is$ one fairly unstable chord, often using notes outside whatHs common in the current key, that @e&entuallyA resol&es onto another more stable chord while doing its bit to make the harmony more interesting. "f the carrier chord contains notes from both the chord that precedes it

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and the chord that follows it, itHs called a passing chord. "Hll get back to you with an e7ample later.

Chromatic voice leading with altered chords

Eou might ha&e noticed a lot of chords in section , with altered fifths and ninths. "tHs only recently that i was flipping through one of my books when it struck me e7actly what those many altered chords are for, and that there was a word for this thingy where notes from one chord set up another. Voice leading is where notes lead into one another from chord to chord. "tHs chromatic when the chords ignore which key theyHre in and use whiche&er notes they like. Remember the chromatic scale' Io and check back on the scales chapter if youH&e forgotten it. .on&entionally, chromatic &oice leading works a bit like this$ youH&e got your first chord, and you can either sharpen or flatten your chordHs fifth or ninth, or sharpen your ele&enth or flatten your thirteenth. For the sake of sanity and to keep my derision of chords with more than fi&e notes a bit consistent, letHs <ust stick with the fifth and ninth notes. Much easier. 1etHs start with the fifth. !epending on whether you flatten or sharpen the fifth determines which note you lead to. Flattening the fifth con&entionally leads downwards, and sharpening con&entionally leads upwards. =ereHs two e7amples with the leading seGuence underlined from chord to chord as it rises semitone by semitone. .
.BI

.?b. B Ib 9b

F
FA.

.
.BI

.?N. B IN 9b

F
FA.

"n both cases here, itHs the ubiGuitous V/" progression again. @"tHs not going anywhere, so youHd better <ust learn to like it.A 5o the flattened fifth in the .?b- leads to an F, and the sharpened fifth in .?Nleads up to an A. .on&entionally speaking. 4hat other chords ha&e Fs and As' Think mainly about triads hereJ altered chords are Guite unstable and need something firm to land upon though you might like landing them on suspended se&enths or other altered chords if youHre feeling per&erse. 1etHs see.. !mi and 9b also contain F as a minor third and perfect fifth respecti&ely, and !mi and Ami both contain A as a perfect fifth and root note respecti&ely. Eou can thence lead to those &arious triads using the appropriate altered &ersion of .. Altering a ninth degree is also possible. .?
. B I 9b

.?b3
. B I 9b !b

F
FA.

.?
. B I 9b

.?N3
. B I 9b !N

Fma?
FA.B

Eeah, that last one is a bit of a stretch. 5ounds alright to me though. Another use is .?
. B I 9b

.?N3
. B I 9b !N

!
! FN A !

0ow youH&e probably noticed that the .?b3 is a bit internally weird. "tHs got a . and a !b in it, and those notes are only a semitone away from one another. They grind. They make the chord really really unstable and gi&e it some of the same bittersweetness that makes the ma<or se&enth sound so yummy.

More on chord progressions

As iL&e already hinted if not outrightly declared in my discussion of chords and keys, certain chords are more important in a chord progression than others are. The fundamental or root chord, that which carries the tonality and fundamental note of the operational key, is the most important. The "V and V chords @whether ma<or%minor, se&enth, added/to, etcA establish the key along with the fundamental or root chord. The remaining chords in the key will also play a role, but itLs generally those three chords that are the ones which take charge in the song.

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Bspecially in pop music. 5o many pop tunes can be played with little more than the old ", "V and V chords that books ha&e been written with titles like :lay All These 5ongs 4ith Pust Three .hords. And the books e&en li&e up to that rather strange/sounding promise. TheyHre bold, bright chords. :op music is often bold bright music which needs bold, bright chords to ha&e its intended effect$ to catch your attention, get stuck in your brain and compel you to download it off the "nternet because youHd rather spend your money on something actually worth buying like a .octeau Twins album. " recommend ;eaven or ,as :egas. Truly. Eou can go off and play the ", "V and V chords in any combination you like and disco&er how head/nobbingly done to death they are in your own time after i gi&e you a map of the twel&e bar blues. Eou already know from a pre&ious chapter which chords in the ma<or and minor keys go with them, that the subdominant takes the harmony away from the root and the dominant brings it back again, and all that stuff. 4hat happens when you donHt include the root chord too often but still use other chords from the same key' 4hat happens then' Bh' Bh' "f you write a chord progression without either the "V or V chords though, it wonLt sound all that odd unless you drop the " chord. "tLs only once you donLt use the " chord often enough that things can beg for resolution. 0ew #rderLs !i5arre ,ove Triangle only resol&es to its root chord once e&ery eight bars, for instance. =ere it is, transposed into F. 9b
9b ! F

.
.BI

Ami
A.B

9b
9b ! F

9b

9b

9b ! F

.BI

FA.

9b ! F

The songLs almost always searching for that root chord to resol&e to, which gi&es it a wonderful subtly unanchored Guality like itHs harmonically ner&ous despite not doing any ob&iously fancy things with harmony. The root chord in the chorus falls underneath the lyric @"Lm waiting for the final moment youA Csay the words thatD @" canLt sayA, sung in on a high note descending downwards. "tLs a nicely effecti&e synergy between melody, harmony and lyrics, that moment. 4ere we all so thoughtful as that lot... 1ook at the A minor though. "tHs the closest chord to the F in the whole key. #ne note is one semitone away. "tHs &ery, &ery close to the F. #ne reading of this is that the F has been substituted into the Ami since the two chords are so &ery similar. 1etHs get the blues.

I got the blues

The twel&e/bar blues is a genuine classic progression. "ts bleached se&enthless &ariant goes like this. " "V V "tLs all ", "V and V. Eawn. A more interesting and traditional &ariant goes like this. " "V? V? " "V? "V? " " " " " V? " "V "V " " " " " V

The twel&e bar sticks to the root, subdominant and dominant chords @not chord groups, chordsA. "tLs the most unsubtle chord progression around these days but itLs still as &ersatile as e&er it was when you pop some lyrics o&er it, and its familiarity means you can comfortably e7periment a lot more with melodies in it as opposed to an unfamiliar chord progression.

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An original chord 'rogression to stare at

1etLs look at a progression where one of the notes in the centre stays the same, in this case good old .. These are the chords that came to mind when i thought about which chords had a . in them. "L&e got a minor triad, an in&erted ma<or, a si7th and a minor se&enth. Ami low mid high/mid high A . B .%I I . B Ab* Ab . Bb F !mi?%A @AmiA A . ! F A . B

As you can see, the high note B effecti&ely breaks into two separate notes before con&erging back on B again at the end of the loop. The low note mo&es around by whole tone and semitone before it gets back to A early in anticipation of the Ami at the recommencement of the loop. . is included in all the chords, tying them all together. The low peripheral note mo&es around in steps of a semitone and a tone, a &ery common strategy. The peripheral notes mo&e around a centre note. ThatLs the maths of it. =ow this rather odd chord progression makes you feel as a person is another matter entirely, iLd suspect. This e7ample is in the key of A minor, which you can tell because most of the chords use e7clusi&ely white keys. "t admittedly leaps rather suddenlly into another key when it gets to Ab* @could be any number of keys, reallyA but comes back again in time for !mi?%A.

Specific chord progressions

=ereHs some chord progressions which ha&e been used in &arious different songs o&er the ages. 5ome of these ha&e already been co&ered in the cadences section technically but theyHre worth co&ering once more in a different conte7t. TheyHre listed ordered by the chord roots then their tonality as gi&en in the chord dictionary. 0ow you might ask how loads of different songs can use the same few progressions o&er and o&er again without there being any legal battles in&ol&ed. 4ell. "tHs because e&en though the harmony is the same, the lyrics and melody and arrangement are different. The lyrics and the melody are the copyrightable bits and as such the harmonic progressions donHt really get a look/in. I3IB3B. I3Bmi. I3BIm3IB3B. Fairly ob&ious / the three ma<or chords from the diatonic scale in a row. sed on Time of Aour ,ife by Ireen !ay for their &erses and doubtless loads of other bands in loads of other songs. 1ike that song 1owntown in the chorus. .osmic/sounding old progression this one. 9est known as the chord progression from ;eart and +oul, this chord progression ruled the doowop genre in the fifties through songs such as ?arth 4ngel, Why 1o .ools .all In ,oveB and ,ollipop. Ees not all of these tunes are doowop. 5o what.

Imi3bBII3bBI3B. The Yhit the road <ackY progression. IImi3B3I. Frank [appa proclaimed that this progression and its &ariants epitomised Ybad white/ person musicY. "ts &ariants would be things like IImi?3B?3Ima? @same roots, different chordsA and so on. sed a lot in <aKK. A technoey sort of progression, !lue 8onday, anyone' aka perfect cadence. 9ack to the root chord in a fairly strong way. Zuite loopable. 9ack to the root chord in a somewhat blandly traditional way. 9ack to a root chord in a way that really emphasises that added si7th. aka plagal or '4men' cadence. 9ack to the root chord in a gentle way. A grandiose progression. Basiest/to/find use$ the +2th .entury Fo7 <ingle such as at the beginning of 5tar 4ars.

bIII3bBII3Imi. B3I, B?3I. B?3ID. IB3I, IBmi3I.

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bBII?3I. BII3Imi.

A weird little progression i ha&enHt heard used anywhere. Iloomy and ominous progression used a lot in :hilip IlassHs >oyaanisCatsi soundtrack.

For an o&ersiKed &ersion of this part, check out the progression inde7 in appendi7 K. EouHll be somewhat sorry you did because itHs more information than is easily taken in in one shot.

3isten around you

Eou can find more inspiration than <ust 0ew #rder on paper by looking for things like guitar tabs on the web. "n Ioogle, type Y@artistA @songA tabsY. Failing that, try working out the chords for some of your own fa&ourite songs. "t might take a while, especially if thereLs some suspended fourths in there, but being able to figure out what makes your fa&ourite songs so goodMfrom both the perspecti&e of dry analysis and emotional appreciationMcan help you along greatly in your own composing. "f youHre ha&ing trouble, try whistling the distinct notes you hear in the harmony and matching them on your own instrument of choice. #nce youH&e got a couple of them, trial and error should help you get the rest. As a composer you should listen to any sort of music you possibly can and absorb itMall of it contributes to your personal &ault of musical manoeu&res in terms of melody, rhythm, lyric and harmony. Io outside your field of composition. "Hm primarily an ambient composer but i listen to shoegaKe, techno, classical, punk, a&ant garde, noise, house, <aKK, goa, rock, golden oldies rock, rap, downbeat, you name it. ThereHs <ust so much to be learnt about harmony, there really is.

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"elody
ntil i knew about music theory, good melodies were hard. Really hard. "Lm not a person with a grand innate sense of melody when it comes to composing, although i can whistle a tune and usually i can sing in harmony off the top of my head. " eschewed melodies for the longest time until i found out that itLs easy enough to fake a ser&iceable melody from the harmonic elements of the song. Then i found out that the melody can actually conduct the harmonic part into interesting new places and began to appreciate that the melody and chords are interesting playmates. Although melody is simpler than harmony with <ust the one note playing as opposed to a single chord, itLs easier to learn about notes, then chords and harmony, and then melody afterwards as an e7tension of harmony.

2riting a melody
Princi'les of writing a harmonic melody
A harmonic melody is one which sticks pretty close to whate&er harmonic structure is present in the song. A really basic e7ample of a harmonic melody is one which uses only the notes of the chord playing at the time. At that le&el itLs simple, but a little bit boring if youLre only using triads. A slightly looser format is to adapt a palette of notes from both the key youLre working in, the current chord and the whole tone principle discussed earlier$ use the notes of the chord, work out what other notes can be played without clashing with the notes of the chord by being a semitone away, and then take out whate&er notes arenLt in the scale%key youLre using. Melodies can be thought of in terms of nodes and paths. A node note would ideally be one of the notes of the chord, and path notes are those which tra&el between the nodes. :ath notes are transient in that theyLre only there to get from A to 9 and donLt last long. TheyLre less significant than the node notes which are by comparison more consonant with the harmony and are usually held for longer. :aths can also encircle nodes without mo&ing to a new note. A path can progress by semitones, whole tones, whole and a half tones, or make e&en larger <umps depending on the desired effect. MelodyLs the winding path through the harmony, as i see it. "t skips on and off the notes of the harmony to accentuate them, occasionally stepping off the path altogether to <ump between notes on the scale. "t may not be this to e&eryone but if youL&e ne&er written a melody before, this is a good framework to begin with until youHre melodically capable enough to do without it.

An e2am'le harmonic melody using nodes and 'aths

:art of the ma<or progression from .hronologie pt 6 by Pean/Michel Parre will analyse nicely into a node/and/path melody for our purposes. @"f you donLt know this song, the albumLs been remastered and rereleased on .! so you should acGuaint yourself with it at your local .! shop of choice as soon as you can. My bandmate Peremy reckons we should play it during a !P set one night to see whose head e7plodes.A The key is .. "Lm not <ust saying that for con&enience like i usually do$ this song really is in .. .hord$ 0otes in chord$ "n&erted$ Melody$ 0ode$ . I !mi .BI I9! !FA I.B I9! A!F B$ F B !$ B ! ! B F$ B ! F F FA. A.F .$ ! .

Any note with $ is held for a significantly long time. "n the first phrase, the functional melodic node is B. The melody anticipates the step down to ! by first rising up to F, then hitting B again before coming down to the node note ! in the second section and holding there. The third section sees a note/by/note rise from ! up to the ne7t node, F, and then a descending series of notes down to the fourth sectionLs node, ..

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The first and third sections ha&e nodes which function as the thirds of their respecti&e chords$ B is the third of ., and F is the third of !mi. 9y contrast, the second and fourth sections ha&e nodes which function as fifths of their respecti&e chords$ ! is the fifth of I, and . is the fifth of F. Ietting a long melody out and written need not be much harder than setting yourself some node notes determined by the harmony and connecting them with path notes. "f thatLs not the most useful secret about writing melodies e&er gi&en away, iLd dearly like to see what is.

An e2am'le melody from 'o' music

1etLs use the melody from the chorus of 9iKarre 1o&e Triangle for further analysis, setting it in the key of . for the sake of it being easy to read$ .hord$ 0otes in chord$ F FA. I I9! Bmi BI9 \I F B ! @.A F FA. . ! A WIX

Melody$ A 9 . ! @BA B!.9I @\melody goes up an octa&e in this phraseA

Most of the notes in this melody are ad<acent to one another, stepping up and down the scale a semitone and whole tone at a time. !onLt underestimate this decepti&ely simple techniGue. The notes in round brackets @B and .A are anticipations of the ne7t chord in the progression, another well/used techniGue which keeps the song rolling along. "n the case of the B, it combines with the I chord to suggest a si7th chord, harmonically enriching the proceedings. The . during the B minor is part of the FJ with the melody passing o&er the notes I B and . in that same phrase, the melody spells out an absent . chord.

%hen melody drives harmony

To end up with more interesting chords, bend them around a melody a bit. As i said before, if you want a melody to fit some chords but the chords <ar with the melody, change the chords so that the melody is to some e7tent inherent in the harmony. "f youL&e got an F in your melody which you like in the conte7t of the melody but that <ars in the conte7t of the harmony, change the . to a .sus6. "f youL&e got an A in your melody which you want to make more significant, change the . underneath to a mellow .*. =armony and melody that dynamically react to one another in profound and interesting ways are usually good things, unless youLre aiming to be uninteresting with your music in which case you only need to pick the one chord to play for an hour.

"elody as embellishment
0ot all melodies are lead melodies. 5ome melodies <ust decorate the harmonies. Eou can arpeggiate a chord into a melody by playing the notes of the chord in seGuence. :hilip Ilass is the crown king of arpeggio and if youH&e listened to the soundtrack of >oyaanisCatsi then youHll ha&e heard thousands of arpeggiated chords already. Eou can also put melodies o&er a chord to suggest different chord forms. :lay a . chord, then play a melody that goes B ! B ! B !... o&er it. The melody suggests a .sus+ @or if youHre reaching a IA without changing the chord. B&en simple embellishing melodies like that can do wonders for a song.

0ounterpoint( or 2hat Took Me 2eeks To 4igure 5ut

.ounterpoint, like =olstLs Mars, is one of these things weL&e all heard but we ha&enLt necessarily known what weLre listening to. 9ach was the King of .ounterpoint in his time, and thus if you write counterpoint youLll probably end up sounding like him a bit. B7cept not as good. .ounterpoint in&ol&es layering two or more melodies one on top of the other in order to suggest harmony. There are a heap of rules go&erning which inter&als youLre meant to useJ these were later built on by some bloke called Fu7 @ooerA after 9achLs time into different CspeciesD of counterpoint, which determines how many notes of the base melody or cantus firmus go with howe&er many notes

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of the other parts of the counterpoint. The suggestion of rules may turn some of you right off, but in all honesty breaking them unintelligently leads to pretty po7y results. 5uffice it to say that counterpoint could gi&e electronic dance music a completely giddy spin if anyone decided to sit down and actually write a counterpoint that bopped along to the Amen break. 4hat follows is a &ery, &ery basic primer on counterpoint. "f this piGues your interest, go and find yourself a book and study up on musical notation because almost all of them will use that instead of the sort i use.

"elody on "elody
The base melody should ha&e a distinct character of its own, and according to The Rules shouldnLt go up or down for longer than three notes at a stretch or leap any more than an octa&e at a time. Pust to keep things simple iLll pro&ide a melody that uses the same note lengths all the way through. This particular melody is sort of dramatic and minor key to make a change from all the other ma<or key stuff iL&e been throwing at you in this book. Pust to be clear, !L is one octa&e abo&e !, and !LL is two octa&es abo&e !, and !, @thatLs a ! with a comma after itA is one octa&e below !. AL INL AL !L BL FL BL !L AN A AN I F A ! 0o, thatLs rubbish for our purposes right now. 9ut notice how youL&e got sort of a progression of notes A, B, and AN that suggest the uppermost notes of the chords !mi, A, and Imi%!' And the last three notes of the melody are the notes of the !mi chord itself. "f you decide to play the I in that seGuence in a chord it turns out sort of smoky. Ahem. 9ack to it. .L !L BL I A 9 A B I .L 9 I .L ThatLll do. "n that melody you can probably already hear the ob&ious chord progression leaping out and beating you o&er the head with its ob&iousness. 9ut letLs get another melody going on top of it. 0ow the rules of counterpoint tend towards fa&ouring certain inter&als. #cta&es and fifths arenLt &ery interesting or useful because they donLt do &ery muchJ fourths and se&enths are so/soJ si7ths and seconds are okay once in a while but thirds are generally the mainstay of the form. B&en still, you canLt use thirds all the time. 1etLs go stupid with thirds and fourths%fifths to lay a boring and o&erly pleasant melody o&er this one. .L !L BL I BL FL IL .L A9AB .L !L .L I I .L 9 I 9L BL !L 9 .L I

4ell, itLs okay. 0ot &ery li&ely or interesting thoughJ the bottom melody mo&es more or less parallel to the top one and doesnLt display a lot of dynamic character of its own, which is something that should also happen. As is tradition for this paragraph of non seGuitur weather reports, i would like to complain that it was warm today and that it made me feel irritated and sleepy. And now for something that has a bit of its own character. .L !L BL I B I .L FL A9AB BL !L .L !L I .L 9 I 9 BL FL !NL .L BL

"tLs still a long way off from 9ach but you can see a few se&enths and e&en the old diabolus in musica tritone @9/FA make an appearance. This oneLs got more motion than the counterpoint abo&e it simply because its sounds more like two melodies mo&ing gracefully o&er one another rather than two/note chords being played at speed. ThatLs when you know youL&e got a good counterpoint, when you get characterful melodies that form harmonies before your &ery ears.

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Fu7 @ooerA talked about fi&e species of counterpoint as well, which were respecti&ely$ note for note @as abo&eAJ two or three notes in the melody to one note in the cantus firmusJ four or si7 notes in the melody to one note in the cantus firmusJ one note to the counterpoint to one in the cantus firmus e7cept that the counterpoint is offset slightly, forming a syncopated counterpointJ and a mi7ture of the preceding four styles. 5yncopation will be e7plained in the rhythm section. 5yncopation is fun.

Cave you heard it u'side3down and bac)wards yet9

.ounterpoint theory also goes into things like manipulating the cantus firmus to turn it upside/down @in&ersionA and%or play it backwards @retrogradeA, as well as diminution @hal&ing the length of the notesA and augmentation @doubling the length of the notesA. The e7ample iL&e got here, which is from P 5 9achLs Art of the Fugue, has a cantus firmus that goes ! A F ! .N ! B F The in&ersion of that goes A ! F A 9b A I F "tLs more ob&ious if you look at it in staff notation that an in&ersion simply means using one of the notes, F in this case, like a central pi&ot and in&erting all the other notes as inter&als around it. Represented as distances from F, the cantus firmus becomes /+ V+ 2 /+ /, /+ /) 2 and in order to in&ert it, we <ust change the plusses to minuses and &ice &ersa. Multiply the whole row by /). V+ /+ 2 V+ V, V+ V) 2 ! is two scale notes down from FJ in&erted, you go two notes up from F to get to A, and &ice &ersa with A in&erting to !. .N is an altered ., three scale notes down from F, so that in&erts to 9b abo&e F. The rest of the in&ersion should be self e7planatory enough. Retrograde <ust means playing the cantus firmus backwards. Ioing from this ! A F ! .N ! B F to this F B ! .N ! F A ! doesnLt take too much brainpower. nless you ha&e a habit of losing your place. Retrograde in&ersion is when youL&e got the cantus firmus melody upside/down and backwards at the same time.

Timbre melodies
This is where i appear to backpedal slightly after slagging off atonality. There was at least one positi&e outcome of abandoning diatonic harmony for chromatic harmony, and the one iH&e got in mind may be &ery useful to those of you who arenHt actually that good at melodies but still want to write them. Abstracting a fair bit, you could say a melody is a temporal progression of different tones. Eou go from one note to the ne7t and thatHs fairly interesting. 9ut what if instead of @or including>A different notes you used different playing manners, or different amounts of clarity on your instrument, or for a more modern twist different amounts of &elocity or different settings of lowpass V.F cutoff%Z' ThatHs still technically a progression of different tones, itHs <ust that the tone is also being altered in another aspect aside from notes.

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Anton 4ebern, to many the most inspirational of the atonal composers, called these progressions of different tones langfarbenmelodien, and when literally translated this means Hsound colour melodiesH. H5ound colourH would appear to be a way for Iermans to refer to a word that we Bnglish/speakers had the good fortune to steal from the French$ timbre. 9ecause itHs been stolen from French, timbre is pronounced tamber and not timber. 5o a less stilted translation of langfarbenmelodien would be timbre melodies. 4ebernHs own take on timbre melody makes listening to his music slightly more interesting, since itHs the manner of playing the notes thatHs being focussed on for e7pressi&e purposes. 5o how many ways can you play a note' Eou can play it Guietly, loudly, muted, sustained, with &ibrato @pitch wa&eringA, with tremolo @&olume wa&eringA, harshly, gently.. and thatHs <ust older instruments. Think about all the ways you can affect an instrument these days and youHll begin to see what sort of chaos could ensue. #ne of the songs i did in my band 4iggle had its own rather odd timbre melody$ my sampler was dying and i was digitising something off my tape deck. The sampler was so utterly munted that it was picking up different bleeping tones when i switched between chromium, metal and normal tape modes. 5o i started switching between the different tape modes to play the different buttons like a musical instrument and later used the recording in a song that was one of the standouts on our debut .! in )333. The more atonal and harsh timbre melodies are sort of in a functional limbo between percussi&e and melodic aspectsJ rightly done they can bolster the rhythm of a song wonderfully.

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Bariation and reharmonisation

1istening to music is a more complicated affair than you might think. The human brain lo&es picking up on patterns and systems and other ways to make sense of things, and music is replete with patterns and systems of all sorts. ThereHs the key youHre in, the rhythms youHre using, melodies$ music is the manipulation of all sorts of pattern/based information. The intro/ &erse/chorus/&erse/chorus/bridge/&erse/chorus/outro pattern of pop music is one well established pattern which people ha&e been tweaking to their own ends for more than fifty years now. The pattern which results in the perception of a particular key has been established for centuries longer. "f you hear chords from the key of ., youHll e7pect other key of . chords. 0ow once these musical patterns are established, the patterns can be carefully bent or e&en broken to contradict and manipulate the e7pectations of the listener. 5ometimes these contradictions can be pleasantly surprising and effecti&e, and sometimes theyHre <ust intolerable and donHt do well. "n the key of . ma<or for instance, people these days will tend to tolerate chords from the key of . minor too, since flipping tonality has been standard practice in popular music for a long time. The following chord progression flips its tonality when it uses Bb and 9b, but doesnHt sound e7ceptionally weird. .
.BI

Bb
Bb I 9b

F
FA.

9b
9b ! F

@.A

B&en breaking the patterns can lead to its own pattern. .heck out this chord progression from the middle eight of my song +anguine$ B
B IN 9

9
9 !N FN

!
! FN A

A
A .N B

.ma? I
.BI9 I9!

93sus6
9 B FN A .N

9
9 !N FN

The working key drops down from B ma<or to ! ma<or to . ma<or before coming back up to B ma<or again. 9ut thereHs a definite method to the way itHs done$ from B to its fifth 9, then from ! @two semitones down from BA to its fifth A, then from .ma? @two semitones down from !A to its fifth I.. itHs a descending pattern. "tHs a .ma? by the way because the song was written on guitarJ i find .ma? easier to play than . and it both sounds more interesting and sets up some of the notes in the following I chord Guite well. 0ow not all established patterns are bad and need changing e&ery time you repeat them, and not all ways of breaking patterns will gi&e you the effect you want. "tHs up to your own sensibility as to when breaking established patterns will work. 4hat follows in this chapter is a short tour of some techniGues you can use to tweak harmonic progressions and melodies in your music to gi&e your o&erall songs a bit of &ariation. 5ome of this sort of thing was already co&ered in chapter 6 where i talked about putting carrier chords before other chords to anticipate and colour them. .arrier chords are an e7ample of horiKontal tweaking, since it happens in time. .hanging the actual chord itself @letHs say from a I to a I*A is an e7ample of &ertical tweaking, since the change happens Hon top ofH and at the same time as the chord. Eou can of course use these techniGues to tweak a chord progression that you donHt intend to change throughout the song as well. #r you could use a plain progression at the beginning ot the song and then use more complicated &ersions with &ertical and horiKontal chord substitutions towards the end. #r the other way around e&en, starting with subtlety and comple7ity and then mo&ing ultimately to simple chords with all their associated directness and power.

Techni6ues for harmony

For this section to work, weLll need to come up with a chord progression to play with. "Lll &olunteer a &ersion of one of my own, called >win un6$ F
FA.

!mi
!FA

F
FA.

!mi
!FA

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Bb
Bb I 9b

9b
9b ! F

Bb
Bb I 9b

9b, .
9b ! F, . B I

Bague alteration
1etLs start with a &ariation that emphasises the F and Bb chords. This is a pretty e7treme &ertical &ariation on the original chord seGuence, but could well be used as a break between repetitions of this progression. F
FA.

!mi%F
FA!

F
FA.

!mi%F
FA!

Bb

.mi%Bb
Bb I .

Bb

.%B

Bb I 9b

Bb I 9b

BI.

ThereHs a pattern in the distance between these alternations$ ! is the si7th note of F ma<or, and . is the si7th note of B ma<or. The inter&al between the root notes of these two pairs of alternating chords is the same. The pattern is bent slightly when after the second instance of Bb, . is back to being a ma<or chord, which is what youHd e7pect if you were in the key of F. @Bb is permitted into the progression because key tonality flipping from ma<or to minor to get new chords is permitted.A 0ow simple alternations between two chords like these are fairly static sorts of patterns and while not o&erwhelmingly interesting can certainly ha&e their uses, such as settling a song down a bit before taking it somewhere interesting again. The . at the end of this chord progression could &ery well be on its way somewhere interesting. Think about the similarities between this and the original progression$ chord root notesJ the inter&al relationships between those chord root notesJ which chords appear where in commonJ and so on. These correspondences paint a relationship between the original progression and this slightly more static &ariant.

"atching chord forms

The &ersion of >win un6 on .! has a chord progression like this. F
FA.

!mi
!FA

F
FA.

!mi
!FA

Bbsus+
Bb F 9b

9bsus+
9b . F

Bbsus+
Bb F 9b

9b, .
9b ! F, . B I

0ote smearing is the name i gi&e to when the form of one chord affects the chord coming after it to the e7tent where no&el notes are passed along, turning it into a cross between a passing chord and a landing chord. >win un6 loses its subtle harmonic character when the suspended chords are played as ma<or triads. .haracteristics from !mi bleed o&er an F to Bb to turn Bb/I/9b into Bbsus+MBb/F/9b, gi&ing the Bb chord characteristics of both the F and !mi chords before it and changing its bold ma<or tonality to that of the more furti&e suspended second. This unstable Guality makes both the Bbsus+ and the 9bsus+ more inclined towards carrying the song along to a resolution at F. #ne might e7pect to hear a ma<or triad, but one doesnHt, and the suspended chord carries along to an unsuspended ma<or triad. That in itself is more musically interesting to hear than only ma<or triads. For the sake of the e7ercise, thereLs nothing to stop us from playing Bbsus+ for a beat or two then playing a normal Bb, and then playing up to an Bbsus6 if we were feeling particularly decorati&e and fidgety.

Progressions with harmonic melody

5ay weH&e got a chord progression that alternates between F and !mi in one bit, and we want to gi&e it a rising feeling. @Maybe itHs the end of the song and we want a final climactic moment.A 4e can actually respell the chords so that they carry higher and higher. Eou can &ertically change the spelling of the chords in the progression in many cases to get something more interesting that doesnHt contradict your original intentions. 5uspended fourths, se&enths, added seconds, added ninthsMuse your intuition and e7periment to see what makes the chord progression sound more interesting. "t can be interesting when a chord seems to anticipate one chord in its

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alteration, and what you might call harmony melodies occur as the different notes in the chords seem to correspond and form a melodic pattern of sorts. 5o hereHs a rising &ersion F*
FA.!

!mi*%F
FA9!

Fma?
FA.B

!mi*add3%F
FA9!B

...

The ! on F* anticipates the ! at the top of !mi*%F, then the 9 and ! in that chord steps up melodically to the . and B in the ne7t chordJ the . in the Fma? is in turn replaced by the 9 and ! in the final chord, echoing from the second chord in the progression. Eou can hear this one building to a pattern, going up and up, and youHd e7pect the ne7t chord to be something like a F*%3 @F A . ! IA. To an e7tent you can substitute for chords, by using other chords which ha&e notes in common with them. Again, letHs use the progression abo&e. A
A.B

9mi
9 ! FN

B?
B IN 9 !

0ow letHs try to anticipate the 9mi @horiKontal substitutionA with something by adding a carrier chord <ust before it that matches some of its notes and comes close to others. Ima? has all the notes in 9mi but doesnHt anticipate it &ery dynamically. 1etHs sod that off then. I? is slightly more dynamic, ha&ing two of its notes. Flatten the fifth and I?b- sounds e&en better anticipating 9mi, ha&ing less notes in common with the chord but ha&ing most of its notes come close. 5ee how weHre tweaking here' "tHs common to start with something &anilla/sounding and shift a few notes around to produce something a bit more interesting. ! has two of 9miHs notes @AA and the A in common with the A chord before it. ThatHs slightly more interesting. FNsus6 has two notes in common with 9mi @FN and 9A and works alright too. FN without suspension works Guite well, mainly because of the harmonic relationship between 9 as a root and FN as its fifthJ itHs a slight but useful key flip.

Tritone substitution
Tritone substitution, also known as flat fi&e substitution, is the sort found in music theory te7tbooks. The rule is that youHre allowed to substitute a functioning dominant se&enth @i.e. the dominant se&enth of whiche&er key youHre working in, as opposed to a secondary dominant se&enth which is only dominant relati&e to the chord youHre putting it beforeA with a se&enth rooted e7actly a tritone away. The dominant se&enth of.. oooh.. whatHs one we ha&enHt used much.. letHs use A. AHs dominant se&enth is B?. The tritone of B, si7 semitones or a flattened fifth away, is 9b. 5o hereHs a short chord progression. A
A.B

9mi
9 ! FN

B?
B IN 9 !

And hereHs the same progression with a &ertical flat fi&e substitution A
A.B

9mi
9 ! FN

9b?
9b ! F Ab

"f you donHt see it yet, look at the notes in B? and 9b? and think tritone. Triiiitooooone. Ii&en up' Fair enough. This rule works because of the inter&al structure of the se&enth. .ompare the two chords, and allow me to make it slightly more ob&ious. B?
B

AN?
AN

/E 9 -

- F /E

=BE> T=BE I#T T=B 5AMB T4# 0#TB5> A0! T=#5B T4# 0#TB5 "5 A TR"T#0B A:ART FR#M BA.= #T=BR>

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ThatHs the reason the se&enth has the character it has, because itHs got a tritone inter&al in it. And those two different se&enths can sub for one another because the tritone inter&al in the both of them contains the same two notes. "tHs the same for any two se&enth chords whose root notes are a tritone apart from one another. "f itHs <ust the tritone that matters, wouldnHt that mean you can diminish or augment the fifth of the tritone substitution you might ask' Eep. A diminished fifth tritone substitute sounds fairly good actually. The se&enth diminished fifth is two tritone inter&als itself, so it floats beautifully to the ne7t chord. A
A.B

9mi
9 ! FN

9b?b9b ! B Ab

Static motion substitution

This is an easy/peasy one. Eou probably already do this but itHs worth mentioning all the same. 1etHs say youH&e got a F chord that youH&e got to hold for eight beats. Bight beats on the same chord is a bit boring. 5o instead of <ust the F, what about this seGuence of chords here with two beats for each chord' F
FA.

F*
FA.!

F?
F A . !N

F*
FA.!

@FA

=ere the basic F triad is preser&ed throughout each chord, and the top note plays a little melody o&er the top of it. "tHs possible to <ust keep the F and . going without losing oneHs bearings too much, as long as weHre only using suspended seconds and fourths which donHt contradict the ma<or third. F
FA.

Fsus6
F 9b .

Fsus+
FI.

Fsus6
F 9b .

@FA

=ey, letHs mi7 these two things up> F

FA.

F*
FA.!

F?sus6
F A . !N

F*sus+
FA.!

@FA

This sort of progression is called a static progression, because it doesnHt really go anywhere e&en though the chords are changing. TheyHre not changing enough to be all that dynamicJ the root note is the same, the fifth inter&al at the &ery least is the same. 4hat happens when we start mucking around with the fifth inter&al' 1etHs find out. F
FA.

F*
FA.!

F?NF A .N !N

F*sus+
FI.!

@FA

That loses some of its static Guality and feels like itHs drifting off somewhere. B&en though the F and A ma<or third inter&al is there almost all the way through, itHs not enough to hold things in place. The strongest inter&al relationship in any chord is always the fifth$ mess around with that and youHre definitely going somewhere. 5o when youHre holding a chord a little bit too long in a chord progression, try swapping it for another chord with the same root note that has a slightly different shape.

Techni6ues for melody

-irect ma#or(minor melody trans'osition
This isnLt a particularly hard trick, <ust a slightly fiddly one. =ereLs a melody. RI stands for the I of the octa&e below the melody, gi&en that octa&es start and stop at .. . R9 RI RI . R9 B ! F . ! RI F . !

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The underlying chord progression is . F I . if you canLt tell. Translated to abstract notation, we get the following. i R&ii R& R& i R&ii iii ii i& i ii R& i& i ii

" want to transpose this melody to the scale of A minor, . ma<orLs relati&e minor, and create a &ariation on this ma<or scale melody. The difference between the ma<or and natural minor scales is that the third, si7th and se&enth notes are all flattened. The abo&e melody transposed to a minor scale yields this. i Rb&ii RA RI R& R& RB RB i Rb&ii RA RI biii ii R. R9 i& i ! RA ii R& R9 RB i& i ! RA ii R9

"t can sound better. Moments like these are what alternate minor scales are for. "n the harmonic minor, which weLre going to use instead of the natural minor, only the third and si7th notes are flattened relati&e to the ma<or scale. The se&enth is left only a semitone away from the root note which gi&es the scale a bit more tension. i R&ii RA RIN R& R& RB RB i R&ii RA RIN biii ii R. R9 i& i ! RA ii R& R9 RB i& i ! RA ii R9

That sounds much better, doesnLt it' The IN pro&ides more interest than that limp old I, playing off the semitone distance away from the functioning key note A. 0ow play the original melody, then the harmonic minor &ersion. Tidy>

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Rhythm beat and groove

Rhythm is e7pressed in the beat and the groo&e. The thing about rhythm i want to get across is that itHs not <ust the drums and other tone/free sounds, e&en though the beat is the most ob&iously rhythmic bit because itHs got nothing to do bar rhythmic and some te7tural duties.

*rum theory
1etHs start from the perspecti&e of a drumkit and work our way sideways into oddness from there. "Hd like to add a special disclaimer for all drummers who think they know better than i do about drumming$ you indubitably do. "ndubitably. 0ow while all those drummers are off checking their dictionaries for the word indubitably, i can carry on in peace. Modern drummers ha&e two arms and two legs. @The head doesnHt tend to do much e7cept make drumming facesJ these ser&e no direct musical purpose but look Guite funny.A 4hen iH&e sat at a kit before, itHs worked like this$ the right foot goes on the kick pedal, the left foot goes on the hi/hat cymbal pedal to open and close the cymbals, the left drumstick goes on the snare drum, and the right arm crosses o&er to let the right hand drumstick take care of the hi/hat cymbals.

Introducing the drum 'arts.

The kick drum doesnHt ha&e that much of an e7pression range. Eou push down the pedal. "t goes doof. Eou push it down harder and it goes !=##F. The snare has more range of e7pression. #n the bottom of the snare are springy things which rattle when you whack itJ these can be both engaged and disengaged depending on whether you want the snare drum to snap or not. Ienerally we opt for the snapping, because it counterbalances the !=##F of the kick drum. Eou can hit the snare drum <ust a little bit for a modest little poppy noise, which is called a ghost hit, or you can gi&e it a fair whack and get a full hit out of it. The hi/hat cymbals are two cymbals on a pedal/operated giKmo. 4ith the pedal left undepressed, the cymbals touch one another and offer only a short sound one may spell as T"T if one is so inclined. 4hen the pedalHs pushed all the way down, the cymbals arenHt touching at all and the cymbals are free to &ibrate as long as they like when hit, or at least as long as the pedal is held down by the foot of the drummer. #ne may deign to represent this noise as T55T. This pedal controller allows a precise amount of control about when the hi/hat cymbals start and stop making noise, and you can also &ary the &elocity at which you belt the cymbals with the drumstick to get Guiet and loud sounds. B&en manipulating the pedal correctly makes the hats sound a clompy sort of noise. #ther cymbals include the ride, the crash and the splash. The ride cymbal is by my reckoning the se7iest of the three. More on cymbals later. #ther actual drums include the tom/toms. These are semi/tuned drums which make noises one might transcribe as dhoong when hit. 0ow a drummer with the typical number of arms and legs is limited to only a couple of these instruments at once. Kick, snare and hi/hat cymbals. Kick, cymbal and hats. Kick, snare and toms. Kick, snare and ride cymbal. Kick, ride cymbal and toms. Kick, toms and more toms. "f this knowledge helps you untangle e7cessi&ely complicated drum programming / only use one kind of hi/hat cymbal at once, use different &elocities of snare and pepper your beats carefully with ghost hits to gi&e them more groo&e, donHt use a ride cymbal and hi/hat cymbal at the same time / then good. "f you can sort a drumkit out in your head, youHre most of the way to sol&ing any problems you might ha&e with programming rhythms.

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%ctual rhythm
1etHs count to four. #ne. Two. Three. Four. !o it with a rhythm, damnit. #ne. Two. Three. Four. March up and down on the spot if you ha&e to. 1eft. Two. Three. Four. 1eft. Two. Three. Four. 4hy do we keep getting to four and stopping'

Time signatures
"t helps with rhythm to know a bit about con&entional music notation. Pust a bit. "tHs useful, this bit, and not hard to remember since itHs fairly elementary maths. A bar, itHs been decided, is sort of a standard length in musical notation. Eou might ha&e seen something called a time signature in your tra&els. "tHs two numbers, one o&er the other, and it looks like a fraction. 6%6. ,%6. +%6. *%;. The top number describes howe&er many units to a bar, and the bottom number describes the length of the units themsel&es in terms of fractions. 4hat a time signature identifies as a Guarter note @as in 6%6, ,%6 and +%6A is easiest for us to think of as a beat. Take your common or garden doof doof house track. Bach doof marks the passing of a Guarter note. They call it four on the floor because itHs four Guarter notes for each bar. At least thatHs what iH&e con&inced myself. "tHs a Guarter note because if you add four of them together, you get a full bar. Eou can get eighth notes as well, which happen twice as often as the Guarter notes as their name suggests. =i/hats are often played on the eights, for instance. Eou can get si7teenth notes, which happen four times in e&ery beat. =ihats on si7teenth notes sound somewhat discoey and usually reGuire two drumsticks to play, with one drumstick coming down to play the snare e&ery other Guarter note. Eou can get thirtysecond notes, but i ne&er use those. Eou can get si7tyfourth notes, but i really ne&er use those.

Three fours.
#K, start tapping your feet fairly Guick and count along here. #ne. Two. Three. Four. Fi&e. #ne. Two. Three. Four. Fi&e. n. !eu7. Trois. Zuatre. .inG. Binn. T&eir. Thrir. F<orir. Fimm. .an you hear the music for 8ission Impossible in your head yet' "magine it as youHre counting$ ) dern . + . dern , . 6 dern . dern . @)A

ThatHs a -%6 rhythm. ThereHs fi&e beats to the bar. 4ho knows :ink Floyd' !onHt be shy, lots of you ha&e heard 1ar +ide of the 8oon i would hope. .heck out the track 8oneyJ itHs in ?%6 time. .ount along if you like. ) + Mo/ney ) + /way ) + good <ob ) + /o/ /o/ , , , with , /kay.. 6 6 6 good 6 ? get a/ * ? get a * ? payHnd youHre o/ * ? *

Most gabber songs are in +%6 time. #r maybe )%6 time. ) # 0/ . /T5[> + # 0/ . /T5[> ) # 0/ . /T5[> + # 0/ . /T5[>

Most songs that people concern themsel&es with are in 6%6 time.

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7ass rhythm
The phenomenon of rhythm permeates e&erything, not <ust the percussion section. The element that carries rhythm the most aside from any percussion, for my money, is the bassline. 9y reggae musicians @probably 5cratch, since he does do a lot of talkingA iH&e heard it said that the bassline is the heartbeat of the song and the skank is the head. :sychoacoustically, the bassline is responsible for a lot of the presence and impact of the song. "t underpins the harmony and melody, often in an unassuming sort of way.

Chord root bassline

To make a chord root bassline, you play the root note of whate&er chord is playing at the time in whate&er rhythm you like. "f youHre that stuck for a rhythm, <ust play the bass note on the eights, two notes per beat. "tHs not fancy and people might point at you and laugh for doing it, but in the absence of an idea for a real bassline itHll certainly suffice. "f the rhythm youHre using for your bass isnHt working, try playing the bassline in time with the kick drum. "n a pinch, sometimes with some tweaking, that works out.

"elodic bassline
"f you want to go a bit further, you can apply the same melodic rules to basslines as i mentioned in the melodies chapter$ use your chord root notes as target points, and tra&el to each point by going up and down scales skipping whiche&er notes donHt suit. "tHs important not to make basslines too interesting in an already busy song, otherwise you run the risk of writing modern <aKK.

%al)ing basslines
They sound cool but i fear them from a composerHs point of &iew. Maybe another time.

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:yrics
1anguage is the most low/tech form of telepathy yet de&ised. The raw emotions e&oked by the melodies, rhythms and harmonies are literally gi&en a &oice by lyrics and only now is where youH&e got an actual song.

8ow9 %nd why9

4hy put lyrics in a song' 9ecause sometimes you feel like being more specific and get sick of writing liner notes e7plaining what all your instrumental tracks are about. " donHt know. To be honest, i was horrible at writing lyrics for the longest time. This suited me perfectly because my singing &oice was also highly suspect. These are things iH&e worked on and now iHm almost game to turn the re&erb on my &ocal tracks down a few d9 and try to set some stories and ideas to music. There are many many good books on songwriting out there and i ha&enHt bought any of them. 0ot because i know e&erything there is to know, mind you, but because i wanted to attack my lack of knowledge slightly more obliGuely. Also, the books iH&e flicked through in bookstores ga&e me a feeling like this was a particular area of musicianship i should muddle my way through at my own pace. Make of that what you like. A book i did buy was 4n @de ,ess Travelled by 5tephen Fry. "n it, Mr Fry instructs one in the ways of poetry and goes into things like meter and rhyme. "tHs a painless way to introduce yourself to the de&ices youHll use to make your lyrics connect, and is written in such a way that if you do decide that this is all <ust a bit of fun and not something youHll e&er choose to do professionally, he doesnHt make you feel bad. Much of the section to come on rapping is inspired strongly @though not directly liftedA by that book. "n pop music, nine times out of ten there will be a chorus that dri&es home the central theme of the song, and all the catchiness and parrotability will be focussed here. Verses take off from the chorus and usually return right back to it. "tLs the formula, and frankly itLs a nice easy formula to follow. .on&ention says that pop lyrics should rhyme and be in time with the music. "L&e ne&er been one to follow con&ention religiously, iLm <ust mentioning this out of courtesy to tradition more than anything. Actually iLm not sure if opera rhymed &ery much, and i ha&e a &ague feeling the #de to Poy rhymes. @"tLs all part of the same musical continuum innit'A 0ow lyrics ought to be about something, though you can sing random fluff the way 9rian Bno used to if you like. The chorus is where the theme of the song is brought to a head, and the &erses are where the story is told or the themes are e7plored in different detail. B&en M. =awking knew this when he penned Bntropy$ he goes into the second law of Thermodynamics in the &erses and keeps the chorus to a simple CEou down with entro/py'D call and return. The M. =awking song does e7ist, by the way, and itLs both hilariously funny and wonderfully put together. "f youLre not into writing &erses and choruses for whate&er reason, youLre not alone by any stretch of the imagination, but you should probably still write lyrics about something. "tLs easy enough to do a song with sung &erses but without lyrics in the chorus, hypothetically, as long as your chorus still has a lot of character. 9o !iddley did it with his epynomous track 9o !iddley, singing the &erses and introducing a higher guitar lick to let you know the chorus is upon you. Then thereLs 1ed [eppelinLs 9lack !og, which drops the accompaniment altogether for the sung parts and starts it up again when Robert :lantLs done his wailing. "t <ust lets people know things are going somewhere. Music is always something of a dance where sometimes youLre stationary, sometimes youLre mo&ing, sometimes youLre going in a circle, but the ne7t chapter co&ers all that kind of thing. "f you want to know how good lyrics feel, listen to music that mo&es you. Take notes. 9rainstorm. And remember, theyLre lyrics, not poetry. :oetry is usually unaccompanied. 5ome lyrics do look absolutely rubbish when di&orced from their musical conte7t, and some poetry sounds horrible put to

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song.

%hat to sing about

5o whatLs on your mind' 5e7' Relationships' :olitics' Astrophysics' "t can probably be turned into a song if youLre willing to commit your thoughts and feelings to words. 1yrics are generally at their most &i&id drawn from real life, where all the humour, anguish, and other stuff has been played out already. Those sorts of lyrics are more a case of documenting what happened, changing a couple of names if you think the people in&ol&ed would ob<ect to being put into a song, and telling the story of what happened. Maybe itLs not a story you want to tell but a feeling you want to share and e&oke$ if youL&e been there, itLll certainly help. "f youLre terrified of being kidnapped by aliens and you ha&e amaKing paranoid fantasies, spend a &erse on them each and make the chorus T=BELRB .#M"0I>>, screamed as terrified as you can make it. Any human situation or feeling can be turned into a lyric, honest. Eou <ust ha&e to get a feeling for what to describe and sing about. For that, itLs back to other peopleLs music. And probably lyrical poetry wouldnLt hurt either. EouL&e still got some 5hakespeare poems lying around from high school, right' And then all the killer lyrics in the world wonLt matter a whit if your deli&ery is either inappropriate or flat.

Brian .no1s way of writing lyrics

" heard 9rian Bno talk about this in an inter&iew posted on archi&e.org 9rian has a series of systems for tricking himself into writing lyrics. To start writing lyrics is hard enough, but to start writing lyrics is downright difficult. #neLs mind is mediated between the o&erbearing critic and the playful child, in more or less his own words. 9rianLs procedure for lyric writing is designed to short circuit the critic by not writing actual lyrics at all to start with. 9rian starts shouting along to a backing track and getting what he calls a syllable rhythm, which means he nuts out a rhythm that suits him and works for the song. After that, he refines things down to sounds with perhaps the odd word, keeping the proceedings fairly meaningless. Then he actually figures out which words fit best to those fragments. Then he sorts out sentences, and finally he refines a meaning into the song at the end of it all. =eHs a keen one, that 9rian. =e produced + and named%pioneered ambient music, you know. Then again, heHs also &ery smart and may be able to make this method work simply because his huge brain can fill in those gaps really well. Try it anyway one day if youHre stuck for an idea.

Cow to lyricise
0ow that youL&e got some lyrics, what about incorporating them into a song' 4ell, you can <ust speak them o&er the top of the music if you really want to, but there are other a&enues. 5inging not e&eryone can do well. Pohnny Rotten taught us nothing if not that what constitutes singing can be pretty much anything you feel like hollering into a microphone. 4endy .arlos taught us that all you ha&e to do is mo&e your mouth at a mic and a synth can take care of the tune for you. "f youL&e got a &ocoder and a good carrier wa&e, your only task is speaking in time. This is probably more embarrassing than singing but e&en tone/deaf people can do it. "f you decide to ha&e singing in your song, youLll need a melody to sing. That came up a couple of chapters ago. 5ingingLs Guite good for coming up with melodies as long as youLre relati&ely intuiti&e when it comes to what notes work o&er what chords. Eou can sing a two part melody if you feel like coming up with that much melody. "H&e been known to impro&ise fi&e/part harmonies myself but my range of pitch is rather broad. 5inging is acting$ try different &oicesJ imitate other singersJ gesture wildly as you pour your heart out through these fine fine lyrics youL&e got.

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And if you really donLt want to sing, or you canHt hold a tune, then take a more recently/instigated road and rap.

Rapping
Allow me to be clear here and admit out that iHm not a professional M. or lyricist. " donHt e&en like a lot of rap music because i donHt buy into the image of it. " do howe&er utterly lo&e the form of rap, being as i am a cultural child of late eighties and early nineties electronic music and thus a person musically tuned in to rhythms eGually as much as harmony. For this reason, iLm not going to get into any discussions specifically about race, class, &iolent impulses or se7ual appetite here, because none of that is rele&ant to a discussion of form. "tHs rele&ant to a discussion of indi&idual rap songs, perhaps, but not so much to the craft and form of rapping. That said, the form of rap typically comes with a certain attitude, and at this stage in its lifespan this attitude is well into the realm of self/parody. Eou donLt ha&e to follow the pre&ailing bulltwang of the times and pretend to be a hardcore ghetto boyeeee when youLre a white middle class tweed from Australia whoLd probably be completely culture/shocked if he e&er got anywhere near the 9ron7. All you need to do to dissuade yourself that all rappers are foul/mouthed, self/aggrandising, &iolent and horny is to hunt down !e 1a 5oulLs first album, or e&en some old 5ugarhill Iang or Irandmaster Flash and the Furious Fi&e. #r the 9eastie 9oys, who were white rappers long before Bminem took the stage, thank you cle&er record company marketroids the likes of which ha&e also con&inced the world the Apple " somehow beat the .ommodore :BT to the accolade of 4orldHs First :ersonal .omputer. Rapping allows a higher density of words than singing, since the focus isnLt on harmony or melody of any sort but simply rhythmic speech. #pinion pieces and minor essays on sub<ects of import make good material for rappingJ itHs a cliche, but write what you know. And if your particular dialect of Bnglish has its own character and slang which is more meaningful to you than what they say in some 0ew Eork borough, use that instead. 9epresent, as the slogan goes. Actual songs can teach you a lot more than a book can so go and find some tunes you like @my preference is for old school rap like 5ugarhill Iang though lately iH&e been looking up to !P FormatHs good mate AbdominalA and absorb them. 1isten to the deli&ery, the lyrics, the accompaniment too.

Ra'notation
"H&e in&ented my own notation for writing raps which my M. friend liked, so on such meritorious appro&al i present it here to you in this section. The notation supposes a lot of things which youHre free to resuppose or unsuppose once you understand where iHm coming from. 1etHs proceed from the idea that the most youHll generally di&ide a beat up when rapping is into four parts, and that each syllable goes for one of those parts. "Hm going to call those parts CticksD as a nod to my tracker scene mates instead of misusing words like CfeetD or CmoraeD. The first thing to note is that a syllable doesn1t always corres'ond e2actly to a tic), but it does usually. 5ay the following sentence out loud$ all i wanna do is eat a sandwich. "t might come out similar to the way i say it. My speech has a certain metre when saying this sentence which, simplified and set to beats, could be transcribed like this$ ) all i 7 + wanna do is 7 eat a , sanD7 6 -dwi"chD 77 7 77 @)A 77

The beat accents are marked abo&e the words. The word all coincides with the first beat, the word sandwich starts at the same time as the third beat, and the word wanna occurs midway between beats ) and + under an 7 which marks the off/beat. That much you can probably work out for yourself. "H&e borrowed a couple of con&enient notations from linguistics as well. @"H&e got a degree in linguistics and itHs rarely useful.A "f a word gets broken up across beats, dashes indicate that the other part of the word lies in whate&er direction the dash lies in.

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" put a colon after any syllable to show it takes up an e7tra syllable than what it appears to. EouHll see that the second half of the word sandwich doesnHt start until the off/beatJ thatHs because the syllable san- is held for two ticks in my particular dialect of Bnglish instead of one. The amount of time it takes me to say CsandD is roughly eGual to the amount of time it takes me to say CwannaD or Call iD. Ii&en that i generally group the ticks into pairs, if the second syllable is lengthened into the ne7t pair i mark it long, then put /$ in the ne7t tick/space to indicate itHs following on from the last pair. @B7amples follow in the rhythm section.A "f syllables are spoken in double/time, i pop brackets around them. "f a syllable gets broken into two, i use a dot to indicate the break point. EouHll see that sandwich takes up four ticks$ san- lasts two ticksJ -dwi- lasts one tick and -ch lasts one tick as well. 9ut why break up the word into three bits' B&en though con&entional wisdom would dictate that sandwich is a word of two syllables, trying to rap sandwich counter in the space of one beat is a mouthful. @Eou might find yourself pronouncing sandwich more like samwich so as not to bruise your tongue and lips in the attempt.A 4hatHs important in rapping, generally speaking, is getting the flow right. "f that means lea&ing a little bit of e7tra space around clusters of consonants like CchD, C<D, CscrD and CmgrkfcD then thatHs what must be done. Rests are marked with one slash % per syllable.

Phonetic devices
:honetic de&ices are ways of arranging words by their sounds to form pleasing structures. 9y the way, do you know what &owels and consonants are' "f yes, good. "f not, youHll probably grok it soon enough. Pust say the e7amples out loud. Eou all know what rhyming is$ itHs when the ends of two words sound similar enough to draw an ob&ious correspondence. 9right white light. =ello mellow yellow. !ead red head. Mean green sheen. 1oop soup. 5ought, caught and brought. Eou can buy rhyming dictionaries nowadays which will sa&e you the trouble of ha&ing to think of rhymes. I always hit the tape with the rougher styles Aou heard the psychedelic and you came for miles @!ug =owder 1ust, by 9omb the 9assA 1ea&ing aside full rhymes, thereHs all sorts of partial rhyme as well. The correspondences between partial rhymes are still striking enough to make patterns and often not ha&ing to be so e7act means you ha&e more words to choose from. For instance, assonance is where the &owels match, but the consonants are different$ e7amples include Cspilt milkD @not <ust i but -il- in that oneA, Cfunky drummerD and Chard targetD. RapHs fa&ourite word CmotherfuckerD has internal assonance and a good trochaic groo&e to boot, which may be why itHs such a handy word to reach for. @My own dialectHs semantic and functional eGui&alent of CmotherfuckerD is not Guite as aesthetically pleasing, being as it begins with a c and rhymes with CbluntD.A 9ats in the front room, roaches in the back 3un ies in the alley with a baseball bat @from The 8essage by Irandmaster Flash and the Furious - feat. Melle MelA As a complete tangent, it occurs to me as a linguist type that assonance is made e&en stronger when the consonants after the matching &owel correspond by point of articulation / that is, how%where the consonant is formed in the mouth. For instance, CsleepD and CdreamD both ha&e their &owel followed by consonants made with the lipsJ this means that when the ne7t letter is being formed by closing the lips, the &owel is acoustically shifting to the same position for each word. @"t will amuse some to know that such lip/formed consonants are called bilabial consonants.A =ereHs an e7ample$ +end ya up the river li e you're loo in for :urt; I got the mugwump jism up in every verse

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@!ug =owder 1ust, by 9omb the 9assA =ere are the consonants of Bnglish grouped by their points of articulation. Eou can check these for yourself if you like by feeling where your tongue and lips are when you make these sounds yourself. Accuracy may &ary. articulation point bilabial labiodental dental al&eolar post/al&eolar &elar glottal sounds $)5T letters' b, p, m &, f @phA both CthD sounds t, d, s @ci%ceA, r, n, tch, <, l @more uppity dialectsA sh, Kh @like the sh/y K sound in seiKureA k @c, ckA, g, ng, l @less uppity dialectsA h

" left y and w out deliberately because they donHt tend to come between &owels and consonants without becoming part of the &owels themsel&es. Consonance is where particular consonant sounds are repeated to form patterns, such as amid a &i&acious &ariety of a&ailable &owels. Bntire words can match their consonant sounds but change to a different &owel, such as in slant rhymes like Cfeel fullD, Cdead dadD, Ckilled coldD, etc. #ne form of consonance is alliteration, also known as starting words with the same sounds. The old tongue/ twister C:eter :iper picked a peck of pickled peppersD is an e7treme e7ample of alliteration that older people might know. C5he sells sea shells by the sea shoreD isnHt strict one/sound alliteration since it &aries back and forth between s/ and sh/, but that sort of &ariety is still worthwhile. 5o now you know three main ways in which the sounds of words can correspond$ they can rhyme completely, they can match their &owels @assonanceA, and they match consonants @consonanceA. EouHre not limited to rhyming <ust the ends of lines either, but thatHs starting to get towards mi7ing up rhythm and rhyme which is part of the ne7t section.

Rhythmic devices
4hen starting out, try to keep your language loose and informal to start withJ the way you talk to your friends is a distinctly more comfortable fit than how you might talk to a teacher, a customer or manager. B&en in e&eryday con&ersation, pay close attention to the places where the stresses in your speech fall. The rhythm of Bnglish is dictated partly by the fact that when speaking, there are definite stressesJ that is to say that not e&ery spoken word is gi&en the same weight. "H&e gone through the paragraph abo&e and underlined the syllables which iHd consider stressed. 5ome of them are inside words, some of them are entire words. Ietting a feel for this rhythm is important, because if you do misplace the stress of what you say, it sounds different to how it normally would, and that could potentially sound wrong to the listener. @As <aKK musicians know, thereHs a world of difference between doing something wrong out of ignorance, and doing it CwrongD because you know how to break the rules.A Misplacing an accent is called wrenching. =ereHs one i <ust made up$ There is no speech so &ery bent as when one drops a wrenched accent. CAccentD is stressed on its first syllable, yet in that couplet the stress in CaccentD falls on the second syllable. Try to a&oid it unless published artists do it in which case thereHs a precedent and youHre free to copy them as you like. 4e CknowD that thereHs four ticks to a beat. =ereHs some ways of breaking up the beats. = pitter &ita/ &ita/ pit@terkaA 2 patter /min$ /min &i/ pat@terkaA F pitter &ita/ /tamin pit@terkaA 2 patter /min$ &ita/ pat@terkaA @ pitter &ita/ /min &i/ pit@terkaA

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Eou may presume you need to ha&e a word to fill up each beat, but thatHs not necessarily the case$ = pitter % pit/ 2 % pat/ /ter % F /ter % pat/ % 2 pitter /ter$ @ pitter % pit/

Feel it get a bit more complicated when you start to lea&e gaps' This is where your lyrics can become a lot more dynamic than if you <ust utter a steady stream. 7 %i ) % syn/ 7 % /co/ + pate$ 7 , when i % say 7 % it 6 late

@Rappers ha&e something they call syncopation but iHm not sure if itHs syncopation as i understand it or whether itHs a word theyH&e redefined slightly for their own purposes. "Hll get back to you.A Rhythm and rhyme work in concert. Through metre you can establish patterns of stress which you can then manipulate further by introducing full or partial rhymes. 1etHs say for instance iH&e got a rhythmic pattern which goes like this @syllables indicated u for unstressed, 5 for stressed and % as usual for a restA$ 6 % Wu 7 5u ) 5u 7 u 5X + % Wu 7 5u , 5u 7 u 5X 6 % Wu 7 5 u ...X

0otice it lea&es the + and 6 beats bare, yet anticipates them both a tick beforehand by placing a stressed tick there. The stress pattern fits the following sentences$ "f iHm alone in the world "Hll ha&e a big one with fries EouHre sounding funny tonight A diffHrent packet of cheese An Bl&is :resley bidet =e munches bacon baguettes "Hm climbing up to the top Ees, i know a lot of those are food/related but iHm on a diet and pretty much consistently hungry. 1etHs take the last e7ample$ i'm climbing up to the top. Vowel/wise, the stressed syllables are CeyeD @or CahD if you likeA, CuhD and a short CoD. Matching the last syllable is a gi&en, and you can match either the first or second stressed syllable or both. !oing some brainstorming you can come up with CdropD, CflopD, CcropD, ChopD and CstopD to rhyme with top. C!ropD in particular is a good one because of its meaning association with climbing, so that could be worth keeping. 5o the second line will probably in&ol&e falling. =ereHs some brainstorming, not particularly edited so you ha&e no illusions about ha&ing to refine the raw inspiration. I'm climbing up to the top"" ""i really don't want to drop ""and trying never to drop ""i'm trying notD to drop ""not falling down if i drop @sensible but only one rhyme so not too interestingA @two rhymes but sounds awkwardA @two rhymes again, nice &ariation on the original rhythmA @two associations, one full rhyme, double alliterationA

""then diving down when i drop EupD &s CdownD association on the second stress one partial rhyme and one full rhyme three words alliterating on CdD, a &ery rhythmic sound maybe a bit nonsensical, why climb and then di&e' The good part is being able to say CiHm climbing up to the top, then di&ing down when i dropD and hearing the repeated rhythm, alliteration and rhyme without needing the beat. "tHs there, perhaps not perfectly refined but still present, <ust by &irtue of the words youH&e chosen.

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:atterns need not e&en di&ide neatly into beats. =ereHs another one from !ug =owder 1ust, possibly misremembered$ I eep rhymes in line so fine sublime so when you search you find something li e a goldmine. Analysis looks a bit like this$ = %i /$ so when$ something 2 keep % fine$ you sear/ like a F rhymes$ sublime$ /ch you gold$ 2 in line$ /$ so find$ mine$

ThatHs a lot of /ine%/ime endings @rhyme, line, fine, sublime, find, goldmineA, and a lot of Wu 5$X rhythm patterns @in line, so fine, sublime, so when, you search, you findA. 0otice how the 5$ and the rhyme ne&er land e7actly on any of the beats simultaneously' A fairly balletic interplay of rhyme and rhythm if you ask me. $A

:yrical devices
"H&e already mentioned meaning associations without going into too much detail about them, but now is the time. 0#4 "5 T=B T"MB>>> C#ne two three fourD is a seGuence of words youHre probably used to ha&ing heard many times if youHre an Bnglish speaker. Relationships between words like this can form a structure of their own, an association based on meaning or <ust by the words appearing together so often. The meaning assocations that are likely to work for most people are going to be simple and immediately ob&ious relationships between wordsJ the less time someone has to spend scratching their head, the more time they get to en<oy themsel&es. .ommonly used lists of things can ha&e strong associations. @A 9 .. ) + ,. !o re mi.A "Hm sure it was said before i dared say it that someone would lay it down straight li e a line from 4 to ! - seeB #pposites and phrases also work. 9lack%white. .at%dog. .at%mouse. 9read%butter. 9ird%bee. p%down, as we saw before. 9eyond here i ha&e no right to lead you. Io grab some good rap records and a pen and paper, and with your newfound techniGues of analysis, learn from those worthy of teaching you. And always remember$ the groo&e is your master.

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Structure great and small

5o. "H&e taught you a little bit about rhythm, and a little bit about lyrics, and a bit about melody and a fair bit about harmony. 0ow it all gets put together. ThereHs no need to talk about harmony too much anymore. This of all the chapters is the one that gets the most thoughtful. This is where we abstract upwards from actual music theory and start to talk about the emotional dynamics of writing music. 1ike e&erything i talk about, itHs been hinted at here and there beforehand in the guide but not looked at in detail. 4ell, seeing as this is the last chapter, and seeing as none of the books iH&e e&er read go down this path @either because theyHre too e7pensi&e for me to buy or because they canHt be botheredA, itHs time to talk about the crafting of entire musical pieces as it relates to e&erything up to this point in this guide. "n de&eloping a good working familiarity with recognising, constructing and manipulating pattern and structure in te7ture, melody, harmony and rhythm, itHs possible to wea&e these three elements together into a single cohesi&e unit. Melodies ha&e their own rhythms, after allJ harmonies carry their own melodiesJ all of it has its own te7ture. Te7ture we ha&enHt talked about much, but it gets touched upon the most here while discussing arrangement.

*ifferent levels of musical structure

Eou get large structure in blocks of harmonic progressions$ choruses, &erses, intros. Eou get not Guite so large structure as the chords that make up those chord progressions and the relationships between them. B&en smaller structure still is the notes that make up the chords and the timbres of these notes. All of these things create patterns that make up music. :atterns can be &arying combinations of melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic. The music mo&es from one pattern to another, e&en using one &ersion of a pattern at one particular time in preference to another &ersion. For instance, a chord progression that starts off with two chords that ha&e a certain inter&al relationship followed by two more chords with that same inter&al relationship$ going along in root and ma<or si7th pairs we can get ., Ami, I, Bmi, F, !mi, 9b, IJ in root and ma<or third pairs we can ha&e ., Bmi, F, Ami, !mi, F, Bmi, I. These sorts of correspondences can <ust as easily be set up in melodies as in harmonies. "n fact, gi&en that melodies are much more portable in the song, itHs probably easier to do. 5o different patterns may correspond in different ways to relate to one another, such as e7pressing the same harmonic relationships from different points. 1isten to how other music does these things, the patterns it sets up, their relationship, the changes it makes. @Take suitable amounts of drugs to appreciate this comple7ity if you must.A Music, especially pop music, definitely doesnHt lose anything by being split into chunks like &erse, chorus, bridge, middle eight etc. ThatHs how itHs e7perienced, written and printed on lyrics sheets, so starting with a &ariation on the classic pop form certainly wonHt hurt to ha&e a look at where structureHs concerned.

Musical maps
0otation of the sort iLm about to use will help to flatten out the time of a song into something &isual that you can take in simply by looking at it. "f youL&e got anything against analysis, whether on principle or <ust because you en<oy being wishy/washy, you might gain some helpful knowledge from this part. As said before, pop songs traditionally go like this for reasons which are probably more to do with the blues than i can really appreciate$ ). "ntro +. Verse ,. .horus

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6. Verse -. .horus *. Middle Bight ?. Verse ;. .horus 3. #utro The intro and the outro are often based on the chorus. Bach &erse is going to sound more or less the same. 5o we can represent it this way$ .WintroX VW&erse oneX .WchorusX VW&erse twoX .WchorusX MWmiddle eightX VW&erse threeX .WchorusX .WouttroX. Think of ., V and M as prototypical seGuences of a sort, and think of the descriptions in brackets as names of &ariants on those prototypes. The &erses are all going to ha&e different lyrics, of course, and the choruses are all going to be more or less the same. 5o while &erse one has say a chord structure of . !m F Am and begins @oh mama baby wanna dance all night witchoo, &erse two might ha&e a chord structure of . !m F Am and begin @oh baby mama wanna shag all night witchoo, and &erse three might be shortened by half and ha&e a chord structure of something like . !m? F Am? and begin @oh mama baby wanna marry you. #r something. 9ut ultimately these three &erses are pretty similar and all deri&e from the same few chords. 9asic elements are tweaked and repeated with slight &ariations from instance to instance. Repetition without getting repetitious. Eou can then go down and specify the different bits of the song by their chord seGuences to make a guide to those different bits$ .$ . I%! !m F%. . I%! !m F V$ . !m F%. A%. . !m F%. A%. . !m F%. A%. . !m A%. F%. M$ . F%. Bm I%! . F%. Bm I%! Eou can go all the way down to melody le&el if you want, as well as writing down &erses, but i really donLt feel like doing that. Eou could if you wanted to. 0ote that . and V are played a number of times around the same seGuence of chords, especially the &erse. "t doesnLt ha&e to be this way, of course. 0otice as well how thereLs lots of powers of two in&ol&ed$ the chorus has a seGuence of eight chords, presumably all held for four beats or so. The &erse has si7teen chords. The middle eight has eight chords. Eou can muck around with these powers of two if you want, and youLll probably come off sounding pretty a&ant/garde for it$ why not pop an e7tra bar or two onto the end of your &erse' 4hy not delete all the bits where the chorus has no singing in it' 4hy not indeed.

My 7loody Valentine and <lasti6ue 7ertrand

My 9loody Valentine had sort of a running structure to their songs, the way they were put together. The choruses were often instrumental, the &erses were usually a few chords looped o&er and o&er again, and so the songs had maybe two parts which swapped back and forth between the other. The opening track of 1o&eless, #nly +hallow, goes a bit like this$ ., V, ., V, . .@horus, instrumental, also intro and outroA$ B FN A 9 B FN A 9 etc @with gnarly whooping noisesA V@erse, with singingA$ 9 A FN B 9 A FN B etc ,oomer, the track immediately after that, has a similar sort of structure e7cept with an e7tra bit. These chords arenHt guaranteed to be accurate by the wayJ this is <ust how i played them$

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., V, 9, ., V, 9, . .@horus, instrumental with mad flutey bitsA$ I .?sus6 7 6 V@erse, with singingA$ I .ma? 9b .ma? 7 + 9@ridge, instrumental with wooing guitarsA$ I I/ish, I I/ish, .ma? .ma?/ish, .ma? .ma?/ish 7 + M9V e&idently decided while producing Isn't Anything that their choruses were too important for lyrics to bespoil. " agree with them wholeheartedly. :lastiGue 9ertrandHs 2a =lane =our 8oi is another song with a rather Guirky structure. "tHs got the same )+ bar blues riff repeated all the way through, but some of the &erses are sung back to back without a chorus to separate them, and sometimes instead of the chorus being sung thereHs a guitar solo. The &erses and choruses and solo are as eGually long as one another and tear along at a fairly Guick pace, and it thus manages to ha&e about fi&e &erses where pop songs typically only ha&e three. From memory it structurally goes$ "ntro @shorter than the other bitsA, V), V+, .horus, V,, .horus, V6, 5olo, V-, .horus 7 + "Hm probably wrong about this but iHll go and check and correct in a later edition if i am.

Structural e2tremes at odds

1etLs loosen things up a bit and look into other structural ideas. #ne that became popular and informed a lot of techno is where you get things in looping sections, and each section <ust keeps looping around and around until itLs time to start something else. This music lea&es the larger song structure mainly to chance, loops the riffs and progressions and melody around fairly tightly and wants to do nothing but hang onto that loop for the purposes of tweaking the te7ture and making you dance. "tLs structurally simple music with a big emphasis on making you dance. :eople bitch about dance music because itLs got no concept of actual songwriting, and when i say song i donHt <ust mean something thatHs got actual lyricsJ i mean something thatHs got some deliberate musical structuring to tell you some sort of story. "tLs mainly because the people who kicked off the brand of dance music popular since the )3;2s and )332s @as opposed to other brandsA werenHt really interested in making labyrinthine works of music for pensioners to listen to on 5unday nights slumped into a comfortable chair. 5o yes, instead of learning about the intricacies of music theory, they pioneered repetition for a new generation and established the practice of ecstatic trances in 4estern ci&ilisation. Iood on them. Then you get the other end of the spectrum$ older classical music. Anyone whoLs e&er listened to classical music will know it <ust doesnLt stay still, and although it might return to certain motifs @melodies, chord progressionsA itLs a tumult of.. well.. music. "n its traditional sense. "tHs played on instruments that most were a bit bored with by the time the instruments of more &irtual music arri&ed, sure, but still. ThereLs more musical ideas in ninety seconds of 9eetho&en than there is in a double/.! set from Ministry of 5ound and you know it. 9ut thereLs probably more interesting sonic te7tures and groo&y noises in that double/.! set than there is in 9eetho&enLs entire repertoire. 0ow that technologyLs at a point where we can make any sound we please, the focus of music is shifting from the music we can make to the plain old noises we can make. For better or worse. 0obody asked 9eetho&en to rein&ent the &iolin @how would he ha&e tuned it'A, and modern electronic musicians are inno&ating their own noises with e&ery new song they write.

Getting it arranged
4hatLs arranging' Arranging is picking your instruments and gi&ing them notes to play and noises to make in order to turn your song into actual music. "n arrangement, youHre effecti&ely saying YRhythm guitar, play this chord> 1ead guitar, play this melody> 9ass guitar, play this bass melody> !rummer, stop gi&ing people lip and drifting out of time or weHre buying a 1inn!rum>Y #r e&en YFirst &iolins, you play this melody> 5econd &iolins, you play a counterpoint melody> Violas, you double the first &iolins an octa&e down> .ellos, you play this bassline> =orns, you stand at the back and underpin the strings with the root and fifth of this chord> #boe, you play the lead melody o&er

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the top of all of this>Y etc, if you happen to be arranging for orchestra. Anyway, arrangement. As was touched upon in the section on chords, arrangement is the art of rendering your music across your instruments. 4hat you arrange depends on how much youL&e got to begin with, and how much you want to pack in. 0ow, youHre perfectly free not to sketch any musical structures before you start playing or seGuencing. " definitely write as i track, though sometimes i do come up with something on the guitar first. 9ut e&en when iHm tracking, sometimes it strikes me that a sawtooth/based pad would sound really good doubled by a Mellotron choir on the chorus to boost the drama of the song a bit. "n your classic 9eatles/style rock Guartet, the lead &ocal and lead guitar share the task of melody, while the rhythm guitar lays down the harmony o&er which the lead melodies do their thing. The bass melodically and rhythmically underpins the harmony to anchor it down and the drums are pure rhythm. 4ith a 0ir&ana/style trio, the rhythm and lead guitars are combined. The 4hite 5tripes take things right down to a huge guitar sound, drums and lead &ocals. Ioing in the opposite direction, a Guintet allows you to add keyboards for richer te7tural and harmonic possibilities, and more players still are needed for a decent horns section a la the 9lues 9rothers. #rchestras are proof that the more people playing at once, the more power you ha&e to make a big comple7 sound. #rchestras in particular are good fun for arranging because you ha&e a huge palette of sounds at your disposal / the sharp sound of a &iolin &ersus the more rounded sound of the horns, the soft flute &ersus the piercing oboe, the mellow cello &ersus the farty/sounding bassoon. "n a normal rock band you donHt ha&e a lot of decisions to make of that nature e7cept maybe in the way of effects pedals or BZing. "n electronic music, if anything youHre making e&en more decisions than with an orchestra potentially because youHre able to design the &ery timbre and character of the instruments to suit. ThereHs such a wide &ariety of arranging possibilities, some of which ha&e been enshrined in con&ention, itHs worth going o&er any and all music in your collection to listen in carefully as to which bit does what, and how all of those sounds come together the way they do to make up what youHre hearing. #rchestras are a particular challenge since there are so many instruments doing their thing at once, and when the instruments start te7turally melting into one another as they double the same melody or harmony you realise that despite the fact those old composers didnHt ha&e Korg 4a&estations to shape their sounds on, they certainly knew what they were up to.

Mind in sound
The last thing thatHs possible to co&er in this guide, the final section before the appendices start rolling, is dynamics. 0ow here iHm not talking about the sort of thing you maim with &olume compressionJ iHm talking about telling a story with all these melodies and chords and rhythms and e&erything else iH&e talked about. "tHs fairly important to be conscious of this sort of thing, because e&oking a mood in the listener through the use of oneHs musical abilities is more or less what musicHs about. That mood may be get up and dance, it may be listen to me tell a tale about terrible injustices, it may be sit down on the couch and mellow out, i've fallen out of love, life suc s and i want to die, aliens are coming to eat me, or anything else. 4ith music you create and transmit a message. B&en without lyrics or samples, the message in your musical bottle may not take much decoding. Think of music as a story of sorts. ThereHs moments of tension, moments of certainty, moments of curiosity, ambiguity and e&ery other human emotion. 4ith music we communicate our own human e7periences as we do with all sorts of art. "f weHre not recounting or trying to in&oke feelings about things that ha&e actually happened, weHre trying to build new worlds from pre/e7isting components. ThereHs a ma<or difference between music and prose, howe&er$ the words in a story are elements that put ideas into our heads by design of the author, and we react to those ideas once weH&e reconstituted them in our imaginations. Music works on a different le&el, one which is more emotional and abstract than words. 4ords that accompany fitting music are all the more effecti&e. Think about that the ne7t time youHre watching a big/budget mo&ie and the music is underpinning e&erything you see on screen. "f you want to emotionally manipulate people, <ust whack the right music on in the background. "t can change the atmosphere of a situation completely.

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9ut how is that emotional manipulation ultimately done' =ow are the stories told' "tHs about making e&ery element of the creation click and thus synergise, becoming more than the sum of its parts. "tHs about knowing how to make the rhythm work with the melodies work with the harmonies work with the instrumentation work with the lyrics work as a unit. " canHt tell you how to do make an emotionally mo&ing piece of music, because my particular aesthetic and emotional buttons and switches are probably different to yours. The sounds and ideas that make me glad to be ali&e when theyHre pouring out of my speakers here in the 5piral arenHt going to be e&eryoneHs cup of tea. " can howe&er tell you that it helps to ha&e e&erything behind the idea in the music. "t helps to try to go for a tone if not an actual idea before you start rifling through arbitrary chord progressions to see what takes your fancy. " can only tell you to go off yourself and pay attention to when other people are doing it to you, and with this knowledge you might be able to del&e a bit deeper into the actual craft of music instead of understanding it only as an art. :utting aside the emotional high you get from a piece of music you lo&e to analyse how the chords go and how it all fits together might seem the height of sacrilege to some, but listening closely to whatHs going on can be e&en more rewarding as you go into appreciating <ust how your buttons are being pushed by your sonic artisans of choice. ThatHs a fairly high ideal. Eour goals might be more modest than rinsing pure, naked snapshots from your mind out into songs. Eou might <ust want to push a few buttons in your seGuencer and ha&e some idea of what notes to feed it so as not to completely offend the senses. Fair enough.

4inal=ish words of inspiration

.omposing music often in&ol&es borrowing and reusing other peopleLs ideasMand lots of themM synthesising them together in oneLs own style to make something uniGue. There is nothing all that new under the sunJ e&en with microtonality, the o&erwhelming ma<ority of listeners and composers seem more than happy to stick to the eGually spaced twel&e notes that iH&e discussed here. :iss on anyone who thinks they can rein&ent the wheel from scratch, because itHs a fat waste of time to try. And if youHre smart enough to ha&e rein&ented the wheel, you wouldnHt be reading this because i shooed you away in the preface. Io and check if you donHt belie&e me. 4hen i talk about reusing past ideas, itLs not only sampling iLm talking about$ &irtually e&ery symphony written after 9eetho&en did his bit has an element of 9eetho&en in it. 9ecause he was so good at doing what he did, people would be daft not to ride the wa&e of inspiration set in motion by 1udwig &an. =e himself had his own inspirations in the form of composers like MoKart, who in turn didnHt come out of a &accuum himself. ThatLs how itLs always been, and thatLs how it still is, and itLs going to stay that way for some time to come. 0inety/nine percent of composers and producers are fooling themsel&es if they dare ignore whatLs come before them and to a great e7tent if they ignore whatLs coming up around them, and to as nearly a great e7tent if they only pay attention to one niche area of music. "nspiration and precedent are truly e&erywhere, and there are no final rules on how your inspiration strikes, how your music has to sound, which chords you ha&e to use in which key, what instrument you ha&e to play, which music editor you ha&e to use, or what sampled breakbeat you need to be the Gueen of drum and tech/trance bassbient house. "f thereHs anything you ha&enHt understood in this guide which you feel like youHll do fine without, donHt go to the trouble of trying to understand it. " wonHt email you personally to ask why you arenHt using thirteenth chords in your songs or rapping about lemonade. All the way through this guide iH&e been taking the piss out of different sorts of music which i ha&e no aesthetic regard for and wearing my biases completely outside my <eans without the least bit of care. @"Hd ha&e made e&en more drum and bass <okes if i werenHt counting on them being completely out of date by the end of this year.A "n that spirit, my final words for you are a Guote from Robert Anton 4ilson, who is far wiser than i and should know much better than me to recommend the following to e&eryone$

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?njoy what you enjoy, and don't ta e crap from anybody"

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$urther reading and bibliogra'hy

!en&er, Ralph )33?, The <uitar ;andboo , Alfred A. Knopf, 0ew Eork.
.omprehensi&e chord charts and sections on harmony make this a kickarse book on par with none i know.

4yatt, Keith Q 5chroeder, .arl )33;, ;armony and Theory, =al 1eonard, Milwaukee.
=alfway between a stiff musical te7tbook and the Ra&enspiral Iuide in tone with lots of rules on which chords to use where and a section on which transcriptions not to use for chord names, contra&ening most of whatHs said in the <uitar ;andboo .

Adler, 5amuel +22+, The +tudy of @rchestration, 4. 4. 0orton, 0ew Eork.

1ight e&ening reading this tome most certainly isnHt, but a rather inspiring guide to arranging for orchestra @and hence arranging in generalA it most certainly is. "tHs an academic te7tbook so itHs full of musical notation and <ust a bit on the e7pensi&e side, but itHs a nice big hardback so you can kill spiders with it Guite effecti&ely.

1e&ine, Mark )33-. The 3a55 Theory !oo . 5her Music .ompany, :etaluna.
The book " would ha&e set out to write as the Ra&enspiral IuideJ e&en for people who arenHt into <aKK, thereHs a lot to take away from this particular tome. Pust make sure your sight/reading is up to scratch if you decide to get a copy..

!oty, !a&id 9. +22*. The 3ust Intonation =rimer, an introduction to the theory and practice of 3ust Intonation" #ther Music "nc, 5an Francisco.
A great primer on Pust "ntonation, including what it is, how to use it and how to make instruments play it. Features some helpful refresher maths for those who canHt remember how to add fractions. @a&ailable from

www.<ustintonation.netA

http$%%www.smirno&.fsworld.co.uk%"nter&als.html http$%%www.tor&und.net%guitar%

an amaKing page on the different properties of the inter&als @defunctA a huge resource on music theory, aimed mainly at guitar players

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The Brief Chord -ictionary

chord Ma<or @"A Minor @"mi or "mA Augmented @"N-, "aug or "VA !iminished @"b-, "dim or "oA 5uspended fourth @"sus6A 5uspended second @"sus+A 5e&enth @"?A Ma<or se&enth @"ma?A Minor se&enth @"mi? or "m?A Minor%ma<or se&enth @"mi%ma?A !iminished se&enth @"dim?, "o or "o?A =alf/diminished @"mi?b- or "]?A 5e&enth diminished fifth @"?b-A 5e&enth augmented fifth @"?N-A Ma<or se&enth dim. fifth @"ma?b-A Ma<or se&enth aug. fifth @"?N-A 5e&enth suspended fourth @"?sus6A 5e&enth suspended second @"?sus+A Ma<or se&enth susp. fourth @"?sus6A 0inth @"3A Minor ninth @"mi3A Ma<or ninth @"ma3A Minor%ma<or ninth @"ma3A 0inth supended fourth @"3sus6A 5e&enth flat ninth @"?b3A Minor se&enth flat ninth @"mi?b3A 0inth diminished fifth @"3b-A 0inth augmented fifth @"3N-A 5e&enth augmented ninth @"?N3A 5e&enth flat ninth aug fifth @"?b3N-A 5e&enth flat ninth dim fifth @"?b3b-A 5e&enth aug ninth dim fifth @"?N3b-A 5e&enth aug ninth aug fifth @"?N3N-A Minor ninth diminished fifth @"mi3b-A Ma<or ninth augmented fifth @"ma3N-A 5e&enth flat%sharp ninth @"?N3b3A Ble&enth @"))A Ma<or ele&enth @"ma))A Minor ele&enth @"mi))A Minor%ma<or ele&enth @"mi%ma))A Thirteenth @"),A Ma<or thirteenth @"ma),A Minor thirteenth @"),A Minor%ma<or thirteenth @"),A 5i7th @"*A Minor si7th @"mi*A Added second @"add+A Added ninth @"add3A Minor added ninth @"miadd3A 5i7%0ine @"*%3A spelling ),) b, ) , N) b, b)6)+) , - b? ),-? ) b, - b? ) b, - ? ) b, b- bb? W*X ) b, b- b? ) , b- b? ) , N- b? ) , b- ? ) , N- ? ) 6 - b? ) + - b? )6-? ) , - b? 3 ) b, - b? 3 ),-?3 ) b, - ? 3 ) 6 - b? 3 ) , - b? b3 ) b, - b? b3 ) , b- b? 3 ) , N- b? 3 ) , - b? N3 ) , N- b? b3 ) , b- b? b3 ) , b- b? N3 ) , N- b? N3 ) b, b- b? b3 ) , N- ? 3 ) , - b? b3 N3 ) , - b? 3 )) ) , - ? 3 )) ) b, - b? 3 )) ) b, - ? 3 )) e/amples @. B I, ! FN AA @. Bb I, ! F AA @. ! IN, ! FN ANA @. Bb Ib, ! FN AbA @. F I, ! I AA @. ! I, ! B AA @. B I 9b, ! FN A .A @. B I 9, ! FN A .NA @. Bb I 9b, ! F A .A @. Bb I 9, ! F A .NA @. Bb Ib 9b, ! F IN 9A @. Bb Ib 9b, ! F Ab .A @. B Ib 9b, ! FN Ab .A @. B IN 9b, ! FN AN .A @. B Ib 9, ! FN Ab .NA @. B IN 9b, ! FN AN .A @. F I 9b, ! I A .A @. ! I 9b, ! B A .A @. F I 9, ! I A .NA @. B I 9b !LA @. Bb I 9b !LA @. B I 9 !LA @. Bb I 9 !LA @. F I 9b !LA @. B I 9b !bHA @. Bb I 9b b!HA @. B Ib 9b !HA @. B IN 9b !HA @. B I 9b !NHA @. B IN 9b !bHA @. B Ib 9b !bHA @. B Ib 9b !NHA @. B IN 9b !NHA @. Bb Ib 9b !bHA @. B IN 9 !HA @. B I 9b !bH !NHA @. B I 9b !H FHA @. B I 9 !H FHA @. Bb I 9b !H FHA @. Bb I 9 !H FHA @. B I 9b !H FH AHA @. B I 9 !H FH AHA @. Bb I 9b !H FH AHA @. Bb I 9 !H FH AHA 6?3 ,?3 +6? 6?B ,?B 6?3B he/ 6? ,? 6; ,* -? +? 6?A 6?9 ,?A ,?9 ,*3 ,*A 6*A 6;A 6*9 6;9 -?A +?A -?9 6?AB ,?AB 6?9B ,?9B -?AB 6?A! ,?A! 6*AB 6;AB 6?AF 6;A! 6*A! 6*AF 6;AF ,*A! 6;AB 6A!F

) , - b? 3 )) ), ) , - ? 3 )) ), ) b, - b? 3 )) ), ) b, - ? 3 )) ), ),-* ) b, - * )+,) , - 3 @+HA ) b, - 3 @+HA ),-*3

@. B I A, ! FN A 9A @. Bb I A, ! F A 9A @. ! B I, ! B FN AA @. B I !L, ! FN A BLA @. Bb I !L, ! F A BLA @. B I A !, ! FN A 9 BA

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8e/ what9
The he7 spelling is for those of you using a tracker of some sort who want to program chords in based off of notes. B7amples include$ the arpeggiate command in traditional trackers @usually 2AJ 9uKKHs :olac V5Ti track commands 2), 2+, 26J 9uKKHs btdsys :eer.hordHs custom chord programmer, etc. The inter&al eGui&alents in he7 format are as follows$ 0 C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B 1 C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B C 2 D D# E F F# G G# A A# B C C# 3 D# E F F# G G# A A# B C C# D 4 E F F# G G# A A# B C C# D D# 5 F F# G G# A A# B C C# D D# E 6 F# G G# A A# B C C# D D# E F 7 G G# A A# B C C# D D# E F F# 8 G# A A# B C C# D D# E F F# G 9 A A# B C C# D D# E F F# G G# a A# B C C# D D# E F F# G G# A b B C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# c C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B d C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B C e D D# E F F# G G# A A# B C C# f D# E F F# G G# A A# B C C# D

"nter&als in he7 format are as follows )$ minor second +$ ma<or second ,$ minor third 6$ ma<or third -$ perfect fourth *$ augmented fourth%diminished fifth, the inter&al of e&il, tritone ?$ perfect fifth ;$ minor si7th 3$ ma<or si7th%diminished se&enth a$ minor se&enth b$ ma<or se&enth c$ octa&e d$ minor second V octa&e @flat ninthA e$ ma<or second V octa&e @ninthA f$ minor third V octa&e @sharp ninthA )2$ ma<or third V octa&e @flat ele&enthA ))$ perfect fourth V octa&e @ele&enthA )+$ tritone V octa&e @sharp ele&enthA ),$ perfect fifth V octa&e )6$ minor si7th V octa&e @flat thirteenthA )-$ ma<or si7th V octa&e @thirteenthA )*$ minor se&enth V octa&e @sharp thirteenthA )?$ ma<or se&enth V octa&e );$ + octa&es

F is as far as you can go with he7 using one digit, so if youHre using the :olac V5T chord system and want to go up to an ))th you can ha&e a se&enth playing in one channel and whate&er notes are left o&er playing in another, e.g. C-3 .. .. .. 04 47A0 D-4 .. .. .. 04 3000

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/lossary of terms
atonal, ad<. As opposed to diatonic, a harmonic principle of the +2th .entury gi&ing all twel&e notes of the octa&e eGual footing. n atonality arpeggio, n. The notes of a chord played in a melodic seGuence. ad< arpeggivorous chord, n. A group of three or more notes of particular colour and con&ention, often sounded simultaneously. ad< chordigious chromatic, ad<. As opposed to diatonic, employing any twel&e notes of the octa&e without restriction to a particular scale. n chromaticity counterpoint, n. #ne melody @or moreA set atop another for harmonic effect. ad< contrapuntal diatonic, ad<. As opposed to chromatic, employing notes of an eight/note scale such as the ma<or or melodic%harmonic%natural minor. n diatonicity harmony, n. The sum phenomenon of notes at any time as e7pressed in chords and melodies, as distinct from rhythm, timbre and melody. ad< harmonic melody, n. A YhoriKontalY seGuence of notes, played one after the otherJ the phenomenon of such seGuences as distinct from rhythm, harmony and timbre. ad< melodic microtonal, ad<. A tonal system which employs subdi&isions of the octa&e to a greater degree than the familiar twel&e. n microtonality rhythm, n. That which is left o&er when melody, harmony and timbre are accounted for. ad< rhythmic scale, n. A group of notes selectable as a palette from which to deri&e melodies and harmonies, such as the minor, =ungarian or Mimsinian scales. ad< scale6tric timbre, n. The wa&eform characteristics of a sound, as distinct from harmony, melody and rhythm. ad< timbral tonality, n. The Guality of a chordHs third inter&al, whether itHs ma<or, minor or suspended. ad< tonalicious tone, n. Too many things to list here. ad< tony

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Cadence A''endi2
F!D This bit seemed li e a good idea, but hurt my brain too much to finish off properly" The accumulated data is left here for posterity" This appendi7 will go through the different colours achie&ed when one chord follows another and Gualitati&ely describe them. Two chords following one another is called a cadence. There are potentially a lot of chord combinations to co&er in this appendi7. =ow many' 4ell, the idea was initially to see what sort of cadence proceeds from one sort of chord to the ne7t. 5tarting with an e7ample chosen from the forty/odd chords in this guidebook, the chord is contrasted against another chord played at )+ different inter&als away from the root note. Forty times forty times twel&e. 0early +2 thousand possible combinations. #&er two solid days of re&iewing cadences, that would mean. " belie&e it was a great philosopher who once stated$ Y5tuff that for a laugh.Y 5o not e&ery chord mentioned in this guide is co&ered in this matri7. Pust doing all the triads by themsel&es would yield 6,+ combinations @si7 different triads followed by the same si7 different triads on different root notesA. "H&e chosen si7teen chords of relati&e import to act as guinea pigs. Pust to gi&e you an idea$ each cadence set takes half an hour of &ery repeteti&e but focussed listening, appraisal, categorising and typing. 9y the time itHs finished, iHll ha&e described o&er three thousand chord progressions o&er the space of o&er eight hours. 5o far itHs been three, and iH&e got fi&e hours to go. The progressions will be notated using inter&als. =a&e an e7ample$ :rogressions from ma<or to..
ma<or$ / striking%grandiose$ b,, ,, b-, b*, *

The abo&e infers that if you want to start at, say, ., following . with the following chords will sound striking and%or grandiose$ Bb, B, Ib, Ab, A. "f this doesnHt make sense, go and relearn your inter&als and ma<or scale, and try reading it again. The progressions are Gualified using a few different descriptions which iHll do my best to try to keep consistent. #ne potentially confusing description is modulative$ this means the second chord will gi&e the impression of ha&ing changed key. #ther descriptions are either functional @loopable means you could loop these two chords one after the other for a good effectA while some are more the moods the progression suggests. Bspecially good chord pairs i come across are marked as nice. 0one of the descriptions are )22^ serious or ob<ecti&e, and some are unapologetically flippant. 9ut i really am listening to all these pairs of chords, if only because at the moment iHm broke and ha&e to find free ways to entertain and occupy myself. The starting chords are inde7ed in the following order$
/ triads$ ma<orJ minorJ suspended fourthJ augmentedJ diminished - se&enths$ se&enthJ minor se&enthJ major seventhG minor7major seventhG diminished seventhG seventh diminished fifthG minor seventh diminished fifthG seventh suspended fourthG major seventh suspended fourth -incomplete0 - si7ths$ si6thG minor si6th -incomplete0

The target chords are inde7ed in the following order$

/ triads$ ma<orJ minorJ suspended fourthJ augmentedJ diminished / se&enths$ se&enthJ minor se&enthJ ma<or se&enthJ minor%ma<or se&enthJ diminished se&enthJ se&enth diminished fifthJ minor se&enth diminished fifthJ se&enth suspended fourthJ ma<or se&enth suspended fourthJ se&enth suspended second / si7ths$ si7thJ minor si7th

For the sake of easy reference, each set of progressions has been gi&en its own page so that the lists arenHt split between pages as theyHd otherwise be.

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.adences from ma<or to..

ma<or$ / striking%grandiose$ b,, ,, b-, b*, * / in key%poppy$ ), 6, / understated%modulati&e$ b+, +, b?, ? minor$ / in key%melancholy$ +, ,, * / modulati&e$ ), b+, ? / striking%grandiose$ b,, 6, b-, - @.ameronianA, b*, b? suspended fourth$ / teetery$ ), 6 @a bitA, ? / striking$ b+ / optimistic$ +, , / grandiose%spooky$ b,, b-, b*, b? / strangely stable$ / melancholy$ * augmented$ / loopable$ ), / mystical$ +, b,, 6, b-. b? / resolution/seeking$ b+ @to +miA, * / grand$ ,, b-, b* / sensible$ ), ? @&ery sensibleA diminished$ / sensible$ ), b-, b*, ? / resolution/seeking$ b+ @to +miA / loopable$ +, b,, 6 / melancholy$ ,, b/ mystical$ -, b? / cheeky$ * se&enth$ / taking off$ ) / strange$ b+, b, / lilting$ +, 6, b/ wanting to resol&e$ , / consonant$ / 1atin$ b*, b?, ? / grand$ * minor se&enth$ / substitutey$ ), +, * / strange$ b+, b,, b/ sweeping$ ,, 6 / grand$ -, / alien$ b*, b? / modulati&e$ ? ma<or se&enth$ / substitutey$ ) / loopsome$ b+, 6 / strange$ +, ,, b/ housey$ b,, *, ? / modulati&e$ / grandiose$ b* / resolute$ b? minor%ma<or se&enth$ / eerie$ ), +, b,, ,, b-, -, ? / staring upward in mute inner agony$ b+, 6 / schlocky$ b*, * / mystical$ b? diminished se&enth$ / stable and melancholy$ ), 6, b*, *, ? / mystical$ b+, ,, b? / wants to resol&e$ b+ / conclusi&e$ +, b,, b/ grandiose$ se&enth diminished fifth$ / wanting to resol&e$ ), ,, b-, * / loopable$ b+, + / mystical$ b, / bluesy$ 6, / grand$ b*, b? / dignified$ ? minor se&enth diminished fifth$ / grand$ ) / dignified$ b+, ? / ;2s melancholy$ +, 6 / mystical$ b,, b*, b? / &anilla$ , / wanting to resol&e$ b/ histrionic$ / smooth$ * se&enth suspended fourth$ / substituty$ ) / mystical$ b+, b,, b*, b? / smooth$ +, , @slightly less smoothA, 6, -, *, ? / grandiose$ b-, b? ma<or se&enth suspended fourth$ / substituty$ ) / mystical$ b+, +, b* / non seGuitur$ b,, ,, b/ kinda weird$ 6, -, *, b? / wants to resol&e$ ? se&enth suspended second$ / happy$ ) / odd$ b+, b,, ,, b-, *, ? @neutralA / wistful$ +, 6, -, b? / down$ b* si7th$ / taking off$ ) / blissed 1atin$ b+ / grandiose$ +, b,, b-, * / surreal$ ,, b6, ? / comfy$ 6, -, b*, b? minor si7th$ / strange$ ), b+, b,, ,, b-, ? / dashing$ +, / askew$ b,, / melancholy$ 6, b*, b? / comfortable$ *

The ma<or is stable, so following it with most other chords, especially chords of the same stability, can either be &anilla or terribly <arring. Following it with less stable chords tends to lead the mood away somewhere.

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.adences from minor to..

ma<or$ / modulati&e$ ), ? / optimistic$ b+, b, @GuietlyA / grandiose$ +, ,, 6, b-, * / melancholy$ -, b*, b? minor$ / modulati&e$ b+, , / pessimistic$ +, b,, ,, 6 @solidlyA, - @solidlyA, b*, b?, / despondent$ b/ grandiose$ *, ? suspended fourth$ / loopable$ ) / breaking away$ b+, +, b, / pessimistic$ ,, -, b* / sci/fi$ 6 / weird$ b-, *, ? / neutralising$ b? augmented$ / sci/fi$ ) / mystical$ b+, b,, - @tonallyA, b* / weird$ +, 6, * @shrewdA, b? / pessimistic$ , @solidA, b/ loopy ? diminished$ / loopy$ ) / pessimistic$ b+, * @slight hopeA, ? @neutralA / melancholy$ +, ,, 6, b* @RussianA / dramatic$ b,, 6, b/ weird$ -, b? se&enth$ / breaking upward$ ), b+, 6 / French$ +, -, ? / weird$ b,, , @atonalA, b/ sly$ b*, b? @more sadA / lead to modulate$ * minor se&enth$ / e7pounding$ ) / loopable$ b+, ? / sophisticated$ +, , @modulationalA, * @sci/fiA / grand$ b,, b- @sci/fiA, b* / carrying$ 6, - @consonantA / melancholy$ b? ma<or se&enth$ / contradictory$ ) / breaking upwards$ b+, b- @grandA, ? / odd$ +, ,, * / melancholy$ b,, -, b* / break in clouds$ 6, b? @wants to modulateA minor%ma<or se&enth$ / consolidati&e$ ) / looming upwards$ b+, + @weirdA, b,, , @weirdA, b/ gothic$ 6, -, b*, ? / striking$ *, b? @wants to modulateA diminished se&enth$ / shifting$ ) / wanting to modulate$ b+ / loopable$ +, b,, 6, b* @gothicA, ? / weird$ ,, -, * @floatingA / suspenseful$ b-, b? se&enth diminished fifth$ / hanging$ ) / breaking upward$ b+ / loopable$ + @hangingA, - @consonantA, b* @offA, ? @wispyA / gothic$ b,, , @weirdA, 6 @hangingA, *, b? @stuffyA / wanting to modulate$ bminor se&enth diminished fifth$ / consolidating$ ) / suspenseful$ b+, b,, b? / melancholy$ +, , @neutralA, - @neutralA, * @firm>A / despondent$ 6, b/ mystical$ b*, ? @neutralA se&enth suspended fourth$ / weird$ b+, b, @neutralA, ,, b- @atonalA, b* @twistedA / heightening$ 6, b? / neutralising$ ), +, -, *, ? ma<or se&enth suspended fourth$ / tension$ ), b+ @<arringlyA, b, / weird$ +, b- @<arringA, * / ghostly$ ,, 6, b*, b? / mystical$ -, ? si7th$ / modulati&e$ ) / loopable$ b+ / reaching$ +, ,, b- @energeticA, *, ? / consolidating$ b,, 6 / transmuting$ / melancholy$ b*, b? minor si7th$ / consolidating$ ), 6 / suspenseful$ b+, +, b, @ghostlyA, , @ghostlyA, b- @strikingA, ? / contradicting$ / melancholy$ b*, * @ghostlyA, b?

The minor is a stable chord, so following it with something else tends to de&elop it into other directions. "tHs a good way to e&oke melancholy, especially when in&erted to a less stable form in order to lead it off into the more nuanced directions of, say, a tritone/containing chord.

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.adences from suspended fourth to..

ma<or$ / resolute$ ), b+, b,, 6 @desuspendedA, b? / grandiose$ +, , @weirdA, b-, b*, *, ? / happy$ minor$ / resolute$ ), 6 @desuspendedA, -, * / modulati&e$ b+ / melancholy$ +, ,, b? @kinkyA, ? / harrowed$ b,, b/ grandiose$ b* suspended fourth$ / mysterious$ b+, b, @buildingA, ,, ? @modulati&eA / neutral$ +, * / portentious$ b-, b* / o&erneutral$ 6, -, b? augmented$ / sci/fi$ ), b* @grandA / portentious$ b+, + @spookierA / anticipatory$ b,, ,, 6, b-, -, * / settling$ b?, ? diminished$ / coiling$ ) / modulati&e$ b+ / melancholy$ +, 6 @teeteringA, b*, b? / anticipatory$ b,, b/ solid$ ,, ? / whimsical$ * se&enth$ / resolute$ ) / modulati&e$ b+, * / weird$ +, b,, b/ wanting to resol&e$ , / teetering$ 6 / solid$ -, b* @grandA, b? @subtleA, ? minor se&enth$ / resolute$ ), * / weird$ b+, b,, ,, b-, b* @modulati&eA, b? @raisyA / logical$ +, 6, - @sophisticatedA / mystical$ ? ma<or se&enth$ / resolute$ ) @nicelyA / tense$ b+, b,, / weird$ +, ,, b- @non seGuiturA, * @modulati&eA / floaty$ 6, b*, b? @carryingA, ? minor%ma<or se&enth$ / doomed$ ) / frail and doomed$ b+ / spooky doomed$ + / e&en more doomed$ b, / rotting and doomed$ , / consonantly doomed$ 6 / ghostly and doomed$ b/ <ust doomed$ / phantomly doomed$ b* / <arringly doomed$ *, b? / sophisticatedly doomed$ ? diminished se&enth$ / French$ ), b*, *, b? / anticipational$ b+, +, b,, b/ spooky$ ,, 6, / melancholy$ ? se&enth diminished fifth$ / leading somewhere$ ) / ponderous$ b+, +, b?, ? @modulati&eA / tense$ b,, ,, 6, b-, / mystical$ b*, * @modulati&eA minor se&enth diminished fifth$ / ponderous$ ), b*, * @nice>A / sinister$ b+, b,, 6, b? @GuietlyA / gossamer$ +, / logical$ ,, ? / tense$ bse&enth suspended fourth$ / consolidating suspension$ ) / mysterious$ b+, , @<arringA, * / tense$ + @slightA, 6, b- @GuiteA / weird$ b,, b*, ? @neutralA / melancholy$ -, b? ma<or se&enth suspended fourth$ / reaching$ ) / mysterious$ b+, b*, b? @curiousA / <arring%tense$ +, b,, ,, b-, * @buggingA, ? / nondescript$ 6 / cruising$ si7th$ / resolute$ ), b? / coiled$ b+, + @less coiledA / logical$ b,, 6, - @comfortingA / striking$ ,, b- @optimisticA, * @cheekyA, ? @cheekyA / melancholy$ b* minor si7th$ / resolute$ ) @sadA / tense$ b+, , @<arringA, 6 @logicalA, b- @<arringA, ? / floating$ +, b, @tenserA, b* @mysticalA, *, b? @melancholyA / neutral$ -

The suspended chordHs lack of a third makes it a good chord to resol&e from. "f it doesnHt resol&e to a nice stable triad, or a chord that contains a nice stable triad, it tends to <ust make things more misty and odd. "t doesnHt float Guite the same way as the tritone does, howe&er, so <u7taposing a suspended chord with a tritone can make for interesting results.

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.adences from augmented to..

ma<or$ / grand$ ), + @modulati&eA, , @smoothishA, b? / smooth$ b+, b* @suspiciously soA, ? / odd$ b,, 6 @nicelyA, b-, -, * @modulati&eA minor$ / resolute$ ), b+, +, 6 @modulati&eA, b-, b* / odd$ b, @slightlyA, b? @modulati&eA, ? @modulati&eA / spooky$ ,, -, * suspended fourth$ / unfinished$ ), b* / ethereal$ b+, ,, b?, ? @nicelyA / climbing$ +, b,, 6 / odd$ b-, -, b* / ponderous$ * augmented$ / eerie$ b+, +, b,, - @gothicA, *, b?, ? / consonant$ ,, b* / suspenseful$ 6, bdiminished$ / melancholy$ ), +, 6 @neutralA, b? @niceA / gloomy$ - @gloomyA, * @gloomyA / portentious$ b+, , @niceA / weird$ b, @neutralA, b- @neutralA, b* @gloomyA, ? se&enth$ / spooky$ ), b+, * @niceA / odd$ + @optimisticA, b, @<arringA, 6, b-, -, ? @awakeningA / fitting$ ,, b* @wanting to resol&eA / gloomy$ b? minor se&enth$ / strange$ ), - @blissyA / building$ b+ / odd$ +, b,, b-, ? / contradictory$ ,, 6 / rela7ed$ b*, *, b? ma<or se&enth$ / contradictory$ ), b,, ,, b/ building$ b+, b? / odd$ +, 6 @strikingA, ? @modulati&eA / blissy$ -, b* @modulati&eA, * minor%ma<or se&enth$ / gloomy$ ), b+, b, @oddlyA, ,, 6, -, b* @eerieA, * @niceA, b? / askew$ +, b-, ? @not too askewA diminished se&enth$ / gloomy$ ), +, b,, ,, 6 @eerieA, b-, - @strikingA, *, b? / building$ b+, ? / odd$ b*, se&enth diminished fifth$ / misty$ ), ,, -, b*, *, b? / eerie$ b+, +, b, @<arringA, b-, ? / contradictory$ 6 @eerieA minor se&enth diminished fifth$ / grand$ ) @eerieA, ,, 6 / eerie$ b+, +, b-, b?, ? @buildingA / odd$ b, / gloomy$ -, b*, * se&enth suspended fourth$ / ca&ernous$ ), b+, - @oddA, * / consonant$ b* / optimistic$ +, b,, b?, ? / contradictory$ ,, 6, bma<or se&enth suspended fourth$ / odd$ ), +, b,, ,, b/ gloomy$ b+, +, 6, -, b*, *, ? / misty$ b? si7th$ / spooky$ ), - @resoluteA, b? @sneaky modulati&eA / resolute$ b+, + @stretchingA, b,, , @niceA, 6, b*, * @niceA, ? / odd$ bminor si7th$ / gloomy$ ), b+, +, b,, ,, 6 @consonantlyA, b*, b?, ? / despairful$ b-, * @GuietlyA / spooky$ -

The augmented chord floats a bit due to a lack of a perfect fifth inter&al. This makes the chord especially useful when resol&ing things, and it imparts an e7cellently gloomy mood which may be resol&ed or de&eloped by the ne7t chord.

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.adences from diminished to..

ma<or$ / sly$ ), b,, / modulati&e$ b+ / grand$ +, 6 @sci/fiA / contradictory$ , / solid$ b-, b*, *, b? @niceA, ? @niceA minor$ / pessimistic$ ), 6, b-, -, b* / resolute$ b+, b,, ,, *, b?, / grand$ +, b,, b-, ? suspended fourth$ / contradictory$ ) / resolute$ b+, b-, -, b*, *, b? @niceA / odd$ +, ,, 6 / searching$ b,, ? augmented$ / floaty$ ) / misty$ b+, +, -, b*, *, b? / eerie$ b,, ,, 6, b-, ? diminished$ / schlocky$ b+, 6, b-, -, ? @not too schlockyA / floaty$ +, b, @eerieA, b* @strikingA, * @eerieA, b? / modulati&e$ , se&enth$ / resolute$ ), b+, b,, ,, b? / cool$ +, 6, -, *, ? / modulati&e$ b/ sinister$ b* minor se&enth$ / natural$ ), b,, 6 / modulati&e$ b+, ,, *, b? / surreal$ +, b-, ? / cool$ -, b* ma<or se&enth$ / resolute$ ), b+, -, b*, *, b? / disco$ +, b,, , @oddA, 6, b-, ? minor%ma<or se&enth$ / gloomy$ ), b+ @resoluteA, + @<arringA / despondent$ b,, ,, 6, b- @funnilyA, - @seriouslyA, b*, *, b?, ? diminished se&enth$ / building$ ), b+, b, @directA, ,, b- @directA, * / odd$ +, 6, b?, ? / surprising$ -, b* se&enth diminished fifth$ / misty$ ), + @eerieA, b-, b* / eerie$ *, ? / schlocky$ b+, 6, / odd$ b,, ,, b? minor se&enth diminished fifth$ / building$ ), b+, b- @niceA, -, b* @niceA / despondent$ +, b,, , @schlockyA, ? / eerie$ * / schlocky$ 6, b? se&enth suspended fourth$ / neutral$ ), 6 / optimistic$ b+, +, b, @floatyA / odd$ ,, b-, -, *, b?, ? @strikingA / resolute$ b* ma<or se&enth suspended fourth$ / <arring%odd$ ), b+, +, b,, ,, 6, b-, -, b*, *, ? / gloomy$ b? si7th$ / resolute$ ), b+, b,, ,, -, *, b? / striking$ + @stylishA, 6, b/ searching$ b*, ? minor si7th$ / gothic$ ), b, @directA / odd$ b+, +, , @strikingA, b?, ? @usefulA / gloomy$ 6, b- @o&er the topA, -, b*, * @strikingA

The diminished is a compact, tense chord with a structure containing two stacked minor third inter&als which end up forming a tritone from end to end. The tritone lends it that floating structure and so this chord resol&es to a lot of things and e&okes a gloomy%floating sound when followed with other chords that tend to float as well, like the se&enth flat fifth.

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.adences from se&enth to..

ma<or$ / simplifying$ ) / grandiose$ b+, + @sci/fiA, ,, b/ smooth$ b*, b?, ? / Guirky$ b,, ?, b*, * @slight frictionA / perfect$ 6 / imperfect$ minor$ / contradictory$ ) / odd$ b+, b,, b-, b* / sombre$ +, , @smoothA, * @smoothA, b?, ? / perfect$ 6 / grand$ suspended fourth$ / neutralised$ ), / odd$ b+, +, b,, ,, b-, b*, *, b?, ? / optimistic$ 6, b? augmented$ / gothic$ ), +, b,, b- @etherealA, b? / suddenly sombre$ b+, -, b* @mistyA / fearful$ b,, ,, 6, *, ? @grandA diminished$ / fearful$ ), b+, b? / mystical$ + / suspenseful$ b,, 6 @<arringA, b- @<arringA, -, b* @<arringA, *, ? / carried$ , se&enth$ / diKKy$ b+, ? / cheesy$ +, b,, ,, b-, b* / bluesy$ 6, -, b? @sort ofA / modulati&e$ * minor se&enth$ / contradictory$ ), b,, b* / modulati&e$ b+, +, b? / sophisticated$ ,, * / sombre$ 6 / portentious$ b-, ? / warm$ ma<or se&enth$ / glamorous$ ), b,, , / modulati&e$ b+, +, ,, ? / perfect$ 6 / grand$ b- @<arringA, b* / resolute$ / blissed$ b? minor%ma<or se&enth$ / suddenly doomed$ ), +, b,, , @modulati&eA, -, b* @modulati&eA / mystical$ b+ / consonantally doomed$ 6 / odd$ b-, *, b?, ? diminished se&enth$ / coiling$ ), -, * / portentious$ b+, b,, ,, b- @strikingA, *, ? / odd$ +, 6, b* / mystical$ b? se&enth diminished fifth$ / souring$ ), b/ mystical$ b+, +, ,, -, b*, * @<arringA, b? / odd$ b,, 6 @<arringA, ? @<arringA minor se&enth diminished fifth$ / souring$ ) / gloomy$ b+, + / sad$ , @smoothA, b- @smoothA / sombre$ *, b? @<arringA / cutting$ b,, 6, -, b*, ? se&enth suspended fourth$ / rearing up$ ), +, 6 / odd$ b+, b, @modulati&eA, ,, b-, b*, *, ? @modulati&eA / neutralising$ / grand$ b? ma<or se&enth suspended fourth$ / odd%unresol&ed$ ), b+, +, b,, ,, b-, -, *, b?, ? / tangential$ 6 / misty$ b* si7th$ / sinking$ ) / modulati&e$ b+, + @<arringA, ,, b*, ? / smooth$ b,, 6 @finalA, - @finalA / odd$ b-, * / grand$ b? minor si7th$ / souring$ ), b+ / schlocky$ +, b, @smoothA, b? / gothic$ ,, * @smoothA / sad$ 6 / odd$ b-, b* @modulati&eA, ? / grand$ -

The se&enth or dominant se&enthHs main home is the blues, and using the "V and V chords with it make for a fairly bluesy sound. =owe&er, the tritone in the se&enth chord gi&es it a floating Guality thatHs definitely enhanced by all sorts of different chords. 5ome chords in particular it has a hard time meshing with, e&en.

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.adences from minor se&enth to..

ma<or$ / contradictory$ ) / sensible$ b+ / grand%striking$ +, , @oddA, 6, b-, -, *, ? @sci/fiA / e7hausted$ b* / resolute$ b? / following$ b, minor$ / consolidating$ ) / modulati&e$ b+, + / gloomy$ b,, b* / spooky$ ,, b- @sci/fiA / resolute$ 6, -, b?, ? suspended fourth$ / suspenseful$ ), b+ / inhaling$ 6, / sci/fi$ +, b*, b? / neutralised$ b, / odd$ ,, b-, * / modulati&e$ ? augmented$ / gloomy$ ), ,, b*, ? / modulati&e$ b+, + @sci/fiA, b,, * / odd$ 6, b/ sinister$ -, b*, b? diminished$ / sinister$ ), b+, ,, b-, b*, *, b? / gloomy$ +, b,, 6, -, ? se&enth$ / contradictory$ ) / brightening$ b+ / elfmanesGue$ + / continual$ b, / odd$ , / plain$ 6 / sinister$ b-, -, b* / striking$ *, b?, ? minor se&enth$ / swaggering$ b+ / sophisticated$ +, b,, , @unsteadyA, 6, b*, * @unsteadyA / modern$ b? / modulati&e$ b-, ? / ob&ious$ ma<or se&enth$ / brightening$ ) / modulati&e$ b+, + @roughA, , @roughA, -, *, / ob&ious$ b, / modern$ 6 / wistful$ b-, b*, / relief$ b? / special$ ? minor%ma<or se&enth$ / modulati&e%doomed$ ), b+, +, b,, ,, 6, -, b*, *, b?, ? / &ery doomed$ bdiminished se&enth$ / coiling$ ), b+ / sinister$ +, b,, , @campyA, -, * / gloomy$ 6, b-, b* @gothicA, b? @gothicA, ? se&enth diminished fifth$ / odd$ ), ,, 6 / misty$ b+, + @gloomyA, ? / gloomy$ b,, b*, b? / sinister$ -, * / about to resol&e$ bminor se&enth diminished fifth$ / paired$ ) / gloomy$ b+, b,, 6 @plainA, -, b* @strikingA / misty$ +, , / sinister$ b-, *, b?, ? se&enth suspended fourth$ / neutralising$ ), + @liftingA, b,, ,, b? / modulating$ b+ / lifting$ 6 / odd$ b-, ? / moody$ / modern$ b*, * se&enth suspended second$ / sad$ ), b+, 6, -, b? / modulati&e$ +, b/ wistful$ b, / odd$ ,, b*, *, ? @strikingA si7th$ / contradictory$ ) @niceA / modulati&e$ b+, +, ,, 6, b-, -, * @grandA / continuati&e$ b, / moody$ b*, ? / smooth$ b? minor si7th$ / continuati&e$ ), b, / sinister$ b+, ,, b-, *, b?, ? / modulati&e$ +, , / despondent$ 6, -, b*

"f anyone finds these charts remotely useful and would like to see them finished, please do write to me. Bmail address in a couple of pages.

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The $inal %ord

0hanges
2.;.) @+- August +2)+A :!F e7port> :ut table of contents into two columns 2.; @+6 August +2)+A preparation for e9ook formatting since e9ooks are now a thing massi&e amounts of typesetting changes, ripping out all the numeric titles and <ust going with other stuff some prose rewriting, needs much more 2.? @March +2)2A F unreleased thought " lost this in a crash, but found it again edited introduction down hea&ily e7tra e7plication on chords and harmony 2.* @), May +22?A / gutted rhythm section / added <ust intonation%eGual temperament notes / fi7ed the stuff people keep emailing me about.. oh wait no i didnHt.. 2.-., @?2 9ur ,)?+%)* #ctober +22*A / gutted lyrics section and added a brief section on rap, released public stuff 2.-.+ @,) Aft ,)?)%)3 0o& +22-A / added notes on <aKKnik stuff as well as &arious si7th chords, specific <aKKy chords 2.-.) @+6 .on ,)?)%)3 Pun +22-A / added shorter guide to chord progressions / more about inter&als / more about structure / added glossary @such as it isA / minor copy changes 2.- @* .on ,)?)%) Pun +22-A / added chromatic &oice leading info / redid rhythm section almost from scratch and added crossword diagrams / copychecked and redid structure section in large chunks, e7emplified more 2.-./).) @\); !is ,)?)%) Apr +22-A / added hyperlinks of note / laid out plans for chapters four, si7 and nine / discussing bass in the rhythm section and added suggestions / changes and edits here and there in the first fi&e chapters / discussing timbre melodies in the melody / more in the lyrics section, though itHs still woefully incomplete / renamed a couple of chapters / condensed the bit on different structural le&els, need to e7emplify more / added stuff about pattern and psychology of music to chapter four / concei&ed, added and started to complete the three thousand cadence appendi7 before abandoning it for the horrific headache it is 2.6., @?) .ha ,)?)%)+ Mar +22-A / fi7ed ,.,.).)2 diagram and redid a couple of missing ones in section 6 / kidnapped modulation section and put it in part 6

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/ added melodic minor scale and diagram / front page inde7> / added more furinotes underneath chords / <oined chapters ,a and ,b together / enlarged the modulation section to include direct and pi&ot modulation / cut out some of the ranting about atonality and serialism $A / updated the weather report / added tritone substitution and plotted for chapter * / made the title page prettier / stole closing comments at end of chapter 3 from end of chapter 6 / scowled as the number of pages peaked at ?6 then dwindled the more errant page breaks i fi7ed 2.6.+ @*; .ha ,)?)%3 Mar +22-A / switched to #pen#ffice for editing duties @yay :!F e7port>A / redid the chord diagrams in B&e while listening to +22), imported as BMF files / added and commented on a heap more chords / added section on cadence and dominant se&enths / somehow came up with ten more pages of info in the space of three days / new location$ http$%%www.ra&enspiral.com%ra&enspiralguide.pdf @this &ersion upped to old R1A / R1 finally hyperlinked, i am a twat for not doing it sooner and i apologise> / strangely, the filesiKe seems to ha&e dropped )22k or so e&en though thereHs more in it.. go figure.. 2.6.) @** .ha ,)?)%? Mar +22-A 0RB1BA5B! / more chords, e7tended the ninth section and bolstered the dictionary / added more in structure / e7tended and split off the he7 section in the chord dictionary 2.6 @6* .ha ,)?)%)- Feb +22-A 0RB1BA5B! / updated contact information / checked through the copy for errors @thanks Ieorge>A / combined preface and 2.) statement of purpose / re&amped chords section, added more chords and cluster section / reformatted and made a note to do all the graphics again one day / general editing and tidying duties / changed section [ to HThe Final 4ordH 2.,.) @6* .ha ,)?2%)- Feb +226A / added inter&al chart 2., @6- .ha ,)?2%)6 Feb +226A / e7tra bits in scales section / big addition to inter&al section / longer introduction to chords / scrapped rhythm section and redid it / added to lyrics section / added preface / renamed &ariations section to harmonic progression / added to harmonic progression section / added more on arrangement 2.+.* @66 .ha ,)?2%)+ Feb +226A 0RB1BA5B! / &ery minor copy changes 2.+.- @,6 .ha ,)?2%2+ Feb +226A / changed lyrics section / tweaked structure section 2.+.6 @+* .on ,)*3%+) Pun +22,A / added to structure, lyrics and rhythm sections 2.+., @+, .on ,)*3%); Pun +22,A / not publically released / started structural section / started lyrics section

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2.+.+ @)? .on ,)*3%)+ Pun +22,A / got some fan mail today which prompted me to start writing again $A / added subsection on basic counterpoint and a rant about serialism / started rhythm section 2.+.) @,* Aft ,)*;%+6 0o& +22+A / added subsection on key / e7panded section on &ariations / added stub pages for other chapters 2.+ @,* Aft ,)*;%+6 0o& +22+A / added material on resolution, "%"V%V relations / added melody chapter / started &ariations chapter / added inde7 and front page 2.).- @,6 Aft ,)*;%++ 0o& +22+A / added heaps more about scales / edited other material to make it less harrowing to read 2.).6 @,6 Aft ,)*;%++ 0o& +22+A / added more scale stuff and notes on key &s scale / fi7ed fluff in circle of fifths thingy / changed chord spellings from Roman to Arabic numerals \ Roman numerals from now on refer only to chords, not to single notes / added thanks bit 2.)., @,, Aft ,)*;%+) 0o& +22+A / added in&ersions and transcription info / added chord progression chapter / planned and plotted later sections 2.).+ @,, Aft ,)*;%+) 0o& +22+A / added whole tone scale and modes 2.).) @,+ Aft ,)*;%+2 0o& +22+A / :!F &ersion with adapted guides, created better structure and added diagrams 2.) @,+ Aft ,)*;%+2 0o& +22+A / I"F/only &ersion :lanned for the future / more on chord substitution and other tricks in chapter si7 / more on structure and arrangement in chapter nine

4ind Me
Bmail$ kurrelTii.net K&R$ k/bird !etails are correct as of +- August +2)+.

Thanks
For additions, suggestions, error spotting and moral support$ "ntrospecti&ePourneys, Aaron Mc.ammon%_mute, !A0.Bnrg, <ts, bramble, Ieorge 9uckley, .ataline 4en, [ephod, Bd 9lake%cyanphase, :adraig Mac@"a> "a>A"ain%0imheil

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Software
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3icence
This work is licensed under the .reati&e .ommons Attribution/0on.ommercial/0o!eri&s 1icense. To &iew a copy of this license, &isit http$%%creati&ecommons.org%licenses%by/nc/nd%+.2%au% or send a letter to .reati&e .ommons, --3 0athan Abbott 4ay, 5tanford, .alifornia 36,2-, 5A. Te7t and images in this document are .opyright 8 +22+/+2)+ 5imon 9ennett. 5ome rights reser&ed.

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