SUMMARY

Today we learned how harmony works. This included a few helpful videos and a deep dive into hookpad.

CLASSROOM

Watch How Harmony Works (47 minutes)

harmony– notes playing together

Harmony is more mystical, magical, and elusive than the other parts of music. harmony has been constructive, not a gift from the heavens. Around the twelfth century, European harmony stopped being just a clash of notes. A drone was used to harmonize, but it never changed. Then two singers became the drone for other singers. Then a pop song changed the drone into a chord progression. The drone was not static anymore. It also created three-note chords (triads). Over five hundred years, composers chose their harmonies based on strict rules. these rules and notes, harmonics, were created by nature. When European composers created cords, they used the harmonics to make major triads. minor triads differ from major because their middle note is a harmonic (sharp or flat). Polynithley (spelled wrong) means many voices. In cord progression, the most important relationship is the tonic and dominant. It’s the relationship between the tonic (first note in a scale) and the dominate (strongest force). The subdominant is in-between the tonic and dominant. Discord is an intended clash of notes. This was also called the devil’s note. Passing notes are discord notes that are only passing through. It was a way composers hid dissonance(discord) notes. suspended notes, suspensions, are dissonance notes that are held longer over a cord that wants to be resolved. To create tension, some suspensions stay unresolved. Added notes to create a seventh chord are used to make the song more interesting. Augmentation was when composers expanded the chord . Diminishing a chord shrunk chord smaller.

LAB

This activity was really fun. I compose stuff on my own, but Its hard to write my compositions down because I normally compose on the spot biased on how I feel. This program was easy to use, and I was able to compose without the hindrance of stopping and writing in the middle of composing. This tool will help with writing down my compositions.

OUTSIDE / JOURNAL / IDEAS

Go for a walk and think about the Tonic (1 chord) and the Dominant (5 chord) and how they create push and pull, tension and release in composition.

• Tonic (1 and 8 chords)
  • Root note creates a feeling of resolution and stability 
• Supertonic, Mediant, Submediant (2, 3, 6 chords)
  • Moderate tension, useful for transitions 
• Dominant, Subdominant, Leading Tone (4, 5, 7 chords)
  • Create lots of tension to get to the tonic 

Mr. Le Duc’s Key of C Major Notes and Chords Chart (PDF)

STUDIO

CONTROL ROOM

For this activity I played around in Soundtrap. I created a melody with a music box sound (to make it creepy) and then recorded two Legato parts for the harmony’s ( a high and low).

WHAT I LEARNED and PROBLEMS I SOLVED

I really enjoy the “How music works” video. Its helpful and it makes me think about music from different prospective. It gave me a bigger appreciation for music, if you will. I didn’t have to many problems except getting onto the class website in the morning. On my own time, I worked on mainly sound trap. I gave myself the challenge to make a videogame theme and I think I did okay on it.