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WienSam Offline OP
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One equals three equals six I=iii=vi
Two equals four ii=IV
and Five equals seven V=vii


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Hi Sam. I don't think so. What does this mean?

EDIT: got it; useful.

Last edited by Matt Finley; 01/15/11 09:50 PM.

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That for most songs you can substitute chords as I have laid them out. Country / Folk - not Jazz of course. It does work. I am talking triads here of course


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OK, I see.


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What does that mean?


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It means, for triads, you are playing inversions, adding and leaving out one note at a time. This works in a basic way and generally sounds good.


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Thanks, Matt


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Hi Sam,

Essentially, there are three main harmonic functions. There are the tonic, the subdominant and the dominant functions.

The tonic function has a sense of being at "home-base". The subdominant function is a chord that gives a feeling of going somewhere (it will progress to either the dominant or tonic function chords). The dominant function has a strong musical lean to the tonic function.

In a major key,

Chords I, iii, vi are tonic functions.

Chords ii, IV are subdominant functions.

Chords V, vii are dominant functions.


A standard harmonic movement in music is tonic(T) - subdominant(S) - dominant(D) - tonic.

Using the above chords in the key of C major, the T - S - D - T motion could be...

1) C - F - G - C
2) C - Dm - G - Am
3) (C - Em) - F - G - Am (where the T function has been shared between two chords)

et cetera.

Hope this gives you some useful insight,
Noel

Last edited by Noel96; 01/16/11 10:35 AM.

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Quite agreed, Noel. Thanks


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Thank you Noel.... I have never seen or heard it spelled out so simply and elegantly.

Those are insights that I, and I imagine others, arrived at only after years of plunking away (maybe I should have read a book or two early on.)

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Hi Daisy,

Thank you The above technique of chord substitution is usually referred to as "substitution by function". It's a great songwriting tool to keep in mind.

There's a book by Jai Josefs called "Writing Music For Hit Songs" that approaches writing music and harmony from the perspective of Tonic, Subdominant and Dominant. I found it a very eye-opening book and highly recommend it. I'm not sure about this, but I don't think that the book is printed any longer; I just had a look and Amazon, though, and they have some for sale.

This book completely revolutionized the way that I look at music. I have re-read it a couple of times since buying it. If you have knowledge of music, I strongly encourage to try and get hold of a copy. You won't be disappointed.

Regards,
Noel

Last edited by Noel96; 01/16/11 03:10 AM.

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The beauty of theories is that there are so many of them to choose from!

While TSDT is a strong harmonic progression, it's by no means the only means of organizing material harmonically. For example, other harmonic pattern include :
  • Circle of fifths (dominant->tonic G7 - C)
  • Linear (stepwise: Em - F)
  • Related chords (shared tones: Am - C)
For example, Noel's first example:

C - F - G - C

is the classic TSDT motion. But you can also see the movement F - G as a linear motion.

The substitution:

C - Dm - G - Am

creates a different harmonic movement - the Dm - G has the Dm functioning as the dominant to the G. And the C - Dm and G - Am can be seen as a linear movement.

The third example:

C - Em - F - G - Am

can also be seen as a chain of linear motion. That's not to say that TSDT isn't also present. But the Am substituting for the C in the progression weakens cadence, and makes a linear progression a better candidate for an explanation - all other things being equal (which they never are!).

It also helps to understand why particular chords are considered "dominant", and so on. For example, the vii chord is considered a dominant because it can be seen as a V7 chord without the root. In the key of C, V7 is (G B D F), and vii is (B D F). But it doesn't always function that way. Because the chord is built from a stack of minor thirds, any of the notes of the vii chord can be considered the root. So it's often used in jazz arrangements when you need to harmonize a passing note but don't want give it any particular tonality.

The relationship between the IV and ii chords are the Major/relative minor, so treating them as the subdominant is widely agreed on. But you can also relate them as to the number of notes the share - two of the three notes in the triad are shared. So it may make sense to look at the harmonic movement along those lines, too.

Treating the iii as a tonic function is something that's not seen much. More typically, it's seen as the relative minor of the V chord. So instead of grouping the iii with the tonic, it's more typically seen as part of the dominant. That is, the progression:

C - Em - G

would have the Em function as related to the G, not as an extension of the C chord.

More typically, the vi, the relative minor of I shares the tonic function.

The really cool thing is that music can often have multiple functions at the same time. For example, you can have a progression which is primarily a I - IV - V - I, but emphasize the linear motion as well, such as:

C - C/E - Dm/F - Em/G - F/A - G/B - Am/C - C

Leonard Bernstein argued that the ambiguity created by being able to have this sort of parallel function is one of the things that makes it so attractive.


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