AUM162: Week 8

In week 8's lecture, we looked into harmony, which is what our milestone 3 project is going to be about. I use a lot of harmonies in my compositions so it was a good refresher to learn about it.

Harmony is "the interplay of tones or chords that accompany the melody," (Bankhead, 2014) and some of the characteristics that it adds are adding depth and a sort of colour, which then can also determine chords as well. We got given a sheet that showed the triads and major 7ths of the C major scale on a piano (C, Dmin, Emin, F, G, Amin, Bdim, C), then we had to write those chords out on a staff as well as playing them on Pro Tools. I also thought we had to write out all of them as major chords so them out as majors as well. We then looked at the same nursery rhymes we did and our task was to write the harmonies for the main melodies, where i wrote out the 3rd, 5th, and 7th chords (I don't know if that made sense.) Our other activity after that which I didn't get to was that we had to try and use different harmonies throughout the song, so that there would be a mix of 3rds, 5ths, and 7ths played throughout.

After class, I looked into an article about the tonic, subdominant, and dominant chords of a major scale, which is something I know when I hear it but I haven't really been taught what it actually means or what characteristics it adds. These three are primary chords. So with the tonic chord (I), that mainly your main root key which gives the feeling of "stability and equilibrium", so in a C major scale, the C major chord would be tonic. (Bankhead, 2014). Subdominant (IV, and the F chord in a C major scale) gives a sense of travel to our next chord. Lastly with the Dominant, it is the "vital harmonic pivot point in harmony, which in a C major scale would be the G chord. Dominant chords usually have a strong desire to go back to the home key, (Bankhead, 2014).

I also had a look at supertonic and submediant chords, which are terms I've never heard before. Both of these are secondary chords and there are usually 2: II and VI (in a C major scale, that is a Dmin and an Amin chord). Supertonic chords (II) it can "lift or pave the way for a dominant chord, and by being a minor chord, it can "lift us to a more positive sounding dominant chord", (Bankhead, 2014). Submediant chords (VI) which is also the relative minor of the scale, "can be used as an alternative to the subdominant chord (IV) or can also precede it.

By playing around with chords on piano, I've become a bit more confident with playing and finding where chords are as I'm not a piano player myself. I'm slowly finding patterns that I can follow to quickly find the chord I want and because I play a lot of 6ths, 7ths, and 9th chords, I found it a bit easier to locate those chords. Through some of my recent compositions, I've started to add keys/synths behind it as I'm a big fan of pads and it gives my tracks a more soundscape-y vibe to it, which is what I'm always striving for. Also by learning new terms and it's characteristics, it's given meaning to what I can distinguish by ear, which is the only way I learn, which'll help me with being able to write it out on a staff or explain it, so I'm keen to learn about more terms to better understand what I'm actually listening to when I'm analysing tracks or composing.