vertical pitch organization

7/30/2019 Vertical Pitch Organization

1/20

Vertical Pitch Organization


2/20

Chords

By playing more than two notes together,

instead of one after another, we make

chords.

The common chords used in pop music

mainly consist of three notes, using the

intervals of a third and a fifthyou can also think of this as 2 thirds stacked on

top of each other.


3/20

C Major Chord

I in the key of C major


4/20

Chords

Chords come in a variety of flavors,

depending on exactly what intervals they

are made up of.

The most common flavors are

Major - happy

Minor - sad


5/20

Chords

We can label chords by using the step numberof the diatonic scale that they are built on asa reference.

It is convenient to use Roman numerals for

this, as they have upper and lower caseversions.

upper case for major

lower case for minor


6/20

F Major Chord

IV in the key of C major


7/20

G Major Chord

V in the key of C major


8/20

D minor

ii in the key of C major


9/20

A minor

vi in the key of C major


10/20

E minor


11/20

Chords

If we build a scale on the note C, the notes

and their corresponding chord referencesare

C - I

D - ii E - iii

F - IV

G - V A - vi

B - vii


12/20

Chord Progressions

In most common music, the music will start

with one chord, then proceed to a number of

other chords, and will eventually end up atthe beginning again.


13/20

Chord Progressions

In most western classical music, pop music

and jazz, harmonic progressions can be seen

as a way to reinforce the tonic key.

The progressions can be conceptually

reduced to movement between

I-V-I


14/20

Chord Progressions

Music theorists have developed a scheme for

producing what is considered strong

progressions, derived from classical musicpractices.

We can use this technique in pop oriented

music, without really understanding it, tocreate viable chord progressions!!!


15/20

Strong Chord Progressions

I iii

vi

IV

ii

V

vi

I

You can leave out the chords

in the 2nd and 3rd columns


16/20

Chord Progressions

For our purposes

Each progression should be a multiple of 4

bars in length

There should only be one or two chord

changes in a bar at max.

We shouldnt hold the same chord for

longer than eight bars!


17/20

Other Chord Progressions

There are many other ways to construct

chord progressions, especially in folk, blues

and rock styles. In some styles, the I-V-I concept is not

present at all!

Songs like Smoke on the water do not havethe V chord at all.


18/20

12 bar blues progression

A very common chord progression used in pop,rock and blues, which is NOT a functional

progression.

||: I |IV |I |I |

IV |IV |I |I |V |IV |I |V :||

Each | represents the end of a bar.


19/20

12 bar blues progression in C

||: C |F |C |C |F |F |C |C |

G |F |C |G :||


20/20

12 bar blues progression in G

||: G |C |G |G |C |C |G |G |

D |C |G |D :||

vertical pitch organization

Documents