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Musical Grammar 3

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Alan Coady

Monday 18 September 2006

Those pupils who become interested in harmony often do so through experimenting with writing their own music. They hear sounds they like and hope to incorporate them into their comopsitions and arrangements. However, the source tune may not be in the same key as their own piece and a more formulaic understanding may be necessary to enable them to use these favourite sounds. This is the process we use to name any interesteing chords which crop up in a piece:

  1. is the bass note strong enough to be the root?
  2. if not, decide which one is sufficiently stable, and the chord will be name after this note
  3. decide on the type of chord e.g. major/minor, dominant 7th (or an extension thereof), diminished/augmented
  4. identify any notes which are not included in the triad
  5. give these notes numbers based on how far they are from the root
  6. add any necessary signs to the numbered notes e.g. flat/sharp

Through this process chords with frightening names such as A7 #5#9; B min ma7th; Cm6 begin to enter the pupils' vocabulary.

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