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Seventh Chords: Adding Color to the Harmony
A triad is a three-note chord. Add one more note — a seventh above the root — and you enter the world of seventh chords: richer, more complex, and more…
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The Three Forms of Minor: Natural, Harmonic, and Melodic
The minor scale has an identity problem — a productive one. Unlike the major scale, which has a single fixed formula, the minor scale comes in three versions…
Read MoreRelative and Parallel Keys: Music’s Family Tree
Relative and parallel keys are the two ways one key can be a close cousin of another, and understanding both is the foundation of fluent modulation.
Read MoreChord Quality: Why Some Chords Sound Happy and Others Don’t
There are four triad qualities in Western music, and each has a distinct acoustic character — a personality, really — that the ear recognizes immediately.
Read MoreThe Triad: Western Harmony’s Core Unit
If rhythm is the time dimension of music and melody is the pitch dimension, then harmony is the depth dimension — the vertical stacking of pitches that gives…
Read MoreInterval Inversion: Flipping the Musical Equation
Every interval has a mirror image. Take a third and flip it — move the lower note up an octave, or the upper note down — and you get a sixth.
Read MoreThe Circle of Fifths: Tool Number Three
Tool Number Three is a diagram. It looks like a clock — twelve positions arranged in a circle — but instead of hours, it shows key signatures.
Read MoreIntervals: The Building Blocks of Melody and Harmony
An interval is the distance between two pitches. It is the most fundamental measurement in music theory — the unit from which melodies are constructed…
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