Understanding Basic Music Theory - Catherine Schmidt-Jones [71]
Further Study
Although the concept of harmonic analysis is pretty basic, actually analyzing complex pieces can be a major challenge. This is one of the main fields of study for those who are interested in studying music theory at a more advanced level. One next step for those interested in the subject is to become familiar with all the ways notes may be added to basic triads. (Please see Beyond Triads for an introduction to that subject.) At that point, you may want to spend some time practicing analyzing some simple, familiar pieces. Depending on your interests, you may also want to spend time creating pleasing chord progressions by choosing chords from the correct key that will complement a melody that you know. As of this writing, the site Music Theory for Songwriters featured "chord maps" that help the student predict likely chord progressions.
For more advanced practice, look for music theory books that focus entirely on harmony or that spend plenty of time analyzing harmonies in real music. (Some music history textbooks are in this category.) You will progress more quickly if you can find books that focus on the music genre that you are most interested in (there are books specifically about jazz harmony, for example).
Solutions to Exercises
Solution to Exercise 5.5.1. (Return to Exercise)
Figure 5.48.
Solution to Exercise 5.5.2. (Return to Exercise)
G major (G)
A major (A)
G sharp major (G#)
A minor (Am)
E minor (Em)
A minor (Am)
E seventh (E7)
Solution to Exercise 5.5.3. (Return to Exercise)
Figure 5.49.
Solution to Exercise 5.5.4. (Return to Exercise)
The tonic, subdominant, and dominant are minor (i, iv, and v). The mediant, submediant, and subtonic are major (III, VI, and VII). The supertonic (ii) is diminished.
Figure 5.50.
Solution to Exercise 5.5.5. (Return to Exercise)
The seventh degree of the scale must be raised by one half step to make the v chord major. If the seventh scale note is raised, the III chord becomes augmented, and and the vii chord becomes a diminished chord (based on the sharp vii rather than the vii). The augmented III chord would not be particularly useful in the key, but, as mentioned above, a diminished seventh chord based on the leading tone (here, the sharp vii) is sometimes used in cadences.
Figure 5.51.
5.6. Cadence*
A cadence is any place in a piece of music that has the feel of an ending point. This can be either a strong, definite stopping point - the end of the piece, for example, or the end of a movement or a verse - but it also refers to the "temporary-resting-place" pauses that round off the ends of musical ideas within each larger section.
A musical phrase, like a sentence, usually contains an understandable idea, and then pauses before the next idea starts. Some of these musical pauses are simply take-a-breath-type pauses, and don't really give an "ending" feeling. In fact, like questions that need answers, many phrases leave the listener with a strong expectation of hearing the next, "answering", phrase. Other phrases, though, end with a more definite "we've arrived where we were going" feeling. The composer's expert control over such feelings of expectation and arrival are one of the main sources of the listener's enjoyment of the music.
Like a story, a piece of music can come to an end by simply stopping, but most listeners will react to such abruptness with dissatisfaction: the story or music simply "stopped" instead of "ending" properly. A more satisfying ending, in both stories and music, is usually provided by giving clues that an end is coming, and then ending in a commonly-accepted way. Stories are also divided into