PEOPLE MUSICIANS. for. and. by Toby W. Rush. hello! this file is a collection of individual sheets. covering a bunch of lessons on music theory.

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1 My Dad Sofia Rush, Age 5 Pen and crayon on printer paper MUSI THEORY this file is a collection of individual sheets for covering a unch of lessons on music theory. MUSIIANS it s not a ook... yet. it might e someday! ut the more I made, ut as of right no, it s incomplete. The truth is, they eren t intended to e a single volume hen I started making them... they ere just revie sheets for my on theory students. and y the ay, the more I realized NORMAL they could e collected into a textook of sorts... eventually! so understand it s a ork in progress... the progress is slo sometimes, ecause I teach music theory and aural skills during the day at the university of dayton in dayton, ohio, and then head home to spend time ith my ife and six kids! I still have a lot of ork to do, ut I ve collected the ones I ve made so far into a single document to make it easier for the folks ho anted them all... ut didn t ant to donload every file individually! PEOPLE y Toy W. Rush ut if you like this, or find it useful, great! feel free to share it, copy it, and use it. just don t sell it, change it, or tell others you made it!* hello! *for more info, see so if you ve een sent this file y someone, kno that there might e a neer version or more pages at toyrush.com. Rush this version is localised for ritish and australian musicians! the original american edition is availale at toyrush.com. ig thanks to Matthe Hindson for his help ith the localisation! no let s learn some music theory!

2 liz phair hat makes you happy [melody from chorus] hitechocolatespaceegg (1998) music theory for musicians and normal people y toy. rush Notation: Pitch music notation is the art of recording music in ritten form. gfddµdsµsdmfsµsµgf Œ modern music notation is a product of centuries of transformation... and it is neither efficient nor intuitive! pitch is the highness or loness of a sound. the system of musical notation e use is essentially a stylized graph of pitch versus time. for example, a flute has a high pitch, hile a tua has a lo pitch. pitch pitch the five lines on hich notes appear is called a staff. a note is a ritten representation of a particular pitch. time notation is ased on the piano keyoard; lines and spaces on the staff represent the hite notes on the keyoard. to display notes outside the staff, e use shortened staff lines called ledger lines. the clef determines hat notes each staff line corresponds to. the four modern clefs are shon here; the note displayed on each staff corresponds to middle c. To notate the lack notes on the piano keyoard, e use accidentals, hich alter the note y one or to semitones. a semitone is the distance eteen to adjacent keys on the piano keyoard, regardless of hat color the keys are. trele clef n B alto clef The doule sharp raises the note y to semitones. The sharp raises the note y one semitone. The natural cancels out any previous accidental. The flat loers the note y one semitone. The doule flat loers the note y to semitones. F g a c d e F g a c d e the hite notes on the keyoard are laeled ith letters from A to G. B tenor clef ass clef middle c is the c that is closest to the middle of the piano keyoard. these symols are placed to the left of the note that they affect, and they apply to all the notes on that line or space for the rest of the measure. n to notes hich have the same pitch (for example, f sharp and g flat) are called enharmonics. n F g a c d e F g a c d e licensed under a creative commons BY-N-ND license - ritish adaptation y matthe hindson - visit toyrush.com for more

3 frederic chopin nocturne in major, op. 62, no. 1 (1846) licensed under a creative commons BY-N-ND license - ritish adaptation y matthe hindson - visit toyrush.com for more music theory for musicians and normal people y toy. rush Notation: Rhythm reve W h semireve minim crotchet q quaver hile pitch is pretty clearly notated on a vertical axis, note length is indicated using a somehat arcane system involving noteheads, stems and flags. e semiquaver x demisemiquaver x K hemidemisemiquaver xk semihemidemisemiquaver xk in this chart, each successive type of note is half as long as the note to its left. none of these notes has a standard length; a minim in one piece may e the same length as a quaver in a different piece. note lengths in a piece are indicated y the tempo marking at the eginning of a piece or section. reve rest semireve rest minim rest crotchet rest Œ quaver rest semiquaver rest demisemiquaver rest hemidemisemiquaver rest Ù semihemidemisemiquaver rest  a rest is a period of silence that a length hich corresponds to a particular note. usually rests are placed on the staff at a particular vertical position as shon here. the augmentation dot is a dot placed to the right of a notehead. though small, this dot ields some serious poer: it adds half of the original note s length! q. = q + e q.. = q + e + x q... q e ties are curved marks hich connect to notes together to create a single, extended sound. j j = + + x multiple dots can also e added, each one adding half of the previously added value. +x K to tie more than to notes together, dra ties eteen each note; do not use a single, extended tie. j. = =. ack! Get it off! GEt it off! a tuplet is any non-standard division of a note. these are usually ritten as a group of notes delinated ith a racket and a numer shoing the division eing made. most tuplets are simple divisions, like the triplets to the left. ut anything is possile! chopin, for example, ould often go to ton ith these things. 3 for example, these aren t exactly crotchets; they are each a third as long as a minim. ha... gah! chopin, no! don, oy!

4 the coors heaven knos [drum intro] forgiven, not forgotten (1996) licensed under a creative commons BY-N-ND license - ritish adaptation y matthe hindson - visit toyrush.com for more music theory for musicians and normal people y toy. rush Notation: Metre there are to types of eat units: those containing to divisions, called simple eat units... a fundamental feature of most pieces of music is a consistent rhythmic pulse. this pulse is called the eat, and a single pulse is called a eat unit. q E E q. E E E...and those containing three divisions, called compound eat units. Q in music, eats are organized into patterns of accented and unaccented eat units. in fact, if you listen to a sequence of repeated notes, your rain ill proaly start to perceive the notes as groups of to, three, or four, even if no accents are present! Q Q Q Q Q > Q Q Q Q > Q Q Q Q > Q Q Q Q > Q Q Q > Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q these groups are called ars, and they are delineated ith arlines. arline ar the organization of eat units and ars in a piece is called metre. Metre is descried y to numers placed at the eginning of the piece: the time signature. 3 4 simple TIME SIGNATURES are easy. the top numer indicates the numer of eats in a ar. the ottom numer indicates the type of note hich serves as the eat unit. 3 4 Q Q Q Q Q Q the code for the ottom note is pretty easy: 4 refers to a crotchet, 8 to an quaver, 16 to a semiquaver, and so on. y looking at the top numer of the time signature, you can tell to things aout the metre: hether it s simple or compound, and ho many eats are in a ar. eats per ar 6 8 compound TIME SIGNATURES are kind of lying to you simple the top numer indicates the numer of divisions in a ar. to get the numer of eats, divide it y three. the ottom numer indicates the type of note hich serves as the division. to get the eat unit, use the note that is equal to three of these notes in a compound metre, the eat unit is alays a dotted note! compound notes that have flags can e grouped together y using eams in place of flags Q. Q. Q. Q. in fact, ouldn t this e an easier ay to notate compound metres sorry... the man says you have to do it the other ay. hoever, eaming is only used to group notes ithin eats. for the most part, you shouldn t eam notes eteen eats, nor should you tie notes ithin eats.

5 Hey, kids! it ssparky the music theory dog! Q: music theory for musicians and normal people y toy. rush Dear Sparky: I understand that e re supposed to eam rhythms to sho the organization of eats in the measure, ut is there an easy ay to eam complex rhythms --A.Y., Minnesota, USA A: WOOF!* notes should e eamed in groups that illustrate the meter. for simple rhythms, this is pretty easy to do; simply group any notes that can e eamed (quavers and smaller) into groups that are equal to the eat unit of the current meter. *translation: 4 3 J J J J J J 4 3 for complex rhythms, hoever, things can get complicated... hen a rhythm includes things like syncopations or other off-eat figures, illustrating the meter may involve dividing notes across eat units ith ties. fortunately, there is a step-y-step system for correctly eaming these complicated rhythms! for example, let s take this rhythm, hich is ritten ithout eaming J J R R R J R R step 1: find the smallest note value used, and fill a complete measure ith this type of note, eamed in groups that are equal to a eat unit in the current meter. 4 4 step 2: yes, i kno it looks eird... ut e re not done yet! step 3: if you have notes that are tied or eamed, ut not oth, then leave them alone! J J don t touch! add ties eteen individual notes to recreate the original rhythm. make sure that each tied group corresponds to a note in the rhythm you started ith! original rhythm: find every group of to or more notes that are oth tied together and eamed together, and replace them ith a single note of equivalent value. hands off! 4 4 = yes... simplify it! 4. J J R R R J R R a correctly eamed rhythm may include ties, ut it ill very clearly sho the eats in the measure... hich, in turn, makes it easier for the performer to read! DOING STUFF THE SPARKY WAY IS ALWAYS FUN! licensed under a creative commons BY-N-ND license - ritish adaptation y matthe hindson - visit toyrush.com for more

6 licensed under a creative commons BY-N-ND license - ritish adaptation y matthe hindson - visit toyrush.com for more music theory for musicians and normal people y toy. rush The Major Scale 4 3 johann seastian ach Minuet in G major noteook for anna magdalena ach, one of the reasons that a particular piece of music sounds the ay it does has to do ith the group of notes the composer decided to use. take this melody, for example... let s first remove all the duplicate notes, regardless of hich octave they re in. next, let s put the notes in alphaetical order, starting on the note hat e end up ith is the palette for this particular piece... that the melody sounded like it as centring on. like the oard on hich a painter holds the its of paint eing used in the painting eing created. there are actually many different types of scales, each ith a different pattern of tones and semitones. a semitone is the distance eteen to adjacent keys on the piano keyoard, regardless of color. in music, this palette is called a scale. though e usually rite scales from lo to high, the order is actually unimportant; it s the notes contained in the scale that help make a piece sound the ay it does. this particular arrangement, here semitones occur eteen steps three and four and eteen steps seven and eight (or eteen seven and one, since eight and one are the same note), is called the major scale. a tone tone tone tone tone semitone semitone (this scale, y the ay, is called the g major scale, ecause it starts on g.) tone is the equivalent of to semitones. knoing this formula, you can create a major scale on any note! the f major scale the major scale the d flat major scale the g flat major scale ut rememer... ith great poer comes great responsiility!

7 licensed under a creative commons BY-N-ND license - visit toyrush.com for more music theory for musicians and normal people y toy. rush Key Signatures A B E A D if you start riting major scales and pay attention to the accidentals that occur, you are going to start noticing a pattern... A f c g B E for example look at the flat keys, starting ith the key that has one flat, all the ay through the key ith seven flats: the flats accrue in a specific order. same ith the sharp keys! so if you look for a key that has only a d flat, you on t find it: if a key has a d flat, it must also have a flat, an e flat and an a flat! since riting an entire piece in c sharp major ould have een a sure-fire ay to get carpal tunnel syndrome ith all the sharps involved, composers pretty quickly came up ith a ay to simplify things: key signatures. a key signature is a group of accidentals placed at the eginning of every line of music, just to the right of the clef, that instructs the performer to apply those accidentals to every corresponding note in the piece unless specified otherise. for example, this key signature indicates that every f, c, and g in the piece should e sharped, regardless of octave! c c c d d e e f f g f c g d a B E A D G F n f c g d a e B E A D G f c B E A f c g d B f c g d a e B E A D G oh, and another thing: the accidentals have to e placed in the correct order, and they need to follo a particular pattern of placement that varies slightly depending on the clef eing used! if you deviate from this, you, as a composer, ill e mocked! tenor clef sharps! hat s your prolem you need to conform! g ha ha... never! f

8 licensed under a creative commons BY-N-ND license - visit toyrush.com for more music theory for musicians and normal people y toy. rush The ircle of Fifths this chart, called the circle of fifths, displays each key as a spoke on the circle, eginning ith c major at the top and adding accidentals, one at a time, to the key signatures around the perimeter. F 1 0 theorists find it convenient to organize all the possile key signatures into a chart that shos their relationship to one another. e ll return to this chart as e continue learning aout ho composers use keys. 1 G B 2 as you move clockise around the circle, you add sharps to the key signature. as you move counterclockise around, you add flats to the key signature. 2 D E 3 A notice ho that eadgcf pattern pops up all over the circle of fifths eird! to determine the key signature for a key, look to see hich spoke of the circle it s on to determine ho many flats or sharps it has, and add accidentals to the key signature appropriately. 4 for example, e flat major has three flats, so it should look like this: 7 5 the keys don here line up enharmonically... for example, the key of d flat major ill sound just like the key of c sharp major. 6 D 6 F G hen adding flats to a key signature, add them in this order: eadgcf hen adding sharps, use the reverse of the order aove. 5 7 B nooooo! 4 3 E A so could you continue the enharmonic deal and have the key of f flat major yes, if you ant a doule flat in your key signature:

9 licensed under a creative commons BY-N-ND license - visit toyrush.com for more music theory for musicians and normal people y toy. rush Diatonic Intervals the most asic ay hich e identify different intervals is y counting the steps eteen the to notes. specifically, e count scale degrees, ut the easiest ay to do it is to count lines and spaces on the staff this interval is a seventh! hen counting, egin ith the ottom note as one and count until you reach the top note. an interval is the distance in pitch eteen to notes. larger intervals smaller intervals hen counting the lines and spaces, e can safely ignore any accidentals. this interval is also a seventh... e ll discuss ho it s different very soon! unison second third fourth fifth sixth seventh octave to notes on the same line or space is called a unison. that s latin for one sound! and that s latin for eight! the distance from a note to the next closest note ith the same letter name is called an octave. hen e are talking aout intervals e sometimes discuss harmonic intervals and melodic intervals. harmonic interval melodic interval a harmonic interval is simply to notes played simultaneously; a melodic interval is one note played after the other. and hen you sap the to notes (move the loer note up y an octave so it ecomes the higher note), that is called inverting the interval. it s helpful to rememer that seconds alays invert to sevenths, thirds to sixths, and so forth... the fact that each of these pairs add up to nine is knon to theorists as the rule of nines. THE RULE 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 7th 6th 5th 4th 3rd 2nd OF NINES

10 licensed under a creative commons BY-N-ND license - ritish adaptation y matthe hindson - visit toyrush.com for more music theory for musicians and normal people y toy. rush Perfect Intervals inflection is a it harder to understand, partly ecause it depends on the type of interval. so let s start y looking at unisons, fourths, fifths and octaves. the distance of an interval is one part of its name, ut there s more: every interval has another quality to it, hich e ll call inflection. some theorists use the term quality for this... that s cool too. unisons and octaves are the easiest to lael: if the to notes are the same (for example, flat and flat), then the inflection is perfect: such an interval is called a perfect unison or a perfect octave. an interval that is a semitone larger than perfect is called an augmented interval. A8 ait... hy are the to f intervals different you can go further, to douly augmented and douly diminished intervals, ut... do you really ant to fourths and fifths require a little more explaining. if you look at all the fourths and fifths you can create using only the hite notes on the piano keyoard (in other ords, using only notes ithout accidentals): each one is perfect except for those hich use f and! ell, if you ere to count the semitones that make up each interval, you d notice that all the other ones are equal in size, ut the to f intervals are not: f to is a semitone larger than a perfect fourth, and to f is a semitone smaller than a perfect fifth. hich raises the question: if the interval is not perfect, than hat is it A augmented d5 d4 d8 P and there s no such thing as a A5 A4 diminished unison... perfect just like to things can t e negative to feet A1 aay from each other! d an interval that is a semitone diminished smaller than perfect is called a diminished interval.

11 music theory for musicians and normal people y toy. rush Imperfect Intervals We ve talked aout unisons, fourths, fifths and octaves, ut hat aout the rest are these other intervals someho imperfect ell, yes, ut not ecause they are someho inferior to perfect intervals... seconds, thirds, sixths and sevenths just ork a little differently! A augmented for one thing, the inflection for these intervals is never perfect; it ill e either major or minor. minor intervals are a semitone smaller than major intervals. like perfect intervals, though, they can also e augmented or diminished; augmented intervals are a semitone larger than major, and diminished intervals are a semitone smaller than minor. M m major minor d diminished ho do e kno if an interval is major or minor e can actually use the major scale to find out. notice that, in the major scale, intervals from the tonic up to another scale degree are major. major second likeise, intervals from the tonic don to another scale degree are minor. minor second major third minor third major sixth minor sixth major seventh minor seventh knoing this, hen you are confronted ith a second, third, sixth or seventh, you can find its inflection y thinking aout the key signature of the top and/or ottom note. e kno this is a major sixth ecause d, the top note, is in the key of f major (the ottom note). and this is a minor seventh ecause, ottom note, is in the key of a major (the top note). if the top note is in the major key of the ottom note, the interval is major. if the ottom note is in the major key of the top note, the interval is minor. hen the notes of the interval have accidentals, the associated key signatures can e more complicated... so it s easiest to temporarily ignore the accidentals, determine the interval, and then add the accidentals ack one at a time and track ho the interval changes! ack! hat is that let s first hide the accidentals... poof! poof! M6 e is in the key of g, so e kno this is a major sixth. m6 adding ack the flat makes the interval smaller, so it s no a minor sixth... d6 adding ack the sharp makes it even smaller... a diminished sixth!

12 Hey, kids! it ssparky the music theory dog! Q: music theory for musicians and normal people y toy. rush Dear Sparky: Since e are supposed to use different approaches for identifying perfect and imperfect intervals, can you summarize them all into one system --I.M., Ne York, USA A: WOOF!* STEP 1: STEP 2: STEP 3: if it is a unison or octave: the folloing chart shos an approach for identifying any interval. a similar approach can e used hen you need to rite a particular interval aove or elo a given note: first, add a note aove or elo the given note at the correct distance, then follo steps 2 through 4 of this chart to identify it. Then, if necessary, alter the note you added ith an accidental to create the interval called for. *translation: determine the distance of the interval y counting lines and spaces. cover up all accidentals. determine the inflection of the interval in front of you (the one ithout accidentals!) as follos: if it is a fourth or fifth: count the ottom note as one, and continue until you reach the top note. poof! if it is a second, third, sixth or seventh: poof! the interval shon is a perfect unison or perfect octave. really. it just is. if the interval uses the notes f and, it is either an augmented fourth or a diminished fifth. otherise, the interval is perfect. if the top note is in the major key of the ottom note, the interval is major. if the ottom note is in the major key of the top note, the interval is minor. STEP 4: diminished perfect d P perfect intervals augmented A rememer: accidentals can never affect the distance of an interval... all they can ever do is change the inflection! add the original accidentals ack, one at a time, and track ho the interval changes inflection. imperfect intervals diminished minor d Mmajor A augmented This method may seem complicated at first, ut it ecomes easier and faster ith practice... and it gives you the correct anser every time! DOING STUFF THE SPARKY WAY IS ALWAYS FUN! licensed under a creative commons BY-N-ND license - ritish adaptation y matthe hindson - visit toyrush.com for more M6 m6 d6

13 licensed under a creative commons BY-N-ND license - ritish adaptation y matthe hindson - visit toyrush.com for more The Minor Scales this key is defined y a key signature of no sharps and flats, ut also y the fact that it centers around c. music theory for musicians and normal people y toy. rush There are actually to things that define a key: the key signature is the most ovious one, ut another important part of a key is the tonic... the note around hich the key centers. ut hat if e change the tonic hat if e use the same notes for the key signature, ut change the note that the key is centered around if e center the key around the sixth scale degree of the major scale, e get a ne scale: the minor scale. the natural minor scale the thing is, common practice period composers eren t all that crazy aout this scale, ecause it lacks something the major scale has: a semitone from seven to one. the tone here didn t have the tension they liked going into the tonic! the harmonic minor scale so here s hat they did: they raised the leading note y a semitone ith an accidental. This gave them the tension they ere looking for! semitone! this scale is great for uilding chords, so e refer to it as the harmonic minor scale. hoever, composers didn t use it for riting melodies, ecause it had a prolem: an augmented second eteen the sixth and seventh scale degrees. so, for melodies, they made another change: they added another accidental to raise the sixth scale degree y a semitone. the melodic minor scale no e only have tones and semitones! N N no, rememer... the reason e raised the leading note in the first place as to create tension from the seventh scale degree to tonic. ut in a melody, if the seventh scale degree is folloed y the sixth scale degree, e don t need that tension, so e don t need to raise the leading note at all. the ay e illustrate this is y differentiating eteen ascending melodic minor and descending melodic minor; for descending melodic minor, e don t raise anything!

14 Triads music theory for musicians and normal people y toy. rush although a chord is technically any comination of notes played simultaneously, in music theory e usually define chords as the comination of three or more notes. secundal harmony chords uilt from seconds form tone clusters, hich are not harmonic so much as timral. tertial harmony chords uilt from thirds (MORE SPEifically, from major thirds and minor thirds) form the asis of most harmony in the common practice period. quartal harmony chords uilt from perfect fourths create a different sound, used in compositions from the early 1900s and onard. quintal harmony chords uilt from perfect fifths can e respelled as quartal chords, and as such they do not create a separate system of harmony. sextal harmony septal harmony as ith quintal harmony, these are the same as tertial and secundal harmony, respectively. is the chord still tertial if it is uilt from diminished thirds or augmented thirds hen e stack the chord in thirds ithin one octave, e get hat is called the simple form of the chord. let s get started on tertial harmony ith the smallest chord possile: the triad. ell, diminished thirds sound just like major seconds, and augmented thirds sound just like perfect fourths, so... no. the loest note in the chord hen the chord is in simple form is called the root. the fifth names of the other notes third are ased on root their interval aove the root. a triad is defined as a three-note chord, ut in practice it is almost alays used to refer to tertial three-note chords. incidentally, four-note chords are technically called tetrads, ut e usually call them seventh chords, since they add a seventh. the diminished triad to minor thirds stacked together there are four ays to create a triad using major and minor thirds: min 3rd min 3rd the minor triad a major third on top a minor third on ottom c c maj 3rd min 3rd the major triad a minor third on top a major third on ottom min 3rd maj 3rd the augmented triad to major thirds stacked together + e lael triads using their root ( a c minor triad ). the areviations shon aove, hich use upper case, loer case, and symols to sho chord type, are called macro analysis. licensed under a creative commons BY-N-ND license - visit toyrush.com for more maj 3rd maj 3rd

15 hat are you snooping around here for he already told you hat the piece as. licensed under a creative commons BY-N-ND license - visit toyrush.com for more Triads in Inversion ladies and gentlemen, it s franz joseph haydn! music theory for musicians and normal people y toy. rush and he s rought a movement from his 1767 sonata in g major. ooh! let s see em! thank you for having me. in this piece I use quite a fe triads. haydn. J. f j f. J. J this one is g,, and d... a g major triad! ut it sounds different, someho. j. J here s one: it has the notes c, e and g. it s a c major triad!. very nice. p. J. J j. j. F. J. J thank you. see ho the notes are spread out, and not just stacked in thirds it s still a triad, though.. J. J that s ecause the third of the chord is in the ass... hen that happens, e say the chord is in first inversion... j. f. J. J. first inversion hat is it called hen the root is in the ass, like the first chord e looked at. J J. ƒ. J that s called root position. J U.. n n.. M J p M J M J M J J F n J so this one ith d, f, and a is a d minor triad... in second inversion! exactly! ecause the fifth is in the ass. n J p.. so the thing that makes a triad root position, first inversion or second inversion is simply hich note is in the ass it s hard to elieve that the sound of the chord can change so much just ecause of the ass note. that s right! and each one has its on character. I kno, right it s aesome. haydn

16 j.s. Bach: randenerg concerto no. 5, v 1050 music theory for musicians and normal people y toy. rush Figured Bass musical orks ritten in the aroque era ould often include a part called the asso continuo hich ould consist of a single ass clef melodic line ith various numers and accidentals printed eneath the notes. no, no, no... there asn t an actual instrument called a asso continuo! the part as played y to instruments: a ass clef instrument like cello or assoon, and a keyoard instrument like a harpsichord. Figure 1. The Basso ontinuo the numers and symols printed elo the asso continuo part are called the figured ass. So ho do you turn figured ass into chords in performances, the ass clef instrument ould simply play the given notes, ut the keyoard player ould improvise a part ased on the notes and the symols elo the part! so this... 6 j could e played as this! J J first of all, it s important to kno that the note given on the ass clef part is alays the ass note of the chord. and rememer: the ass is not necessarily the root! second, the numers represent intervals aove the ass, even though some numers are usually left out. note that the intervals are alays diatonic. don t orry aout inflection... just use the notes from the key signature! (5) (3) if there are no numers, add a third and a fifth aove the ass... you get a root position triad! 6 (3) a six y itself indicates a sixth and a third aove the ass, hich creates a first inversion triad! 6 4 a six and a four indicate a sixth and a fourth aove the ass, giving you a second inversion triad! n here, the sharp applies to the sixth aove the ass, so e add a sharp to the g. 6 n 6 here, there is no numer next to the sharp, so e apply it to the third aove the ass note. note that there is a natural, not a flat, next to the six... if it ere a flat, e ould rite a c flat. lastly, accidentals are applied to the interval they appear ith. if you have an accidental y itself, it applies to the third aove the ass. don t overthink these: if the composer ants a note raised y a semitone and it s flatted in the key signature, the figured ass ill have a natural, not a sharp. y the time the classical period got going, composers stopped including a asso continuo part, and so figured ass fell out of use... ith only one exception: music theory classes! realizing figured ass (riting chords given a figured ass line) makes for an excellent exercise for students to learn ho to rite in the common practice period style! ooo! licensed under a creative commons BY-N-ND license - ritish adaptation y matthe hindson - visit toyrush.com for more

17 music theory for musicians and normal people y toy. rush Triads Within Tonality no that e re familiar ith ho triads ork, it s time to put them into the context of a key. since riting music in a particular key means using the notes in that key signature, it stands to reason that most of the chords ill e uilt from those same notes! chords hich use notes from a particular key signature are said to e diatonic to that key. diatonic means from the key. that means no accidentals! e can quickly sho all the diatonic triads in a particular key y riting a scale in that key and uilding triads on each note, using only the notes in that key. e refer to these chords ith roman numerals as shon here. I ii iii IV V vi vii notice ho chord type is shon y capitals or loer case tonic these chords are also sometimes referred to y their official names! Supertonic mediant this pattern of major, minor and diminished triads is the same in every major key! the sudominant triad is alays major, and the leading note triad is alays diminished, hether you re in c major or f sharp major! sudominant dominant sumediant leading note hy is the sixth chord called the sumediant ell, just as the mediant chord is halfay eteen the tonic and dominant chords, the sumediant chord is halfay eteen the tonic... and the sudominant a fifth elo! ecause the dominant and leading note triads oth have a strong tendency to resolve to tonic, e say they have a dominant function. the sudominant and supertonic chords oth tend to resolve to the dominant, so e say they oth have a sudominant function. the diatonic triads in minor ork the same ay... since e re dealing ith chords, e use the harmonic minor scale. hoever, it s important to note that common practice period composers raised the leading note only over dominant function harmony: the dominant and leading note triads! same names and roman numerals... different capitalization! i ii III iv V VI vii licensed under a creative commons BY-N-ND license - ritish adaptation y matthe hindson - visit toyrush.com for more

18 licensed under a creative commons BY-N-ND license - visit toyrush.com for more music theory for musicians and normal people y toy. rush Introduction to Part-Writing as e look ahead, e re confronted ith an ugly truth: there is a lot of music in the history of the orld that is orth studying... much more than e can hope to cover in the span of a fe semesters. since e can t cover it all, e have to choose a specific musical language to study in depth. let s start y narroing things don to the common practice period renaissance aroque classical romantic early 20th century contemporary the common practice period is the music of the aroque, classical and romantic eras in europe and america. the name comes from the fact that most composers used a common musical language during this time. ut there is a ton of common practice period music... more than e can hope to cover. is there a representative style e can sink our academic teeth into st. thomas church leipzig, germany it s especially orth studying ecause most of the pieces commonly performed in concert are from this period......and the language forms the asis for the most popular musical styles today. four-voice chorale riting is a good style to study for several reasons: chorales have a fast harmonic rhythm, alloing for a larger numer of chords per exercise. a large percentage of common practice period music can e easily reduced to four-voice counterpoint. the cantatas of j.s. ach provide us ith a tremendous amount of consistently-ritten four-voice chorales. one of the changes to the catholic church proposed y martin luther as to allo memers of the congregation to participate in the singing of the liturgy. luther of course, luther as randed a heretic for his proposals, and egan his on church in hich to implement his ideas. more than to hundred years later, j.s. ach as appointed musical director at the st. thomas church in leipzig, germany and, in the spirit of luther, rote five years orth of liturgical music. each of these orks, called cantatas, ere uilt around a hymn melody harmonized in four parts for congregational singing. j.s. ach y analyzing ach s cantatas, e can construct a set of rules for riting in four-voice common practice period musical style, alloing us to study it in depth.

19 music theory for musicians and normal people y toy. rush Part-Writing: The Vertical Rules to est understand ho common practice period composers rote music, e are going to learn ho to rite music using their musical style. so the patterns e see in their music, the things they consistently did or didn t do, are going to ecome rules for us in our riting. soprano alto it s rong to think these ere rules for the composers... they ere just riting hat sounded good to them. nor should e treat these as rules for riting music in general... each style of riting has its on set of patterns, and thus its on ruleook. as a composer, you get to rite your on rules for your on style! e re going to start ith the vertical rules... that is, the rules that pertain to uilding a single chord in four-voice harmony. first, the distance eteen soprano and alto and eteen alto and tenor must e an octave or less. the tenor and ass can e as far apart as you ant! tenor ass second, the voices must e kept in their proper order; for example, the tenor shouldn t e higher than the alto. (Bach did this no and then, ut it as only hen he anted to incorporate some special melodic shapes.) third, since e have four voices and only three notes in a triad, one of the notes should e douled. for triads in root position, e typically doule the root of the chord unless forced (y other rules) to do otherise. lastly, each voice should stay in its range. these are conservative ranges for modern singers, ut rememer that ach s chorales ere really ritten for amateurs: the common people ho attended church in leipzig! soprano alto tenor licensed under a creative commons BY-N-ND license - visit toyrush.com for more ass

20 J.S. Bach cantata v 55 ich armer mensch, ich sundenknecht.. licensed under a creative commons BY-N-ND license - ritish adaptation y matthe hindson - visit toyrush.com for more music theory for musicians and normal people y toy. rush Part-Writing: The Horizontal Rules the supreme goal of part-riting is good voice leading... making each individual voice part easy to sing y avoiding akard intervals or large leaps! efore e get to the specific dos and don ts, let s take a look at some important characteristics of four-voice part-riting: note ho each voice moves as little as possile, going to the nearest chord note in each susequent chord! in some cases, the voice can simply stay on the same note. This is called keeping the common note, and it s alays cool! it s common for the ass to move in the opposite direction of the upper three voices. this is called contrary motion and it helps maintain voice independence. the ass line, since it provides the foundation of the harmony in each chord, tends to include larger leaps than the other three voices, ut that s okay. voice independence four-voice harmony is a form of counterpoint, hich is the comination of more than one melody played simultaneously. in counterpoint, each voice is equally important; no voice is given a role of accompaniment to another voice. in counterpoint, it is important for each voice to e independent; that is, no to voices should e doing the exact same thing. if to (or more) voices ere moving in parallel, the richness of the texture ould e reduced. as a result, common practice composers ere very consistent in avoiding to or more voices that moved in parallel perfect octaves, parallel perfect fifths, or parallel perfect unisons! there are also a fe other rules that apply to this style: * hen you have the leading note in an outer voice (soprano or ass) it must resolve to the tonic in the next chord. you may not move any voice y an interval of an augmented second or an augmented fourth. the good nes: you can avoid all three of these y doing the folloing henever possile: parallel octaves! parallel fifths! parallel unisons! 1. keep the common note! 2. move to the nearest chord note! 3. use contrary motion!

21 licensed under a creative commons BY-N-ND license - ritish adaptation y matthe hindson - visit toyrush.com for more music theory for musicians and normal people y toy. rush Part-Writing: Using Inversions hen common practice composers used inverted chords in four-voice riting, they folloed some general patterns regarding hich note of the chord should e douled. root position in root position triads, composers usually douled the root, hich is in the ass of the chord. in major first inversion triads, composers douled the soprano of the chord. first inversion the douling of first inversion triads depends on the type of the chord eing ritten. in minor first inversion triads, composers douled the ass or soprano of the chord. in diminished first inversion triads, they douled the ass of the chord. second inversion in second inversion triads, composers usually douled the fifth, hich is in the ass of the chord. here s another ay to think of it: the only time you can t doule the ass is in first inversion major triads, here you should doule the soprano instead. okay, e kno ho to use inversions in four-part riting... ut hen can e use them the only rule regarding root position triads and first inversion triads is that diminished triads are alays placed in first inversion. 6 the cadential 4 is a tonic triad in second inversion folloed y a root-position dominant chord at a cadence. chord vii 6 ii 6 F: I 6 4 V I F: 4 other than that, you can use root position and first inversion essentially henever you ant! it s second inversion triads that have the ig restrictions. I 6 V 6 I 6 the passing 4 chord is a chord placed in second inversion here the ass is treated like a passing note: the middle note of a stepise line moving up or don. 6 the pedal 4 chord is a second inversion chord here the ass is treated like a pedal note: a note preceded and folloed y the same note. F: I IV4 6 I if you rite a second inversion triad and it s not one of these three situations, then you are not riting in the common practice period style! the composers of the style just didn t use these chords illy-nilly.

22 licensed under a creative commons BY-N-ND license - ritish adaptation y matthe hindson - visit toyrush.com for more music theory for musicians and normal people y toy. rush Part-Writing: Melodic Minor X so anyay, after e got him transposed ack to tonic, he egan to modulate again, and... B attention! attention! e need assistance ith a ne patient in emergency treatment room 3... stat! in the common practice period, composers used harmonic minor y default. ut hen augmented seconds occurred, they turned to a hero for help: melodic minor! X hat seems to e the prolem, sir B okay, sure. so hat s rong ell, I thought I d transpose to minor, you kno, to surprise the family... so I did, and then I raised all my leading notes, ecause I m a common practice period progression, right X B i ve got augmented seconds! *gasp* X X X doctor, hat can e do B B and that makes a minor v chord! B my augmented seconds... they re cured! v paging... dr. melodic minor! for this case of ascending augmented seconds, I prescrie a raised sixth scale degree! ooh... it makes a major iv chord! IV 6 and for these descending augmented seconds, e re going to use an unraised seventh! all in a day s ork, my good man. no let s turn to the unpleasant matter of the ill. cure your augmented seconds ith melodic minor today!

23 licensed under a creative commons BY-N-ND license - ritish adaptation y matthe hindson - visit toyrush.com for more music theory for musicians and normal people y toy. rush The Harmonic adences A cadence is generally considered to e the last to chords of a phrase, section or piece. there are four types of cadences, each ith their on specific requirements and variations. a perfect cadence consists of a dominant function chord (v or vii) moving to tonic. a plagal cadence consists of a sudominant function chord (iv or ii) moving to tonic. perfect plagal G: V I G: IV I an imperfect cadence is any cadence that ends on the dominant chord (v). imperfect a specific type of imperfect cadence is the phrygian cadence, hich must meet the folloing criteria: *it occurs only in minor it uses a iv chord moving to v * * the soprano and ass move y step in contrary motion the soprano and ass oth end on the fifth scale degree phrygian phrygian G: I V e: iv 6 V e: iv V an interrupted cadence is a cadence here the dominant chord (V) resolves to something other than tonic... almost alays the sumediant chord (vi). interrupted G: V vi really, it s the psych-out cadence, in that you expect it to resolve to tonic, ut it doesn t. and, in fact, it s more common to see this in the middle of the phrase rather than the end... here you might call it a cadence-like structure! it s orth mentioning that American theorists call perfect cadences authentic cadences, and call imperfect cadences Half cadences. they use the terms perfect and imperfect to refer to to different types of authentic cadences: to e considered a perfect authentic cadence, a cadence must meet all of these criteria: it must use a v chord (not a vii) oth chords must e in root position the soprano must end on the tonic the soprano must move y step G: perfect authentic (USA) V I if the cadence doesn t meet all of those criteria, they consider it to e an imperfect authentic cadence!

24 licensed under a creative commons BY-N-ND license - ritish adaptation y matthe hindson - visit toyrush.com for more music theory for musicians and normal people y toy. rush Harmonic Progression ho did composers of the common practice period decide hich order to put chords in did they just thro them don on paper haphazardly as a matter of fact, there are certain chord progressions that appear more frequently, and there are others that are avoided pretty consistently. hile the choices ere alays ased on hat sounded good to the composer, theorists can find a pattern in their choices that e can use to easily rememer hich chord progressions ork and hich ones don t. one ay to understand this pattern is to think in terms of root movements. a root movement is the asic interval eteen the root of one chord and the root of the next chord. you don t have to orry aout the interval s inflection, just its distance and direction. for example, to determine the root movement here, e look at the root (not ass) of each chord and figure the interval eteen them. A to B is don a seventh, ut since octaves don t matter, e invert it to up a second. so here s the pattern: common practice period composers generally used root movements of up a second, don a third, and don a fifth! 2 that s not say that they never used other root movements, ut it didn t happen very often. rememer... since inflection doesn t matter, e can ignore accidentals hen e figure the root movements. 3 so, for example, a g chord to an e chord is don a third, ut so is g to e flat, and g sharp to e flat! sequences of chords that don t follo this pattern are called retrogressions, and they are considered unstylistic. 5 Unstylistic is a polite ay of saying The composers didn t do it so you shouldn t do it either! there are also four simple exceptions to this pattern: any chord can move to tonic, : I I V vii I tonic can move to any chord, any chord can move to dominant, and the leading-note triad must move to tonic. let s try it... say you have a supertonic chord and you are trying to decide hat chord to use to follo it. you can move up a second to a mediant chord... you can move don a third to a leading-note chord... you can move don a fifth to a dominant chord... or you can use the first exception and go to a tonic chord! ii iii vii 6 V I

25 licensed under a creative commons BY-N-ND license - visit toyrush.com for more music theory for musicians and normal people y toy. rush Diatonic ommon hord Modulation modulation is the process of changing to a different key ithin a piece of music. there are several different ays to modulate; perhaps the simplest is the unprepared modulation, here the music pauses and suddenly changes key, often up a half-step. hey... hat is this portrait doing here manilo common practice period composers, hoever, preferred a particular type of modulation that required a little more planning: the diatonic common chord modulation. as the name suggests, this uses a chord hich is diatonic in oth the outgoing key and the ne key. let s say e re starting off in c major... here is a list of all the keys hich have chords in common ith c major (the specific chords are highlighted): for instance, the I chord in G major is G-B-D... G: I ii iii IV V vi vii...hich is the V chord in major! a: i ii III iv V VI vii F: I ii iii IV V vi vii e: i ii III iv V VI vii keys hich have chords in common like this are called related keys. notice ho these keys are all close to one another on the circle of fifths. D: I ii iii IV V vi vii d: i ii III iv V VI vii I ii iii IV V vi vii B : : i ii III iv V VI vii to use this type of modulation, a composer ould pivot the harmony around the chord that fit into oth keys. As theorists, e sho this pivot chord y analyzing the chord in oth keys. : I ii V I vi e: iv V VI iv V i note that the pivot chord is alays the last chord that can e analyzed in the old key... the first accidentals ill alays occur in the chord immediately folloing the pivot chord!

26 licensed under a creative commons BY-N-ND license - visit toyrush.com for more music theory for musicians and normal people y toy. rush Non-Harmonic Notes name areviation approach resolution a non-harmonic note is a note that doesn t fit into a chord. e classify non-harmonic ntoes y ho they are approached and resolved! notes example passing note pn step step resolves y continuing in the same direction as the approach. neighour note Nn step step resolves y returning to the note preceding the non-harmonic note. appoggiatura app leap step resolves in opposite direction from approach. Escape note esc step leap resolves in opposite direction from approach. changing notes cn any step to non-harmonic notes on either side of the note of resolution. anticipation ant any common tone a chord note played efore the rest of the chord arrives. suspension sus common note step a note held over from a previous chord and resolved don. retardation ret common note step a note held over from a previous chord and resolved up. pedal note ped common note common note a chord note hich temporarily ecomes a non-harmonic note. suspensions are typically further identified y numer. The first numer represents the interval eteen the note of suspension and the ass. The second numer represents the interval eteen the note of resolution and the ass. the exception to this rule is the 2-3 or ass suspension, here the numers represent the intervals eteen the ass (here the suspension occurs) and hichever voice has the note hich is a second (not counting octaves) aove the ass. 4-3 sus 7-6 sus 9-8 sus 2-3 (ass) sus