Ever listen to Jazz? the Blues? Film Scores? Ever wonder why, after your theory 101 class, you sound nothing like them? You must know that they're employing varying forms of chromaticism (as opposed to diatonicism), but you can't get much more than carnival music and ugly scales?
Allow me to share my (admittedly limited) knowledge with you.
First of all, what is chromaticism? Class? Good. Chromaticism is music that (in one or more ways) deviates from the understood "key" of the music. There is also atonality, which is a form of chromaticism, but one that involves no tonal relationship to begin with (and is another lesson for another day). So, in essence, an understanding of chromatics means knowing when it's 'okay' to leave a key.
There are, of course, a zillion and one potential uses for this. So, rather than delve into some sort of full chromatic analysis of modern music, I'll simply leave you with a list of the more common chromatic ideas and how to implement them.
The Blues
Anyone without at least a basic understanding of the blues is at a loss. Almost ALL modern popular music is at least 25% classical and 25% blues driven. The impact of both is immeasurable, and yet most theory classes center around the classical aspect rather than the blues aspect.
Now, understand that the blues isn't easy by any stretch. There are dozens of nuances and oddities that make up the blues and its daughter genres (funk, rock 'n' roll, soul), but there are some primary rules that I'll discuss below, chromatically speaking.
1) Crushed tones: This is of course chromatic only in the "fixed tone" or "piano key" world. In the world of bends (primarily stringed and vocal parts) this is more microtonal than chromatic, as it involves bends. However, you can't bend on a (real) piano, and so the practice of crushing became VERY popular in the boogie and lounge-blues styles. The essence of crushing is this: Rather than playing a major chord, such as CEG, you would briefly play a minor chord, and then almost immediately slide your finger to make the chord major. So, C Eb G, followed by an immediate slide of your middle finger to C E G. This is crushing. using this is also useful for solos, and appears quite frequently. Crushed tones are practically always major/minor ambiguous, and ALWAYS resolve upward (resolving from major to minor is very strange sounding, and not blues-oriented in nature). This means that the tones that are typically crushed are those that revolve around the third, 6th, and 7th scale degrees, though the 7th is often crushed to a full octave. The 4th-5th range is crushed or simply played (the flat fifth is a huge note for bending, but can simply be danced across on the keys without actual crushing). If you ever wondered why your chord progressions are missing that "flavor" of the blues, try throwing in a crush. And remember to feel it.
2) Chromatic chords: either from original ignorance or pure genious, there are a great deal of chromatic chords in the blues. The nature of this is that a chord is simply "felt" in the blues; many guitarists think of chords this way, and many new theory students are practically brainwashed NOT to think this way. A chord has a harmonic function and a resolution, yes, but also a feel. Strike a dominant 7th chord. GBDF. Hear how it wants to move to CEG? But it doesn't have to. Try instead to think of it as a single note, a single tone.
Try this: CEGBb. Hear how it wants to move to FAC? But don't do that. Instead, play FACEb. Now there's another dominant 7th... but don't move it to its resolution. Play GBDF. See, the dominant 7th is used as a standard chord in the blues. It can be a I, a IV, a V, you name it. "CEG" is often voiced as "C Bb D G E" in the blues (shell 7th). Try it! Play an 11th or a 9nth chord, but don't consider its resolution. Consider its character, and use it in place of the standard triad in your progression. You can get very cool, funky results (using 6th chords and 7th chords is huge in funk), and all from purely chromatic chord progressions.
Jazz
It would be impossible to teach jazz to you on one page. Especially for me, I know virtually NOTHING about it
. As I understand it, Jazz is essentially the work of pure effort; there are no rules, guidelines, or "generalities" which guide your harmonies. You play, and you play what sounds right. There are no scales that give you a "jazz" feel, no chord progressions to stick to. Just you and pure improvisational brilliance. That said, there are a few facets to jazz that can teach you a lot about chromatic movement. And not just those chromatic downward rips, either.1) Chromatic passing tones: When playing a melody, it's sometimes useful to throw in chromatic tones between two notes. This is a technique used by shredder guitarists, to add "contour" to a solo. For example, a phrase that goes CDEFGFEDC very fast might sound more interesting with CC#D or FF#GF#F in the middle, especially at high speeds. The reason for this is that chromatic motion adds rhythm without repetition, and when played fast the tones do not contribute to the harmonic structure (the same idea is true of normal passing tones, except much more dissonant). If your solo is boring, throw a few in! Just remember, don't make leaps up or down to them or they're harsh, and don't overdo it or you sound like a sick carnival ride.
2) Real Sequences: The idea behind a "Sequence" is a transposition of a melody to a different root. a "Tonal" sequence stays in key, but a "Real" sequence does not. That means that a minor scale on C would be, when transposed to F, an F minor scale. This is important to jazz especially, but also the blues, because melodic ideas may be highly chromatic and may not function well without this sort of transposition. When you solo over "C" , the same solo might sound rotten over "G", so try transposing your solo to place "G" as the root. Think of it as a very fast modulation, temporarily jumping from the key of C to the key of G. This can be very hard to pull off, mind you, and if you don't get anything but ugly muck don't despair. If your solo sounds better in key, keep it that way. But if it falls apart over a chord change, this might be something to try.
Classical
1) In traditional classical music, there are really only two types of chromatic chord that you see with any regularity: The secondary chord and the Neapolitan 6th. The secondary chord is typically a dominant (V) chord in another key, to which one moves. For example, if your chord progression goes I ii V, you might substitute the "ii" chord with a "V/V" chord. This is called a "secondard dominant", and it means that you're temporarily not in the key you started in, but the key of the V chord.
It might make more sense with the actual notes:
C E G - D F A - G B D.
Instead, you'll be replacing "DFA" with a "V/V", meaning that you're temporarily in the key of the "V" chord. That means that instead of being in C, you're going to write THIS chord as if it were in "G".
That means C E G - D F# A - G B D. This works because our ear hears the resolution as "V-I", a VERY strong and noticeable motion, but in the key of G, rather than "ii-V". The dissonance is noticeable, but can make for a much stronger motion from the D to the G chord.
Remember that the chord that is "borrowed" does not always have to be from a key following it. In this case, the II chord is "borrowed" from the key of the chord that follows it, but this is not always so. That brings us to the "Neapolitan" chord: a Major chord on the flattened second degree. This chord is employed in minor scales, typically, and acts as if the scale were briefly the parallel phrygian mode.
2) Chromatic Modulation: Rather than simply borrowing chords from other keys, sometimes a song is modulated to an entirely different key. Not simply a relative key, but a key partially or totally unrelated to the original. A modulation from C to G yields one chromatic tone (the F#), while a modulation from C to Eb yields far more. Often times these modulations involve a series of chromatic passing chords and tones, which essentially introduce dissonance and ambiguity to make the transition unclear.
Scoring and accompaniment
In scoring, either for films or for operas, composers have a bit more leeway to create oddities since the music doesn't necessarily have to stand alone. It may serve a purpose to have odd chromatic structures for mood reasons. This sort of music can be seen as music without a "foreground" or lead, and it is possible for it to stand on its own... but these tricks are most commonly employed when the music is secondary to something else.
1) Ambience: Chromatic chords such as the augmented or simple major or minor melodies played in chords (try playing a simple melody in the minor key using major chords, very slowly) will create atmosphere, usually of uneasiness. This sort of random dissonance (with little or no relation to key other than a tonal center) is very useful for generating moods at certain moments, and is employed frequently in shocker films.
2) Character: Sometimes, as in the blues, a chord is selected for its character alone. The most famous example of this is the "Tristan chord" a chord composed of F B D# G#. This chord had no tonal relationship to any musical events in the play, and was almost a motif for Tristan, except that it was a single chord. It's significance is that a chord can be selected purely for its tonal quality, rather than its musical relationship, a technique used in modern scoring to achieve certain moods.
So that's it, hope maybe now you're a little better educated on those black keys you never touch. And as always,
Hope this helps,
Tox
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