Say I've got two instruments, a TB303 playing bass and strings playing chords, using a minor scale. A few questions:
1) If 4 part harmony involves 4 notes per chord, and I want a seventh chord, would you use the 303 to play the root an octave down and the strings to play the 3rd, 5th and 7th, or would you have the 303 play the root an octave down and the strings play all four notes of the seventh chord as well (root,3rd,5th,7th)? I suppose both work, but was wondering which was more normal.
2) If I've got a triad and I'm using it in 4 part harmony, and the instruction is to "double the bass", what does "double the bass" actually mean? Going back to my 303 and strings example, would it mean the strings play C E G and the 303 C an octave down? Or does it mean that you add the C of the next octave up to the top of the strings chord, so the strings are playing C E G C?
3) Which chords of the minor scale tend to stay as triads with the "double the bass" treatment, and which get upgraded to 7ths? Or does it depend entirely on the context?
2) In the minor scale, I gather that the ii chord gets left unused by say people writing using the Nashville numbers system because it's diminished, similarly to how the vii chord gets ignored by them in major. If the ii were turned into a "power chord", just the root and the 5th, would this make the ii more useful again if you don't like diminished chords, or would it be pointless? What about the iii chord, which some suggest avoiding? Does it get a new lease on life as a power chord?
4) I saw a video clips show recently that featured an old hit song called "Steppin' Out" by Joe Jackson. It sounds really different and distinctive compared to a lot of popular music because of some major 7 and 9s in the start of the chorus. Here's the tab for it:
Intro: F#maj7, Emaj7/F#, Bmaj9, F#m7, B, E, B, D/F#, E, A/C#, E
F#
Now,
E D E F#
The mist across the window hides the lines
E D E
But nothing hides the color
C#m D
Of the lights that shine
E C#m D
Electricity so fine
E
Look and dry your eyes
(Repeat Intro)
We
So tired of all the darkness in our lives
With no more angry words to say
Can come alive
Get into a car and drive to the other side
Chorus
F#maj7 EMaj7/F# Bmaj9
Me babe, steppin out
F#m7 B E B
In to the night
D/F# E A/C# E
In to the light
When he's playing F#maj7 on the piano at the start of the chorus as opposed to just an F# chord like at the start of the first verse, what notes would he be hitting with his left and right hands for the F#maj7 as opposed to for the F#?
5) If I wanted to restrict myself to 16 chords for 4 part harmony in a minor scale (where a different inversion counts as a different chord), which would you suggest I go with?
I know that's a lot of questions, cheers if you can offer your 2 cents on any of the above.
4 part harmony for dance music hacks
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- KVRian
- 1099 posts since 20 Nov, 2004 from Seinäjoki, Finland
rounser wrote:Say I've got two instruments, a TB303 playing bass and strings playing chords, using a minor scale. A few questions:
1) If 4 part harmony involves 4 notes per chord, and I want a seventh chord, would you use the 303 to play the root an octave down and the strings to play the 3rd, 5th and 7th, or would you have the 303 play the root an octave down and the strings play all four notes of the seventh chord as well (root,3rd,5th,7th)? I suppose both work, but was wondering which was more normal.
I don't know if one or the other is more "normal". I think it depends on the context and your personal preference above anything else.
2) If I've got a triad and I'm using it in 4 part harmony, and the instruction is to "double the bass", what does "double the bass" actually mean? Going back to my 303 and strings example, would it mean the strings play C E G and the 303 C an octave down? Or does it mean that you add the C of the next octave up to the top of the strings chord, so the strings are playing C E G C?
I guess that means usually doubling the root. As you can have different inversions from a chord putting something else than the root tone in the bass, if you double the non-root bass tone it makes the doubled note sound more like a root and the other voices in the chord would sound somewhat different in relation to that. For example in C major, if you put E in the bass it's ok, it's the 1st inversion of the chord. Now double the E somewhere else and you start to hear the whole chord being based on E instead of C so in this case instead of C major chord it would start sounding more like Em+5. How clearly you can hear the effect depends also on the context, though.
3) Which chords of the minor scale tend to stay as triads with the "double the bass" treatment, and which get upgraded to 7ths? Or does it depend entirely on the context?
Depends entirely on context.
2) In the minor scale, I gather that the ii chord gets left unused by say people writing using the Nashville numbers system because it's diminished, similarly to how the vii chord gets ignored by them in major. If the ii were turned into a "power chord", just the root and the 5th, would this make the ii more useful again if you don't like diminished chords, or would it be pointless? What about the iii chord, which some suggest avoiding? Does it get a new lease on life as a power chord?
The main reason why the diminished ii chord isn't used in the minor context is that it "wants" very strongly to resolve in a major chord a semitone higher. That would make the music sound like being in the relative major instead of minor. The same with the III chord as it is the root of the relative major. You can use it, no problem, just be careful that you don't rely too strongly on it, implying the relative major instead.
Turning the chords to power chords is one way to resolve this whole problem. They don't need to resolve so they don't imply any "false" tonality either. Alternatively you can borrow chords from parallel modes as well.
4) I saw a video clips show recently that featured an old hit song called "Steppin' Out" by Joe Jackson.
SNIP
When he's playing F#maj7 on the piano at the start of the chorus as opposed to just an F# chord like at the start of the first verse, what notes would he be hitting with his left and right hands for the F#maj7 as opposed to for the F#?
Hard to say without seeing the notes but basically the only thing to take care of when dealing with maj7 chords is that the root should never be the highest voice as it clashes with the maj7 in a very ugly way. Other than that, probably anything goes...
Why would you want to do that?5) If I wanted to restrict myself to 16 chords for 4 part harmony in a minor scale (where a different inversion counts as a different chord), which would you suggest I go with?
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- KVRAF
- 2830 posts since 2 Mar, 2003 from The only civilized county in Texas
If he's playing solo piano and singing, he'll play F# in the bass, and probably something like C#-E#-F#-A# in the right hand. If you're accompanying yourself singing, your top note should either be the melody note, or something that doesn't conflict with it. So if you're singing an F#, everything but the E# can be the top note on the piano.rounser wrote:Chorus
F#maj7 EMaj7/F# Bmaj9
When he's playing F#maj7 on the piano at the start of the chorus as opposed to just an F# chord like at the start of the first verse, what notes would he be hitting with his left and right hands for the F#maj7 as opposed to for the F#?
If he's soloing, he could play that right hand in the left hand and solo over it. Especially if a bass (guitar) is playing the root, you can play inversions in the left hand.
If he's playing the melody on the piano, the top note will be the melody note. You can then play the chord in the left hand, right hand, or splip up.
It all depends on the context.
Victor.