40 Basic Elements of Popular Music Harmony

2010 m.mermikides@surrey.ac.uk 12-notes and the cycle of 5ths All the keys Major & minor Major, minor scale construction. tones & semitones The pull of 4-3 and 7-1 Intervals & Accidentals

Fundamentals

Chord Construction

Triad and 7th chord construction

6ths, 9ths, 11ths, 13ths, sus and add chords

Altered chords

Inversions and hybrid chords

Chords from Scales

Diatonicism Constructing chords from a 7 note major scale

Diatonicism Constructing chords from a 7 note minor scale (natural, harmonic, melodic

Roman numeral analysis

Non-diatonic roman numeral analysis

Basic cadences

Diatonic Cycle of 5ths

ii7 V7 I ii V7 i Voice leading and 5th cycle Brackets & arrows

Secondary Dominants (& related ii chords) Cycle V progressions

Tritone substitution Dominants (& related ii chords) Dotted brackets & arrows

Major and minor in parallel

Borrowing chords from parallel major and minor

iv-I iv-bVII - I (Aeolian ii-V) bVI-bVII-I

The bVII chord & iv-bVII - I (Aeolian ii-V)

Hybrid progressions

Other common devices

The IV- I cadence. Cycle IV progression

Inversions and basslines

Pedal Tones

Modulation Pivotal and direct

Stylistic devices

Blues I7 IV7 (Non functioning dominants) Blues forms

Rhythm Changes Form

Passing Diminished Chords between I ii & ii iii i either direction and IV to I(2 inv.)

CESH 4 types and other static chord embellishments

Modes

Modes of the major scale and their characters

Harmonic minor mode 5

Melodic minor mode 1, 4 and 7

Modal interchange

Common Pentatonics and Hexatonics

Major and minor pentatonics. Neutrality.

Major and minor blues hexatonics

Pentatonic relationships with the modes

How pentatonics are used melodically. Key area Minor over mjajor

Parallelism

Non-diatonic use of parallel chords

5, major, dom7 and other structures on...

...minor pentatonic, blues, whole tone, chromatic and other scales

Parallelism with pedal tones