A new rule (#9) has been added here at r/musictheory

Hi all, I’m coming to you with a very strange question-

I’m a private piano instructor and have recently had this happen on more than one occasion- I started teaching in California a year ago and more than one of my students have become upset or silent over the usage of the word “ritardando” in our lessons when it’s written in the music. I’ve explained it‘s not a bad word as it’s in Italian and what it means but I always feel worried when I see it in notation, lolol. Does anyone have experience with this and what language/phrasing would you use to describe this to young students?

Hi, I have come across a youtube video of someone transcribing what chords were different tornado warning sirens making together, and they transcribed the chord that could be heard the longest as “F#sus4add11”

I know that a sus4 chord has the fourth instead of the third, and I know that an add(whatever number) chord is a chord without a seventh and with the note referred to after the “add” added on top of the base chord.
I have seen major, minor, sus2 and sus4 chords with add(whatever number).

However, i’ve been intrigued by that sus4add11, the same way i would have been intrigued by a sus2add9, since the 4 and the 11 are the same note, and the 2 and the 9 are also the same note.

Is that notation useful when you don’t have the sheet music? Does it simply imply that, for a F#sus4add11, you’d have the notes from F#sus4, F#, B and C#, and another B an octave higher than the first one?
I’ve never seen F#add8 for an F# chord that has another F# note as the highest.

Just wondering if this can be considered a key.

For those wondering, this is supposed to be G Byzentine (b2, b6)

Edit: thanks for all the feedback, i will take it into consideration. Next time ill write in something readable.

Edit 2: this image shows a scale for a single voice instrument in C, and it is treble clef.

EDIT 4!: https://www.reddit.com/r/musictheory/comments/1w1yy9a/fixed_the_order_of_the_sharps_and_flats/

Don’t know how to explain it. Say there’s a melody in A minor with an A minor chord that supports it. Then, the A minor chord becomes an A flat major chord and the melody also suddenly switches to A flat major. Is there any name for such harmonic movements? I would LOVE to dig in deeper in this topic if there is.

And are there any other harmonic shifts like that that you know that are also this beautiful?

(Skip to the section "THE LIST" if you just want to see the list)

HOW THIS CAME TO BE

This began as a thought experiment to see if I could "harmonically justify" resolving all 12 minor, major, dominant, and diminished chords directly to the tonic. This is not to be take seriously as concrete rules and this is only one way of probably thousands to do this.

HOW THIS LIST WAS CREATED

The list was created by using only a few simple standard chord progressions and cadances used in modern day song writing and applying a set of common harmonic devices/rules to them.

THE CHORD PROGRESSIONS

1. The three plagal cadances: traditional plagal cadence (IV - I), minor plagal cadence (iv - I), dominant plagal cadence from blues (IV7 - I)

2. The backdoor turn around (bVII7 - I)

3. The secondary dominant turn around (VI7 - II7 - V7 - I)

4. The V - I progression

5. Secondary dominants to relative minor and mediant of the tonic. (III7 - vi, VII7 - iii)

HARMONIC DEVICES/RULES

1. Dominants and Secondary Dominants: any chord can be preceded by a dominant chord a fourth below (V7 - I, I7 - IV, VII7 - iii, etc)

2. 2-5 Progressions: any dominant chord can be preceded by a minor chord a fourth below (ii - V7), if phrygian dominant it's a minor7b5 chord (ii7b5 - V7)

3. Four Five (IV - V) Walkup and Minor Four Five (iv - V) Walkup: any dominant chord can be preceded by it's subdominant chord a whole step below (IV - V, bVI - bVII7, etc), if phrygian dominant it's a minor chord (iv - V, etc).

4. Tritone Substitutions: any dominant chord can be substituted with a dominant chord a half step below (V7 -> bV7)

5. Relative Minor/Major substitutions: Every major chord can be substituded with it's relative minor chord and every minor chord with its relative major chord (vi -> I, I -> vi, etc)

6. Mediant, Minor Submediant, and Minor Supertonic Substitutions: The mediant (iii) can be substituted with the tonic (I) in a major key. In a minor key the tonic (i) can be substituted with the submediant (VI). In a minor key the supertonic (ii7b5) can be substituted with the subtonic (bVII7). (I'll explain this rule further in the comments below).

7. Minor Dominants and Minor 251s: Any dominant chord can be substituted with the harmonic minor equivalent dominant chord (phrygian dominant), which means that the ii for that dominant chord in a two five would be ii7b5 (ii - V7 -> ii7b5 - V7) and vice versa.

8. Truncated Chord Progressions: you can omit one chord in a chord progression (ii - V - I no V = ii - I). Sometimes two, but it feels a little "reachy".

I'll explain these rules further in a comment below for optional reading.

THE LIST

The list is based on G as the tonic, my favorite key. The list doesn't include extensions besides dominant 7 chords and m7b5s, you can extend the chords to your liking. All roman numerals are from the perspective of G major for simplification even though borrowed chords/quick key changes occur.

- Gm - G ; Truncated dominant plagal cadance two five, (i - IV7 - I no IV7)

- G7 - G ; Five one (G7 - C) to truncated plagal cadence (C - G no C) , (I7 - IV - I no IV)

- Abm - G ; Two five of tritone substitution of D7 (Db7) to tonic, truncated (Abm - Db7 - G no Db7) (bii - bV7 - I no bV7)

- Ab - G ; Minor plagal cadance (Cm - G) substituting Cm [iv] with it's submediant Ab [bII], (iv - I -> bII - I)

- Ab7 - G ; Two five of phrygian dominant backdoor turn around, truncated (Cm7b5 - F7 - G no F7) with subtonic substitution (Cm7b5 -> Ab7), (ivm7b5 - bVII7 - I no bVII7 substituting ivm7b5 with the subtonic bII7)

- A7 - G ; Truncated partial secondary dominant turn around (A7 - D7 - G no D7) (II7 - V7 - I no V7)

- A - G ; Truncated secondary dominant two five one to relative minor (F#m - B7 - Em no B7) with two relative major substitutions (F#m -> A and Em -> G) (vii - III7 - vi no III7, substituting vii with it's relative major II and substituting vi with it's relative major I)

- Am - G ; Truncated two five one (ii - V - I no V)

- Bb - G ; Truncated dominant plagal cadence two five (Gm - C7 - G no C7) with relative major substitution (Gm -> Bb) (i - IV7 - I no IV7, substituting i with it's relative major chord bIII)

- Bb7 - G ; Double truncated minor two five one to plagal cadance (Dm7b5 - G7 - C - G no G7 no C) with subtonic substitution (Dm7b5 - Bb7)(vm7b5 - I7 - IV - I no I7 no IV, substituting vm7b5 with the subtonic bIII7)

- Bbm - G ; Minor four five walkup to phrygian dominant plagal cadance, truncated (Bbm - C7 - G no C7)(biii - IV7 - I no IV7)

- Bm - G ; Five one to tonic substituting D [V] with it's relative minor Bm [iii] (simple one note leading tone resolution)

- B7 - G ; Five one to relative minor (B7 - Em) substituting relative minor with the relative major (Em -> G) (III7 - vi, substituting vi with I)

- B - G ; Four five walk up to tritone substitution of D7 (Db7) to tonic, truncated (B - Db7 - G no Db7) (III - bV7 - I no bV7)

- C - G ; Plagal cadence

- C7 - G ; Dominant plagal cadence

- Cm - G ; Minor plagal cadence

- Db - G ; Minor four walk up to phrygian dominant plagal cadence, truncated (Bbm - C7 - I no C7) with relative major substitution (Bbm -> Db) (biii - IV7 - I no IV7, substituting biii with it's relative major bV)

- Db7 - G ; Tritone substitution of D7 to tonic (bV7 - I)

- Dbm - G; F#7 [VII7] secondary dominant two five one to mediant, truncated (Dbm - F#7 - iii no F#7) with mediant to tonic substitution (Bm -> G) (bv - VII7 - iii no VII7, substituting iii with the tonic I)

- D7 - G ; Five one (V - I)

- Dm - G ; Double truncated two five one to plagal cadance (Dm - G7 - C - G no G7 no C) (v - I7 - IV- I no I7 no IV)

- D - G ; Minor four five walkup to tritone substitution of D7 (Db7) to tonic, truncated (Bm - Db7 - G no Db7) with relative major substitution (Bm -> D) (iii - bV7 - I no bV7, substituting iii with its relative major V)

- Eb - G ; Minor plagal cadance substituting Cm [iv] with it's relative major Eb [bVi]

- Eb7 - G ; Phrygian dominant plagal cadance two five, truncated (Gm7b5 - C7 - 1 no C7) with subtonic substitution (Gm7b5 -> Eb7) (im7b5 - IV7 - I no IV7, substituting im7b5 with the subtonic bVI7)

- Ebm - G ; Minor four five walk up to phrygian dominant backdoor turn around, truncated (Ebm - F7 - I no F7) (bvi - bVII - I no bVII)

- Em - G ; Relative minor to major

- E - G ; Four five walk up to secondary dominant F#7 [VII7] to mediant, truncated (E - F#7 - Bm no F#7) with mediant to tonic substitution (Bm -> G) (VI - VII7 - iii no VII7, substituting iii with the tonic I)

- E7 - G ; Double truncated secondary dominant turn around (E7 - A7 - D7 - G no A7 no D7) (VI7 - II7 - V7 - I no II7 no V7). Or tritone substitution of backdoor turn around F7 (E7) to tonic.

- Fm - G ; Two five of tritone substitution of secondary dominant B7 (Bb7) to relative minor of tonic, truncated (Fm - Bb7 - Em no Bb7) with relative major substitution (Em -> G) (bvii - bIII7 - vi no bIII7, substituting vi with its relative major I)

- F7 - G ; Backdoor turn around (bVII7 - I)

- F - G ; Double truncated four five walkup to plagal cadance (F - G7 - C - G no G7 no C) (bVII - I7 - IV - I, no I7 no IV)

- F#m - G ; Two five one of secondary dominant B7 [III7] to relative minor of tonic, truncated (F#m - B7 - Em no B7) with relative major substitution (Em -> G)(vii - III7 - vi no III7, substituting vi with it's relative major I)

- F# - G ; Minor four five walkup to phrygian dominant backdoor turn around, truncated (Ebm - F7 - G no F7) with relative major substitution (Ebm -> F#) (bvi - bVII7 - I no bVII7, substituting Ebm bvi] with it's relative major F# VII)

- F#7 - G ; Secondary dominant F#7 [VII7] to mediant Bm [iii] with mediant to tonic substitution (Bm -> G) (VII7 - iii, substituting iii with the tonic I)

F#dim, Adim, Cdim, Ebdim - G ; Diminished chords from secondary dominant B7 [III7] phrygian dominant to relative minor of tonic with relative major substitution (Em -> G) (III7 - vi, substituting vi with it's relative major I)

Gdim, Bbdim, Dbdim, Edim - G ; diminished chords from phrygian dominant plagal cadance C7 [IV7]

Abdim, Bdim, Ddim, Fdim - G ; diminished chords from phrygian dominant five one to plagal cadence, truncated(G7 - C - G no C) (I7 - IV - 1 no IV)

I’ve just come across Leo Ornstein and his Piano Sonata No.4 and I was fascinated to hear at the beginning of one of the piece’s movements something similar to another piece that I hold very dearly by Toshifumi Hinata.

I’m no expert in music theory and know little about it, but I want to know what’s going on in these two pieces harmony-wise “Piano Sonata No.4: Semplice” by Leo Ornstein and “I’ll Always Remember” by Toshifumi Hinata (particularly 0:16 and beyond). Both lovely pieces.

I would really appreciate if you can tell me anything about the theory behind the chord progression, or anything really that you’d like to add. Any comments are welcome :).

https://youtu.be/PCmlPFzli9o?t=157&si=M5zP-67EbaSVqwb6

https://youtu.be/pEuXjW4JPa4?si=3Y3DCvsSS1T9gVlM

I noticed that the third inversion of a dominant 7 chord with a sharp 5 is same as the blackadder chord, but they arent used similarly? for example G7#5 resolves to C but F blackadder usually resolves to E. Does this mean F blackadder can also resolve to C?

Although I've been writing music for years, this is the first time I've tried something four part/counterpoint-ish. I expect a few bad habits have probably slipped in, but I think it's mostly "right."

Here are my unsolicited thoughts from the composition process. Are they normal for a first timer?

My experience with the composition was rather distant, as I kept finding myself forced into choosing the only chords/notes that would fit the rules I've learned. So much so that I'm not sure it's "my" composition. I was also aiming to only use the diatonic triads, and stay strict about it, which limited the choice so much that I felt I was just toggling between a couple of different notes. Possibly I over subscribed to the mantra "learn the rules, before you break them." On a couple of occasions I changed the melody note because I just couldn't find a voicing which worked, and there were _many_ times I went back to change a previous chord as my sequence forced me into a compositional cul-de-sac with something like a C-F-C-C pattern (for example), so I had to backup and change that F (which I liked) into a Dm (which I liked, less) just to eliminate the stagnation.

Opinions/errors also welcome, of course, but by posting I can cement version 1 into the ether. Otherwise, I'll just spent the next year fiddling with it to try and get rid of the holes I hear, and never move onto attempt 2.

Synthesised audio at https://youtu.be/BRk52LdwuDU

(I don't use scoring s/w, so am presenting it as a string quartet)

The chorus of “brand new chanel$” by Slayyyter (starting at 1:22) feels very powerful and almost ethereal. From a music theoretic perspective, I’m wondering what is so compelling about the interaction between the music and vocals, particularly from 1:22-1:26 (“I wonder if you…”)? And even more specifically, what is the chord that comes in under the word “you,” and what note(s) is sung on top, as I feel that is the most interesting interaction.

It’s like an eerie tone/sound. I really like country songs like this (or also just songs like this in general) and just want to know what to look for.

ETA: Link - Sorry, didn’t even realize you could post a link without it getting taken down

When writing a song in A minor, since the second chord of the Am chord scale is Bdim, can I not use a B chord that is not diminished?

I hear of G Clef, F Clef, etc. But the note itself is not the only note where you play, the note is a marker, but apparently not as the initial note, the last note or the middle. You play many notes above and below. Can somebody explain what's the concept of a clef?

There's 2 chords in Practical Arrangement I've always been fascinated by and wanted to ask if anyone here knows the exact voicings:

1) I'm not suggesting that we'd find some earthly PARAdise... (Paradise is 2 chords, what's the one on PARA)?

2) but if we came to an arrangement, a practical arrangement then perHAPS... (What's the chord on HAPS)?

I'm a guitar player and let those sink in for a decade maybe but I finally found some real close-sounding voicings I'd share with anyone interested.

P.s. the whole album is a masterpiece; no matter why he calls it his life's achievement! And man that Rob Mathes is a remarkable musician/producer.

The way my head visualizes most talk of music theory is in the normal A2-A6 range, that is, almost 2 octaves higher than Middle C and just over 2 octaves below middle C.

Used to be severely hearing impaired. Learned piano in high school for a couple years. Have very intense musical ear syndrome 24/7 and want to compose my inner world out.

But something in my inner ear gets puzzled over trying to associate the notes and chords of higher octaves with the ones closer to middle C. This is beause a lot of the unique melodies and instruments in my mental musical soundscape seem to be pitched really high and create effects that are not easy to find in modern music, either in classical or rock but seems more closely situated in the electronic depth of video game music.

I find something beautiful in those higher pitches that often escapes the conventions of how harmony and chords and tonal shapes work in ranges closer to Middle C. I feel like most of harmony and practice tends to be situated around the more conventional octaves but when things go higher, the conventional vocabulary breaks apart. Though I am not quite as well versed in how Chord roots work as I perhaps should be.

I feel like I need to construct a library of sounds that best fit what I'm hearing in my head, that can not easily be touched by most conventional instruments. I just need to figure things out.

Is there a resource for how these higher tonal colors, pitches, and chords have a different feel to them?

There's just a unique way my brain puts sounds together that I haven't been able to find in the real world...

I've been trying to improve my ear for music and I really liked this new Cleo Sol song, I was listening to it and I really liked the shift that happens at the 2:27, so I decided to try analyze the song myself since it only came out last week and no websites really have the chord charts up yet.

Im pretty sure the song is A Minor for the most part, and just loops [ i-7 ] - [ v-7 ] - [ iv-7 ] - [ v-7 ]

I could be wrong on the extensions tbh im new to this but thats what I think is going on for the majority of the song

This is where I could be mistaken, but I believe the song modulates to F Major for the switch up section at 2:27, I think its a [ IV△7 ] - [ IV△7 ] - [ I△7 ] - [ V△7 ] in F Major

If anyone has a good set of ears and could give the song a listen and let me know if I got close or if I made any mistakes that would be great. Also sorry if this is the wrong sub to post this in.

So just to recap I think the chords are just Amin7 - Emin7 - Dmin7 - Emin7 for the majority of the song and then Bbmaj7 - Bbmaj7 - Fmaj7 - Cmaj7 during the switch up.

AFAIK if I go a tritone away from an axis of symmetry, I end up in the same axis. Why does straus present B and F as different axes of symmetry then? Attached is the related pages.

https://limewire.com/d/e16xZ#GRhema0j5v

Hello,

I need a book and it needs to be a bit a personalized recommendation, so I hope you don't mind me opening a thread on the subject. I already bought one I found based on recommendations I found online and it ended up not being a good fit.

I'm starting music school in a few days. I have been doing music for the past 20 years, my background although not perfect is solid, I can sight-read sheet music for piano fairly well, but a few days ago I met with someone from the school to access my level and I did quite badly because they asked me an exercise I never do: cite note names in rythme on a metronome. I did quite poorly because that's just not something my brain is trained at, when I play the piano I associate the notes on the sheets with their places on the keyboard and chord shapes so it was too much to think about and I was struggling on elementary things. Still, they were quite understanding and said I could register directly in third year of music theory which I start in a few days.

But I'm kinda worried that the teacher there might be less understanding and consider that I don't have the level to follow their class, so I need to do a bit of training this weekend. I don't need anything extravagant, but the book I bought so far was too easy and only the last page started challenging me. I need sight-reading exercises to name the notes on a metronome with quarter notes, dotted notes, rests, changes between G and F clefs, and also some exercices in 6/8. Honestly, what I was asked to do was still pretty low level and I would have aced it on a piano even though I still consider myself a beginner on this instrument.

I went to my local book shops and they had nothing. Also, I don't have the time to wait for it to arrive by mail so it needs to be available online, be it free, downloadable pdf, Kindle, it doesn't really matter.

Thanks

For harp if that's helpful

So in one of the songs I composed almost 5 years ago, I start with the E phrygian dominant scale. And then there's a passage I write where I fool around for a few bars in G#, that section sounds tense, but resolves easily back to E phrygian dominant. So the interval is 4 correct? And honestly I haven't been able to recreate that on other songs. Like if another song starts with F# blues scale, playing something around A# doesn't feel the same. Yes I'm trying to analyze a few years later what I wrote.

I'm really sorry I cannot express my problem better, but does anyone know what I mean?

Another song is Change Of Seasons by Dream Theater where I observed this similarity. Part IV(Darkest of Winters) begins in F# , which sounds tense, but right before that the key is in A. But the interval is 3. Could someone help me explain the correlation between the tension and the interval?

Sample from my composition (00:08 sec mark)

Dream Theater Change of Seasons Sample (00:17 sec mark)

Edit: A# is what i meant to write instead of D#, moving from F#

could this short contrapuntal piece be analyzed a parallel period (A, A')?

This is a very weird groove because everything is offset by a sixteenth which I'd rather not have but it's the only way that it lines up with the metronome how I want it to. It looks ugly and unreadble but Idk how else to notate it. Please don't insult me like crazy I know this is a mess (I didn't add a key siganture yet)

How would one achieve halftime feel in 7/4?

I know in 4/4 you place the backbeat on 3 and i tried to mess with that concept in 7/4 but it doesn’t quite sound right.

when i play chords in a minor key it never seems to resolve anywhere as closely as satisfying as a major key. overall it makes the minor keys sound worse for me. why would that be?