Piano Harmony
Lesson One – Establishing A Tonal Center
The first step in creating harmony is establishing a tonal center or “home” key.
This can be either major or minor in tonality.
Major keys are typically used for brighter and happier works, while minor sounds are used for sadder or more mysterious works.
The first key of the scale is known as the tonic and is the “home” key.
Other essential keys include the 4th (subdominant) and the 5th (dominant).
An excellent way to create quick harmonies is to create chords based on these keys.
For example, the tonic is C in C major, and the C major chord would include C, E, and G.
By lowering the E to Eb, (C, Eb, and G), the chord now becomes C minor.
Augmented chords rise the 5th note and are used more for movement in an upwards motion.
Diminished chords make the 5th note fall and create a darker atmosphere.
Lesson Two – Using Aural To Identify Major And Minor Sounds
Aural skills refer to the ability to listen and identify sounds.
When notating what you hear, there are some standard rules.
Capital Roman numerals refer to major chords, while lower case Roman numerals refer to minor chords.
For example:
For the scale of C major, which only uses the keys C D E F G A B C, the chords would look like this:
As you can see, there is a combination of major and minor chords.
The seventh chord in every major scale is always diminished and should be treated with great care.
Lesson Three – Relationships Of Keys
Following on from the previous lesson, we can see that within the key of C major, there are keys within keys.
This means that within C major, when chords are created for each of the scale degree numbers, some of the chords will be major, minor, or even diminished (7th)
Notice that chords I, IV, and V are all major.
When you are creating harmonies, these are always good options.
To change harmonies from major to minor, you can use the relative key.
This is the scale that shares the same key signature.
For example, C major and A minor are related as they share a crucial signature of no sharps and no flats.
If you are on a significant scale and want to find the relative minor, count down three semitones.
If you are on the minor scale and want to find the relative major, count up three semitones.
Lesson Four – Exploring Interval Quality And Quantity
Intervals refer to the distances between keys.
When dealing with harmony, we look at distances between notes about the tonic.
The following table demonstrates the different intervals.
Notice how each interval comprises a quantity (number) and a quality (major/minor/augmented).
It’s much easier to work from major intervals.
Lower the top note down by a semitone to find out a minor interval.
Lower it to another semitone (or a tone from the original) to find out a diminished interval.
To work out an augmented interval, raise the upper note by a semitone.
Intervals are said to be perfect when they appear in both the major and the minor scale!
Lesson Five – Exploring Musical Consonance And Dissonance
This lesson explores dissonances may be used for effect within cadences.
Intervals of the 7th must always be treated carefully and be approached by step!
Cadences are essential chords to finish a work. They are made up of two chords. They involve chords IV or V and I.
For example, in C Major, we would use IV (FAC), V (GBD), and I (CEG).
A plagal cadence moves from chord IV to chord I and is usually found in religious music.
A perfect cadence moves from chord V to chord I and is found in secular music.
The perfect cadence has the seventh note (B) inside it and this must always rise to the tonic to avoid an awkward interval.
Lesson Six – Creating A Melody
Melodies can be harmonized well with the use of 7th chords.
In the case of C major, a C7 will include the 7th note (C E G B).
The most important 7th chord is the dominant 7th or V7th.
In the key of C major, this chord contains G B D F – which includes the dominant, subdominant, supertonic, and top note.
It is an essential code because it allows the music to shift between major, minor, subdominant, and dominant.
This is why it is an excellent example of a pivot chord.
Lesson Seven – Creating Harmony
It is useful to notate chords using a figured bass system when analyzing harmony.
This allows you to identify the chord (major/minor) and its position.
An example of what that might look like is shown below:
When creating harmonies, ensure that all parts are within suitable voice ranges.
The ranges for each voice type is shown below:
When composing music in piano style, the melody is usually carried in the right hand while the left hand plays chords.
If the music is styled more for a choir or an orchestra, then the notes are spaced out differently, with each hand typically covering two letters.
Lesson Eight – Perfect And Imperfect Cadences
Harmony relies on shifting chords to create movement and resolution.
Resolutions will occur at the end of sections or words and create a sense of finality.
Half-close cadences are typically between phrases and are used as musical commas.
Apart from creating a sense of weak closure, they can also shift or pivot into another key.
Typical imperfect cadences include I – V, II-V, IV-V and are shown below.
These chords can also be presented in inversions to create variety.
Lesson Nine – Interrupted Cadences
Interrupted cadences sound exactly that – interrupted.
They are designed to create suspense and heighten the need for a resolution.
The best chords for an interrupted cadence are V-VI.
Be careful, though, as traditional harmonic rules state that you must double the 3rd note in chord V and the 6th note in chord VI to avoid consecutive octaves and fifths which dilute the harmony.
Lesson Ten – Composing An 8 Bar Piece
Steps to composing:
- 1. Decide on your key (tonal center)
- Map out your structure (binary, ternary, rondo, theme, and variations)
- Establish a melody
- Begin and end the work in the tonic key
- At the halfway mark, look at an imperfect or an interrupted cadence
- Fill in the gaps with chord progressions based on preference, consider chord II, IV, VI
- Begin the next section with either the dominant or subdominant chord
- If you have more than two sections, consider also using the relative minor
- Move towards a full close using either a plagal or perfect cadence. If using an ideal cadence, try using a chord II before the V-I
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