Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Welcome to The New Coffee Room. We hope you enjoy your visit.


You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.


Join our community!


If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
A little experiment for Rainman, pattyP, GK and others; make your own holiday harmonies
Topic Started: Dec 13 2010, 08:37 AM (156 Views)
Big John
Member Avatar
Senior Carp
A friend from high school and I were both commiserating about how we learned to read music by rote and wanted to improvise Christmas carols. Now that I have my music theory minor, I can, and I've been teaching her tricks to do to improvise her own.

Here's a fun way to improvise "Silent Night" and learn how harmony stacks up in the classical sense at the same time.

1. Play a "C" scale with both hands.

2. With your right hand, make a CEG triad and put a "C" octave in the left hand and go up the scale playing triads being sure to only play notes that are IN the C major scale. You will see that C is major, D is minor, E is minor, F is major, G is major, A is minor, B is what's called "diminished" and then you come back to "C" major again. The abbreviation for that is I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi, viio and I. Lower case denotes minor -- the little circle denotes "diminished."

3. Next, position your right hand in a EGC chord (first inversion of a C major chord) and put your left hand in a C octave.

4. NOW, only use the "tonic", Subdominant and dominant (I, IV and V) harmonies and the c-major scale will end up sounding like a song.

5. the triads going up will be (starting on "C"): I, V, I, IV, I, IV, V or V7, I. A V7 chord is where, in C, you add an F natural to the G chord to make the transition to C major more decisive.

6. So, starting from the bottom (thumb position) of the chord, your chords going up will be: C major first inversion EGC), G major root position (GBD), C major second inversion, (GCE), F major first inversion (ACF), C major roote position (CEG), F major 2nd inversion (CFA), G7 2nd inversion (DFGB), and then C major 1st inversion (EGC) again. When you play a big octave in the left hand of the notes of the scales going up, it is easier to "hear" the desired harmonies and gives you the song effect.

7. What you get from the above is a scale that sounds like a piece. It has a beginning, a middle and a decisive end.

8. Silent Night in "C" starts on "G". Try figuring out the melody. It's almost as easy as Mary Had a Little Lamb.

9. Once you figure out the melody, add a chordal harmony for EVERY SINGLE NOTE -- including the "A" in the second syllable of "Si-" in Silent. Also, there is a chord for the "B" in the first syllable of "Virgin". Can you figure out what it is?

10. Silent Night has ONLY I, IV and V7 harmonies. Nothing else. Zip. Nada. Your only choices in harmonizing Silent Night are C major, G major (or G7 which means you add an "F") or F major. Play the song and put one of the three chords above with every single note and you start to understand how harmony works.

Let me know how it goes.
Edited by Big John, Dec 13 2010, 08:43 AM.





Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
DealsFor.me - The best sales, coupons, and discounts for you
« Previous Topic · The New Coffee Room · Next Topic »
Add Reply