Music Matters
What to Do With the Rule of the Octave - Music Composition
This music composition lesson follows on from an earlier video about the rule of the octave and you may well want to watch our other video first. In this lesson we examine the linear implications for part writing using the chord scheme...
Music Matters
Interpreting Schubert's Impromptu in A-flat Major D.935 for Piano - Piano Interpretation
Understanding and interpreting your piano music allows you to bring your own unique flair and personality to a piece. Here we explore the famous Ab Impromptu by Schubert, considering the key elements of interpretation. An overview is...
Music Matters
How to Harmonize a Fast Moving Melody - Music Composition
Discover how to harmonise a fast moving melody with chords. The temptation is to harmonise every note, resulting in a harmonic rhythm that moves too quickly. We explore how to determine which notes are harmony notes / chord tones and...
Music Matters
Extended Chords in Four-Part Harmony - Music Composition
How to extend basic triads into chords using added 7ths, 9ths, 11ths and 13ths. Having considered how to construct these chords we explore how to use extended chords in four part harmony, discovering which notes we can omit from each...
Music Matters
Using 7th Chords Back to Back - Music Composition
In this music composition lesson we review how to form 7th chords and remind ourselves of the traditional function of standard 7th chord progressions. The video goes on to consider the effectiveness of using 7th chords back to back...
Music Matters
Harmonizing a Chromatic Scale is Not Impossible - Music Theory
Learn how to harmonise a chromatic scale. Starting with harmonising diatonic scales, the video moves on to using secondary dominants then to using chromatic chords and to using chords in a less functional way. This music theory lesson...
Music Matters
Harmonic Surprises in All I Want for Christmas is You - Composer Insights
Discover three harmonic surprises that occur in Mariah Carey’s famous Christmas hit, “All I want for Christmas is you”. Many song composers find themselves using familiar and predictable chord patterns, and they would love to discover...
Music Matters
Elaborating an Upper Voice When Using an Ascending Bass Scale - Music Composition
An idea for elaborating an upper melodic line over an ascending scale in the bass line. Ascending scales in the bass can be awkward to harmonise satisfactorily without generating parallels. This pattern illustrates one way of handling...
Music Matters
Can You Hear Which Chords Are Major and Which Are Minor? - Ear Training
This lesson begins by working through each of the chords in major and minor keys explaining which are major, which are minor and which are augmented or diminished. The video moves on to explore how to hear the difference between major...
Music Matters
Alternating Inversion Chords when Harmonizing a Descending Bass - Music Composition
We explore one idea for harmonising a descending scale in the bass line. Many people find it easier to harmonise an ascending scale than a descending scale and most people find it easier to harmonise a scale at the top of the texture...
Odd Quartet
How To Make Non-Chord Notes Sound Good
Today we are going to write a harmony using mostly seventh chords and we will look at a strategy to deal with non-chord notes when we are writing music. This combines a couple of our past lessons so be sure you watched those videos...
Odd Quartet
How To Build Seventh Chords
Today I want to talk about seventh chords. Seventh chords are a type of four note chord used in western music. The two types we will talk about today are the Major Seventh and the Dominant Seventh. We will go over how to build them note...
Odd Quartet
How to Add Different Voices - MuseScore tutorial
Sometimes you need to have two different music parts to be playing at the same time in the same staff. Or, you might want to save space by having two voices share a staff. One of the best ways to achieve this is to use the voices feature...
Odd Quartet
Building Seventh Chords - Part 2
In this lesson we will go over three more complex versions of the seventh chord - minor, augmented, and diminished. We will go over the different scale degrees used in the chords and how to build them. We will look at examples of each...
Music Matters
Why Learn Figured Bass? - Music Theory
See why every musician should become familiar with figured bass. For harpsichordists and organists needing to realise figured bass in performance realising figured bass fluently with style is essential. For others it’s a useful way of...
Music Matters
Why is White Christmas So Popular? - Composer Insights
We explore what makes the harmony of this iconic Christmas song so iconic and durable. Irving Berlin’s song from 1940 includes a rich blend of diatonic, extended and chromatic chords, which skilfully add distinctive character to the song...
Music Matters
Who Needs the Rule of the Octave? - Music Theory
This music theory lesson summarises the rule of the octave and explains how it offers insight into harmonic thinking and into Baroque harmony in particular. The rule of the octave begins with the notion of harmonising an octave of the...
Music Matters
Which Chords Can You Borrow? - Music Composition
Learn about the most commonly used borrowed chords and chromatically altered chords. Many composers and arrangers find themselves limited to diatonic chords and lack the confidence to use borrowed and chromatically altered chords. Yet...
Music Matters
What Can You Write Before an Augmented 6th Chord - Music Composition
Which are the most common approach chords? We consider the reasons why these chords work better than other options, examining voice leading, the smooth progression of parts, and the avoidance of parallels & false relations. This music...
Music Matters
Using the Circle of Fifths on Piano - Music Theory
Learn the quickest and most efficient methods of modulating from one key to the next on the circle of 5ths. The first part of the video is devoted to movement from key to key moving left around the circle of 5ths, then the second part is...
Music Matters
Using Minor 5 Chords - Music Composition
We consider the possibilities for using chord V as either a major or a minor chord. In the harmonic minor context used by most composers since 1600 chord V is always major but in the context of the descending melodic minor scale and in...
Music Matters
How to Analyze Harmony in Music - Music Theory
How to undertake a roman numeral chord analysis of a piece of music. Using a short movement by Schumann this music theory lesson explains how to read the keys then how to discover each of the chords, including designating extension...
Music Matters
Using Alberti Bass as a Compositional Technique - Music Composition
Discover how Alberti Bass works and how useful it is in breathing energy into accompaniments. Often composers write a successful melody but the accompaniment is limited to block chords. Using Alberti Bass is one way of liberating the...
Music Matters
Upside Down 7th Chords - Music Composition
A clever little music composition technique for you to try in your next piece. This music composition lesson begins with a reminder of how to extend triads to 7th chords in the conventional manner. It then goes on to consider an...