Idiot's Guides - Music Theory

by Michael Miller

  Substituting a major chord is relatively easy. So what about substituting a minor chord?

  As you can see in the following table, some of the same substitution rules work with minor as well as major, especially the “up a third” and “down a third” diatonic substitutions.

  Minor Chord Substitutions

  Substitution

  Example (for the A Minor Chord)

  Major chord a third above

  Major chord a third below

  Major 7 chord a third below

  Diminished chord with same root

  The last substitution falls into the “more of a good thing” category. That is, if a minor chord sounds good, let’s flat another note and it’ll sound even more minor. Some folks like the use of a diminished chord in this fashion; others don’t. Let your ears be the judge.

  Dominant Seventh Substitutions

  Okay, now you know how to substitute both major and minor chords, but what about dominant seventh chords? They’re not really major, and they’re not really minor—what kind of chords can substitute for that?

  The answer requires some harmonic creativity. You can do a diatonic substitution (using the diminished chords a third above or below the dominant seventh), but there are more interesting possibilities, as you can see in the following table.

  Dominant Seventh Chord Substitutions

  Substitution

  Example (for the G7 Chord)

  Major chord a second below

  Minor 7 chord a third below

  Diminished chord a third above

  Minor 7 chord a fourth below—over the same root

  The more interesting substitutions here are the first one and the last one. The first substitution replaces the V7 chord with a IV chord; the use of the sub-dominant (IV) chord results in a softer lead back to the I chord. The last substitution uses an altered chord, so that you’re leading back to tonic with a iim7/V—what I like to call a “Carole King chord.” (That’s because Ms. King uses this type of harmonic structure a lot in her songwriting.) So if you’re in the key of C, instead of ending a phrase with a G or G7 chord, you end with a Dm7/G instead. It’s a very pleasing sound.

  Functional Substitutions

  Here’s something else to keep in mind. Within the harmonic context of a composition, different chords serve different functions. The three basic harmonic functions are those of the tonic, subdominant, and dominant—typically served by the I, IV, and V chords, respectively. But other chords in the scale can serve these same functions, even if not as strongly as the I, IV, and V.

  For example, the subdominant function can be served by either the ii, IV, or vi chords. The dominant function can be served by either the V or vii° chords. And the tonic function can be served by either the I, iii, or vi chords. All these functions are shown in the following table.

  Chord Function

  Chords

  Tonic

  I, iii, vi

  Subdominant

  ii, IV, vi

  Dominant

  V, vii°

  NOTE

  Just in case you think you found a mistake in the preceding table, the vi chord can serve both the tonic and subdominant functions. It’s a very versatile chord!

  When you have a chord serving a specific function in a composition, you can replace it with another chord of the same type. So if you have a IV chord, serving a subdominant function, you can substitute any of the other subdominant-functioning chords—the ii or the vi. Along the same lines, if you have a ii chord, you can replace it with either the IV or the vi.

  The same thing goes with the other functions. If you have a V chord, serving a dominant function, you can replace it with a vii° chord—or vice versa. And a I chord, serving a tonic function, can be replaced by either a iii or a vi chord—and also vice versa. It’s actually a fairly easy way to make some simple chord substitutions.

  Turnarounds

  Chapter 10 also presented a concept of the phrase-ending cadence. Well, in the fields of jazz and popular music, you find a similar concept called a turnaround. A turnaround typically is a two-bar phrase, with two chords per measure, that functions much the same as a traditional cadence, “turning around” the music to settle back on the I chord at the start of the next phrase.

  NOTE

  Some jazz musicians refer to turnarounds as turnbacks.

  There is a wide variety of chord combinations you can use to create an ear-pleasing turnaround, some of which go outside the underlying key to circle back around to the tonic.

  The following table offers a few you might want to try.

  Common Chord Turnarounds

  Turnaround

  Example (in C)

  I-IV-iii-ii

  I-vi-ii-V

  iii-VI-ii-V

  I-vi-♭vi-V

  I-♭VII-iii-ii

  IV-iii-ii-♭ii

  I-vi-♭vi-♭II

  I-VI-♭V-♭III

  I-♭III-♭VI-♭II

  I-♭VII-♭III-♭II

  Note that some of these outside-the-key chords take traditionally minor chords and make them major, so pay close attention to the uppercase and lowercase notation in the table. (For example, the III chord is an E Major chord in the key of C, not the expected E minor.)

  Also pay attention to flat signs before a chord; this indicates to play the chord a half step lower than normal. For example, a ♭vi chord in the key of C is a half step lower than the standard A minor vi chord, which results in the A♭ minor chord instead.

  You can use these turnarounds in any of the songs you write or arrange. It’s an easy way to add harmonic sophistication to your music, just by changing a few chords at the end of a phrase!

  Exercises

  Exercise 16-1

  Write out the notes for the following slash chords.

  Exercise 16-2

  Write out the notes for the following compound chords.

  Exercise 16-3

  Write two substitute chords for each chord shown.

  Exercise 16-4

  Rewrite the following chord progression (on the second staff), using extended chords.

  Exercise 16-5

  Rewrite the following chord progression (on the second staff), using various types of chord substitutions.

  Exercise 16-6

  Add a two-measure turnaround to the following chord progression.

  The Least You Need to Know

  When you don’t want to play a boring old chord progression, you can use one of several techniques to make the chord progression sound more harmonically sophisticated.

  The easiest way to spice up a chord progression is to change triads to seventh chords or extended chords (such as sixths, ninths, elevenths, or thirteenths), and add sevenths and other extensions to the basic chords.

  Another way to change the sound of a chord is to alter the bass note—to either signal a different inversion, or to introduce a slightly different harmonic structure.

  Substituting one chord for another also can make a chord progression more interesting. The most common chord substitutions are diatonic, in which you replace a chord with the diatonic chord either a third above or below the original chord.

  You can also perform a chord substitution based on chord function. Any chord fulfilling a tonic, subdominant, or dominant function can be replaced by any other chord fulfilling the same function.

  You can add interest to a chord progression by introducing a two-measure turnaround at the end of the main phrase; these chords circle around and lead back to the I chord at the start of the next phrase.

  CHAPTER

  17

  Special Notation

  In This Chapter

  Discovering how to notate phrasing with slur marks

  Writing and playing embellished notes, including turns, trills, and grace notes

  Learning how to play music with a swing feel

  Fitting words to music

  Some aspects of music theory just don’t fit neatly within traditional cat
egories. Still, you need to know about them, so I have to include them somewhere in this book.

  That somewhere is this chapter. It’s kind of a grab bag of more advanced techniques, mainly relating to notation, that you need to have at your fingertips—even if you won’t use them every day.

  So settle back and read about some of the oddball aspects of music theory, and that popular musical style we call swing.

  Throwing a Curve

  When you’re writing music, you sometimes need to connect two or more notes together. You might literally connect them together to form a single, longer note, or you might simply want them played together as a smooth phrase. In any case, whenever you connect two or more notes together, you use a notation effect that looks like a big curve—and is called, alternately, either a tie or a slur.

  Ties

  You learned about ties back in Chapter 5. When two notes of the same pitch are tied together—either in the same measure, or across measures—the notes are played as a single note.

  A tie is made with a small curve, either above or below the note, like this:

  Two identical notes tied together equal one long note.

  Slurs

  A slur looks like a tie between two notes of different pitches, but really indicates that the notes are to be played together as a continuous group. Although you can’t play two different tones as a continuous note, you can run them together without a breath or a space in between. This is called “slurring” the notes together; it looks like this:

  Two different notes tied together are slurred together.

  NOTE

  The curved line used in a slur is called a slur mark.

  There’s a subtle difference between two notes that are slurred together and two notes that aren’t. The notes without the slur should each have a separate attack, which ends up sounding like a slight emphasis on each note. The second of the two slurred notes doesn’t have a separate attack, so the sound is much smoother as you play from note to note.

  Phrases

  When you see a curved line above several adjacent notes, it’s not a slur—it’s a phrase. You use phrase marks to indicate separate ideas within a longer piece of music. When one idea ends, you end the phrase mark; when a new idea begins, you start a new phrase mark.

  Lots of notes grouped together are played as a smooth phrase.

  NOTE

  Technically, a phrase mark indicates that a passage of music is played legato—which means to play smoothly.

  Often, wind instruments (trumpets, clarinets, and so forth) base their breathing on the song’s phrases. They’ll blow during the phrase and breathe between the phrase marks.

  Bowed instruments (violins, cellos, and so forth) use phrases to time their bowing. They’ll use a single, continuous movement of the bow for the duration of the phrase; at the end of the phrase mark, they’ll change the direction of their bowing.

  The Long and the Short of It

  Back in Chapter 7, you learned about some of the embellishments you can make to individual notes—accents, marcatos, and so on. There are a few more marks you can add to your notes; they’re presented here.

  Tenuto

  A straight horizontal line over a note means to play the note for its full duration. In other words, stretch it out for as long as possible.

  This mark is called a tenuto mark, and it looks like this:

  The tenuto mark means to play a long note.

  Staccato

  The opposite of a long note is a short note; the opposite of tenuto is staccato. A dot on top of a note means to not play it for its full duration; just give it a little blip and get off it.

  A staccato mark looks like this:

  The staccato mark means to play a short note.

  When Is a Note More Than a Note?

  There are other marks you can add to your notes that indicate additional notes to play. These notes are kind of musical shorthand you can use in place of writing out all those piddly smaller notes.

  Grace Notes

  A grace note is a short note you play in front of a main note. In mathematical terms, a grace note might have the value of a sixteenth or a thirty-second note, depending on the tempo of the music. Basically, you play the grace note just ahead of the main note, at a slightly lower volume level. When you note a grace note, write it as a smaller note just in front of the main note, like this:

  A grace note is like a little preview note before the main note.

  Grace notes are typically written as small eighth notes, with a line drawn through the stem and flag. The grace note can be on the same tone as the main note, or on an adjoining tone. (You play whatever note the grace note is on.)

  NOTE

  Drummers call a grace note a flam, because (on a drum) that’s what it sounds like—“fa-lam!”

  Turns

  A turn is an ornament used primarily in Baroque and classical music. In a turn, the neighboring notes turn to the main note, “turning it around.”

  Let’s look at how a turn works: when you see the turn mark (which looks like a line turned around on itself), you play the diatonic note above the main note, then the main note, then the note a step below the main note, and then the main note again. Here’s how it looks on paper, and how you play it in practice:

  A turn “turns around” the main note.

  When you’re playing a turn, you have a bit of latitude for how fast you actually play it. You can play a turn as written in the example, as a pure mathematical subset of the note’s noted duration; or you can whip through the turn really quickly, landing back on the main pitch until the note is done. It’s all a matter of interpretation.

  TIP

  If you’re unsure how to play a turn in a piece of music, ask your conductor for the proper interpretation.

  Trills

  A trill (s) is a way to extend a single note by alternating between two neighboring tones. In particular, you alternate between the main note and the note one step above, like this:

  Play a trill with a whole bunch of neighboring notes.

  As with turns, there are many different ways to play a trill. The most common approach is to alternate between the two notes as rapidly as possible, although technically a trill can have a preparation in which you play the main note straight before you enter into the “shake.” (You can also terminate the trill—or just trill right into the next note.)

  Glissandi

  Whereas turns and trills alternate between two or three neighboring notes, a glissando packs a lot more notes into a short space. To be precise, a glissando is a mechanism for getting from one pitch to another, playing every single pitch between the two notes as smoothly as possible.

  NOTE

  On the piano, you can also “cheat” a glissando by playing only the white keys between the top and bottom tones—which lets you play a glissando with a stroke of your hand.

  Depending on the instrument, a glissando can be a continuous glide between the two notes (think trombone) or a run of sequential chromatic notes (think piano). Glissandi (not glissandos!) can move either up or down; typically, both the starting and ending notes are specified, like this:

  Glissando up—and down.

  Arpeggiated Chords

  When you want an instrument to play a chord as an arpeggio, but you don’t want to write out all the notes, you can use the symbol called the role. The role indicates that the instrument is to play an arpeggio—but a rather quick one. This squiggly line tells the musician to play the written notes from bottom to top, in succession, and to hold each note as it is played. The effect should be something like a harp playing an arpeggiated chord, like this:

  The quick and easy way to notate an arpeggiated accompaniment.

  Getting Into the Swing of Things

  The last bit of notation I want to discuss concerns a feel. If you’ve ever heard jazz music, particularly big band music, you’ve heard this feel; it’s called swing.

  Traditional popular music has a straight feel; e
ighth notes are played straight, just as they’re written. Swing has a kind of triplet feel; it swings along, all bouncy, percolating with three eighth notes on every beat.

  What’s that, you’re saying—three eighth notes on every beat? How is that possible?

  It’s possible because swing is based on triplets. Instead of having eight eighth notes in a measure of 4/4, you have twelve eighth notes—four eighth-note triplets. So instead of the basic beat being straight eighths, the first and third beat of every triplet combine for a spang-a-lang-a-lang-a-lang kind of rhythm.