Category Archives: Harmony

The harmonic colour; what it is and how to change it with seventh chords

How to change harmonic colour through the use of seventh chords

Today we will conclude our journey in the world of seventh chords and this will be done in a more than one hour lesson, rich in content.
This is practically a double lesson!!

Indeed today we will speak of lots of topics including:

Major seventh chords
Minor major seventh chords and augmented major seventh chords
The passage seventh in secondary seventh chords
How the use of secondary chords has changed during the course of time
How to change harmonic colour through the use of seventh chords.
We learn to improve chord progressions with seventh chords.
How to represent seventh chords graphically in classical writing.
The notation of seventh chords in pop music.

As you can see, the material is very much, so let’s get down to the videos.

Have a good lesson!

Learning material of this lesson

7 videos	41 mins
1. Minor major seventh chords	8m 37s
2. Augmented major seventh chords	3m 54s
3. The passage seventh: a case in which ‘preparation’ is not necessary	3m 53s
4. Seventh chords, a way to obtain different harmonic colours	5m 08s
5. How to modify chord progressions thanks to the use of the seventh	4m 21s
6. How to represent graphically seventh chords	9m 04s
7. The notation of seventh chords in pop music	5m 44s

... to continue this video lesson

The access to this lesson is reserved to Premium Membership subscribers.

If you are already registered you can simply log in.

Not a Premium Member yet?

Register today, or upgrade if you are already a free member, to access this and all the other lessons of the premium membership.

Upgrade

Free Access

With a Free account you gain immediate access to 15 lessons of piano, theory, harmony, music reading and composition (36 videos).

Free Registration

Info

This content is for members only.

Harmony, other secondary seventh chords

Leave a reply

Half-diminished seventh chords

In the lesson of today, we will conclude the topic of minor seventh chords and we go on to see half-diminished seventh chords.
We will see in-depth these chords with an extremely evocative sound.
We will learn their preparation and successively their resolution.

But the most interesting thing consists in an artifice through which we will build a new secondary seventh chord on the second degree of the major scale.

Thanks to this we are able to obtain a very evocative harmonic effect!
At the end of the lesson you will find a video containing some advice for you to put into practice all that you have learned up to now.

Learning material of this lesson

5 videos	30 mins
1. Introduction to the lesson	1m 52s
2. Minor seventh chords in minor key	7m 40s
3. Half-diminished seventh chords	5m 27s
4. How to build half-diminished seventh chords in major scales	8m 04s
5. Practical exercises	7m 00s

... to continue this video lesson

The access to this lesson is reserved to Premium Membership subscribers.

If you are already registered you can simply log in.

Not a Premium Member yet?

Register today, or upgrade if you are already a free member, to access this and all the other lessons of the premium membership.

Upgrade

Free Access

With a Free account you gain immediate access to 15 lessons of piano, theory, harmony, music reading and composition (36 videos).

Free Registration

Info

This content is for members only.

Harmony, the ‘preparation’ of secondary seventh chords

Leave a reply

The preparation of secondary seventh chords

In the lesson today, we will see a very important topic:

The preparation of secondary seventh chords.

This is an extremely interesting concept which allows to understand how to get the most out of secondary seventh chords.
As we will see, there are three distinct phases in using chords of this type.

We will put all of this into practice, speaking of minor seventh chords.

Finally, we will see how from a balanced mix of all the chords we know (triad or inversions, seventh chords and their inversions) very important harmonic effects can be obtained.

Learning material of this lesson

5 videos	25 mins
1. Introduction to the lesson	2m 19s
2. The preparation of secondary seventh chords	7m 07s
3. The three phases of secondary seventh chords	3m 14s
4. Minor seventh chords	5m 57s
5. Application of minor seventh chords	7m 26s

... to continue this video lesson

The access to this lesson is reserved to Premium Membership subscribers.

If you are already registered you can simply log in.

Not a Premium Member yet?

Register today, or upgrade if you are already a free member, to access this and all the other lessons of the premium membership.

Upgrade

Free Access

With a Free account you gain immediate access to 15 lessons of piano, theory, harmony, music reading and composition (36 videos).

Free Registration

Info

This content is for members only.

Harmony: the secondary seventh chords

Leave a reply

The secondary seventh chords

What are secondary (or artificial) seventh chords?
Why do they differentiate from natural seventh chords and what are natural seventh chords?

These are some of the questions which we will answer in the lesson today.

Furthermore we will introduce a very important category of chords with a very impressive sound.
But this is not all!

Once we can distinguish these two categories of chords, we will learn a very important concept of harmony.

Have a nice lesson!

Learning material of this lesson

4 videos	16 mins
1. Secondary seventh chords	2m 25s
2. Natural seventh chords and the overtones theory	5m 22s
3. Dominant ninth chord	3m 46s
4. Difference between natural and secondary seventh chords	4m 41s

... to continue this video lesson

The access to this lesson is reserved to Premium Membership subscribers.

If you are already registered you can simply log in.

Not a Premium Member yet?

Register today, or upgrade if you are already a free member, to access this and all the other lessons of the premium membership.

Upgrade

Free Access

With a Free account you gain immediate access to 15 lessons of piano, theory, harmony, music reading and composition (36 videos).

Free Registration

Info

This content is for members only.

The diminished seventh chord: a big harmonic resource

Leave a reply

The diminished seventh chord

What is it that makes the diminished seventh chord unique?
Its enormous harmonic flexibility.

This chord built on a minor scale grade by superposing thirds, can be used in many other situations.
It is a wildcard in the world of harmony

Perhaps the most fascinating thing about this chord is that it allows us to put into practice everything about enharmonic relation.
As we shall understand in this lesson, the diminished seventh chord is the key to modulate easily, in particular with cases in which this would be very difficult.

In order to understand how all of this is possible and to learn all the characteristics of this chord in-depth, you only have to follow this lesson.

If you have not already done so, I suggest you watch:

Learning material of this lesson

7 videos	40 mins
1. Leading tone seventh chord and half-diminshed seventh chord	4m 12s
2. The diminished seventh chord	9m 26s
3. Why the diminished seventh chord has such a strong tension	4m 42s
4. Extended use of the chord	5m 30s
5. The case of third minors: any part we look at it, the chord is exactly the same	5m 32s
6. How enharmonic relation allows the change of the chord	5m 30s
7. The diminished seventh chord: not only one, but… four different chords	5m 34s

... to continue this video lesson

The access to this lesson is reserved to Premium Membership subscribers.

If you are already registered you can simply log in.

Not a Premium Member yet?

Register today, or upgrade if you are already a free member, to access this and all the other lessons of the premium membership.

Upgrade

Free Access

With a Free account you gain immediate access to 15 lessons of piano, theory, harmony, music reading and composition (36 videos).

Free Registration

Info

This content is for members only.

The leading tone seventh chord: here is the chord that allows your music to have a magical atmosphere

Leave a reply

How to use the leading tone seventh chord

Among the seventh chords, the leading tone seventh chord is maybe the most fascinating.
It is in fact a chord with a very particular atmosphere and difficult to define just as it is usually difficult to define music.

Today we will get to know in-depth the leading seventh chord in order for you to use it correctly in your composition.
Here are some of the things you will learn in this lesson:

How to resolve the leading seventh chord

How to get the most out of inversions

Should we use the passing seventh?

The direct and indirect resolution

Before introducing the leading seventh chord, we will conclude dominant seventh by looking at when it is best to use it and in which musical situation it gives the best results.

Learning material of this lesson

5 videos	31 mins
1. When to use dominant seventh chord and why it has a strong tension	4m 45s
2. Seventh chords on the seventh degree	4m 13s
3. The leading tone seventh chord and how to play it at the piano	4m 41s
4. Resolutions of leading tone seventh chord	7m 51s
5. Inversions of leading tone seventh chord	10m 04s

... to continue this video lesson

The access to this lesson is reserved to Premium Membership subscribers.

If you are already registered you can simply log in.

Not a Premium Member yet?

Register today, or upgrade if you are already a free member, to access this and all the other lessons of the premium membership.

Upgrade

Free Access

With a Free account you gain immediate access to 15 lessons of piano, theory, harmony, music reading and composition (36 videos).

Free Registration

Info

This content is for members only.

The dominant seventh chord: here is everything to know (part 2)

Leave a reply

Inversions of dominant seventh chord

What are the possibilities with the new seventh chords which we have built on a major and minor scale?
Today we will try to answer this question.

For example by using inversions of seventh chords we will introduce some new tools.
Remember the case of triads: the possibility to change the note in the bass offered very important harmonic resources.

In the lesson today we will try to understand how the inversions work in the case of dominant seventh chord and which are the best ways to resolve them.

We will also see how to apply non-harmonic tones which we studied during the composition course.

As you can see we are advancing in the study of harmony and new horizons are opening up before us.

Let’s start exploring!

Learning material of this lesson

6 videos	31 mins
1. The dominant seventh in harmonic minor scale	8m 12s
2. The inversions in dominant seventh	4m 13s
3. How to call inversions in dominant seventh	4m 19s
4. The resolution of inversions in dominant seventh	6m 30s
5. How to resolve inversions in harmonic minor scale and some practical examples	3m 00s
6. The passing seventh	7m 02s

... to continue this video lesson

The access to this lesson is reserved to Premium Membership subscribers.

If you are already registered you can simply log in.

Not a Premium Member yet?

Register today, or upgrade if you are already a free member, to access this and all the other lessons of the premium membership.

Upgrade

Free Access

With a Free account you gain immediate access to 15 lessons of piano, theory, harmony, music reading and composition (36 videos).

Free Registration

Info

This content is for members only.

The dominant seventh chord: here is everything to know (part 1)

Leave a reply

The dominant seventh chord

In the previous lessons we learned to build seventh chords either for major and harmonic minor scale.
Now we have to put all of this into practice: we have to learn every type of seventh chord in depth and many other things, in order to use it in the best way.

We start from the strongest of the seventh chords:

The dominant seventh chord

Other than the lesson of today we will see many other subjects which include:

how to resolve the seventh
how to play seventh chords at the piano/keyboard
the complete and the incomplete dominant seventh chord
different resolutions of the dominant seventh chord

Learning material of this lesson

7 videos	48 mins
1. The world of seventh chords	3m 30s
2. How do we resolve the seventh in seventh chords?	4m 33s
3. How to play seventh chords at the piano/keyboard	8m 33s
4. A rapid way to find seventh chords at the piano	7m 08s
5. The first resolution of the dominant seventh chord	11m 25s
6. The second resolution of the dominant seventh chord	6m 02s
7. Two considerations on the resolution with interrupted cadence and some practical examples	8m 18s

... to continue this video lesson

The access to this lesson is reserved to Premium Membership subscribers.

If you are already registered you can simply log in.

Not a Premium Member yet?

Register today, or upgrade if you are already a free member, to access this and all the other lessons of the premium membership.

Upgrade

Free Access

With a Free account you gain immediate access to 15 lessons of piano, theory, harmony, music reading and composition (36 videos).

Free Registration

Info

This content is for members only.

How to build seventh chords (part 2)

Leave a reply

Let’s learn how to build seventh chords

In the lesson today we wil take a close look at seventh chords.
Why are these chords so important?
Because they allow us to widen greatly our sonoric range.

They are in fact dissonant chords, each with different characteristics.
Today we will learn to build seventh chords on harmonic minor scale and analyse them one by one. We will moreover see seven different kinds of seventh chords.

Indeed we will try to understand which are the characterists and what distinguishes them from each other.
We will also find a way to name each chord in order to distinguish them rapidly.
All this will be done in-depth but also in a simple and clear way to enable you to follow each step.

In this way, you will understand all seventh chords and learn to use them as you please.

Learning material of this lesson

4 videos	18 mins
1. The characteristics of seventh chords	1m 37s
2. The first 4 types of seventh chords	4m 53s
3. The other three types of seventh chords	4m 50s
4. How to name seventh chords	6m 24s

... to continue this video lesson

The access to this lesson is reserved to Premium Membership subscribers.

If you are already registered you can simply log in.

Not a Premium Member yet?

Register today, or upgrade if you are already a free member, to access this and all the other lessons of the premium membership.

Upgrade

Free Access

With a Free account you gain immediate access to 15 lessons of piano, theory, harmony, music reading and composition (36 videos).

Free Registration

Info

This content is for members only.

How to build seventh chords (first part)

Leave a reply

Four notes chords

Up to now we have seen chords made up of only three notes.

Today we will open a new and very important chapter. We will discover how to build chords of 4 notes.
This will allow us to introduce new subjects including:

Why chords of more than three sounds are always dissonant
Seventh chords
How to find the root of the chord, even in very complicated chords
How to build seventh chords on major scale
How to call the notes which make up the seventh chord correctly

Learning material of this lesson

4 videos	25 mins
1. How to build 4 notes chords	4m 09s
2. The seventh chord on the major scale	4m 33s
3. Learn to call all notes of the chord in a correct way	9m 09s
4. The seventh chords on other degrees of a major scale- Various examples	7m 11s

... to continue this video lesson

The access to this lesson is reserved to Premium Membership subscribers.

If you are already registered you can simply log in.

Not a Premium Member yet?

Register today, or upgrade if you are already a free member, to access this and all the other lessons of the premium membership.

Upgrade

Free Access

With a Free account you gain immediate access to 15 lessons of piano, theory, harmony, music reading and composition (36 videos).

Free Registration

Info

This content is for members only.