Tension or rest? Here are the chords that allow you to have this effect

Consonant and dissonant chords

Have you ever heard a piece of music and noticed that a chord has a sense of stability and relax, to be immediately followed by another chord with characteritics of tension and movement?

Music is made up of alternation between rest and tension and for this reason we must find chords to express these two characteristics.

In today’s lesson, we will see consonant and dissonant chords. In this way, when we must choose which chords use, we will know which are their characteristic, either tension or stability.

Most of all, this lesson will be a fundamentali introduction to a new and more important chapter: seventh chords.

Learning material of this lesson

5 videos	20 mins
1. Consonant and dissonant chords	5m 21s
2. Consonant triads in major scales	2m 59s
3. Dissonant triads in major scales	3m 19s
4. Consonant and dissonant chords in minor scales	5m 58s
5. Here is how to obtain other dissonant chords	2m 31

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Do you want to know how to make your melodies more interesting and agile? (Part 3)

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How to compose melodies using escape tones and reaching tones

Today we will put into practice what we have learned so far from the previous lessons.
We will see how to compose melodies using the non harmonic notes we have just learned.
This will allow you, in one way to understand how to use these new resources in the best way and on the other hand, it will make you aware of the effectiveness that these notes can give to your melody.

Remember that sometimes it just takes a small touch to transform a discreet melody into a beautiful one.

It is this touch which we obtain through the use of the notes we are about to learn.

Firstly I wil show you how to widen the disjunct motions using some non harmonic notes which give some really impressing results

At the end of the video, you will find a printable sheet music in pdf containing the melodies we will study and which can help you study the lesson

Learning material of this lesson

4 videos	39 mins
1. How to widen disjunct motions to make a melodic frame more pleasant	5m 51s
2. We learn to compose a melody using escape tones in all their combinations	10m 41s
3. Compose a melody with the reaching tones	11m 29s
4. We compose a melody using all the non harmonic tones we know	11m 06s
+ 1 pdf files

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Harmonic cadences, only give me one hour and I will explain what they are (part 2)

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What is the interrupted cadence?

In the last lesson we introduced the concept of cadences and most importantly learned to understand its importance in a progression of chords.

We have studied the first four types of cadences.

Today the things that you will learn include:
– which are the other types of cadences (the interrupted cadence, the decepted cadence, the mixed cadence)
– when these cadences can be applied in the minor key
– which is the only cadence that can be used in the minor key
– How to identify cadences in the four songs that we have
analysed

As will be seen after the lesson of today, you will have made a great step ahead in understanding how to create a cadence.
Finally you will find a pdf table with the principal cadences

You will be able to apply immediately all of this in the moment you write your music!

Learning material of this lesson

4 videos	23 mins
1. The interrupted cadence, the decepted cadence, the mixed cadence	6m 38s
2. The use of the first three cadences in minor keys	4m 11s
3. The use of the other cadences in minor keys and the phrygian cadence	6m 18s
4. We look for cadences in famous songs that we have already studied	5m 56s
+ 1 pdf files

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Part 1: The interrupted cadence, the decepted cadence, the mixed cadence

Part 2: The use of the first three cadences in minor keys

Part 3: The use of the other cadences in minor keys and the phrygian cadence

Part 4: We look for cadences in famous songs that we have already studied

Attachments:

Attachments-Table of cadences pdf (click here)

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What consonances and dissonances are and how to recognize them at any time.

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What are consonances and dissonances?

Music is made of continuous alternating between moments of tension and rest.
We have already mentioned how in the scale some notes have a dynamic role (dominant and leadin tone), while others have a function of rest (tonic). When overlapping sounds, we can create either a sensation of stability or of tension and thus create a harmonic interval.
Depending on the possible combinations, we are able to obtain very different sensations of hearing.

Today’s lesson includes various things:

We will see in depth consonances and dissonances
We will introduce an important concept, the resolution of a dissonance.
We will learn to classify different intervals and when an interval is consonance or a dissonance

At the end of the videos you will find a pdf table classifying the consonance and dissonance intervals.

Learning material of this lesson

4 videos	22 mins
1. What consonances and dissonances are	3m 46s
2. The way to classify intervals in consonances and dissonances	4m 56s
3. Practical examples of consonances and dissonances	6m 04s
4. What is ‘resolution’ and its important consequences in studying harmony	6m 50s
+ 1 pdf files

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Do you want to know how to make your melodies more interesting and agile? (Part 2)

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What is the secret in obtaining a good melody?

It is fundamental to have the right balance between the following:

conjunct motion

disjunct motion

After learning the first type of non harmonic tones which allow us to obtain disjunct motion, today we are going to learn two other types of notes with the same characteristic.

As you will see, these notes have a series of properties which can give a certain touch to your melodies

You are gradually learning many new tricks that you will help you express you full musical personality in writing music.

Learning material of this lesson

4 videos	26 mins
1. Principal features of the two new non harmonic tones which allow disjunct motion	2m 50s
2. Escape tones: what they are and when to use them	5m 50s
3. We learn about escape tones in-depth and the advantages in using them	7m 20s
4. The reaching tone: how to skip to a non harmonic notes and obtain a very particular effect	9m 54s

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Harmonic cadences, only give me one hour and I will explain what they are (part 1)

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What are the harmonic cadences?

Today we will introduce a fundamental concept which helps to understand the logic which makes up the base of harmonic structure of any music sheet.
I am speaking about harmonic cadences. In this lesson we will start to see the first types of cadences in order to understand their fundamental importance in musical discourse

The lesson of today is also important for another reason: we will conclude the study of harmonic analysis of the four music sheets by analysing the last song which distinguishes itself from the other three and has a very important feature:

Its chords are built using a minor scale

In this way we will start to see in practice which are the features that link the chords on the degrees of minor scales and the most used progressions.

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Do you want to know how to make your melodies more interesting and agile? (Part 1)

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How to make a melody more interesting

In the precedent lessons we spoke about non harmonic tones. These notes however, in the costruction of our melody, allow us to obtain only steps between adjacent degrees of the scale we are using.

A good melody is not only done between adjacent steps but a furher element is necessary to give variety.

So what is this element of variety?

It is the disjunt motion.

How can we obtain disjunct motion in the composition of our melodies without using only the chord notes?
It is what you will learn in these lessons in which the first non harmonic tones will be introduced allowing us to obtain disjunct motion and to make our melodies even more interesting.

Learning material of this lesson

4 videos	29 mins
1. Why disjunct motions are so important?	3m 33s
2. Anticipations: what they are and how to use them	7m 57s
3. A further element of variety for our melodies: indirect anticipations	7m 34s
4. How to compose a melody using anticipations	10m 06s
+ 1 pdf files

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Harmony, how to analyse the chords of four very famous songs

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How to analyse the chords of 4 very famous songs

In the lesson today, we will finally put into practice everything that we have learnt about chords, by analysing the chords of 4 very famous songs.

There is not much sense in studying harmony only through theory, so through the harmonic analysis of four very famous songs, we will start to understand the logic underlying the composition of songs.

Moreover, looking at the structure of chords (F Major and E minor etc), not in absolute terms but in relation to the degrees of major and minor scales on which they are built, we will discover the similarities among songs which apparently seem very different from each other.

We are going to the heart of harmony, looking at it more in-depth and most of all discovering the logic which is the basis of building chord progressions.

In the lesson today, we will analyse closely the first three songs which are all written in major keys while in the next lesson, we will study the fourth song which chords are built in minor key.

As you will see, in the next lesson we will introduce a new concept which allows to understand better the relation between chords.

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The first essential exercises to learn to compose (part 2)

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Let’s learn to compose

In the last lesson we spoke extensively about the importance of these exercises which allow to develop all mental abilities necessary in the composition of music.

We have also seen a first example of how to carry out these exercises to learn to compose.

But today we will go further

I will show you, through some examples which music sheets you will be able to print out in pdf, how it is possible to obtain more variety in the moment we do these exercises.

To get used to search variety in composition while maintaining a general balance is fundamental for one simple reason: we practice using our imagination and our creativity.

Musical imagination is something which can be improved.

This may be done using possible variants of exercises which I will show you today.

Learning material of this lesson

6 videos	34 mins
Intro	1m 58s
1. The three possible characteristics which the melody we are composing must have	5m 28s
2. How to vary the melodies 1	10m 41s
3. How to vary the melodies 2	4m 41s
4. How to vary the melodies 3	12m 03s
5. Video summary of the 4 examples	1m 19s
+ 1 pdf files

Intro

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Harmony: the 3 main benefits of using chord inversions

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The three main benefits of using inversions

In the last lesson we spoke about chord inversions and looked at how to build them and what exactly is their importance. Today we will go one step further.

We will see in depth which are the 3 main benefits of using them and we will do this with some practical examples.
We will see how the introduction of this important tool, will allow us to improve significantly the progressions of chords we are using in our composing.

Moreover in the last video I wanted to explain to you in depth which are the principal notation systems of inversions, both in the study of classical harmony and in pop music.

Learning material of this lesson

7 videos	52 mins
Intro	1m 39
1. The sonor features of inversions	10m 35s
2. The first benefit of using inversions	8m 06s
3. The second benefit	5m 20s
4. The third benefit	11m 46s
5. The names of the inversions and how they are represented grafically 1	5m 58s
6. The names of the inversions and how they are represented grafically 2	9m 38s

Intro

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