When you build a chord that exists naturally in the key (meaning there are no accidentals in the chord), you call these chords DIATONIC, meaning “from the scale”. We selected the notes based on what is available in the key (in C Major, we’re dealing with all naturals). Recall from last week how we added two notes above each scale degree to create triads. The most basic and complete way to harmonize is to turn each note of a scale into a triad (three-note chord) with the scale degree as the root. To HARMONIZE something is to “add harmony to” meaning that a single note or group of notes (in a melody) are suddenly anchored to a specific tonality by attaching at least one additional vertical note (in the case of TWO-PART HARMONY) or attaching an entire chord (in the case of CHORDAL HARMONY). To understand how to make it work, you need to understand how to harmonize scale degrees, which we touched on briefly last week … HARMONIZING SCALES However, to date, this is the most encompassing way to analyze music that uses chords (most Western Classical Music) because it not only shows chord type and inversion, but each chord’s relationship to the tonic. This method was created in the early 19th century (so it’s about 200 years old) and has a few limitations, especially when considering really modern, chromatic music that draws from many different scales or tonalities. As we round the corner to the final weeks of Music Theory I, we are giving analysis one new update to bring it into the 21st century - this concept we will begin to work on here is the way musicians look at and analyze tonal harmony of Western Classical Music in 2020 (congrats, you made it!). Last week, we covered the huge concept of Figured Bass.
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