What's musical harmony? Acordes, functions and progressions
Harmony is what sounds under the melody: chords that rest, move or generate tension. We explain triades, functions, progrestions and a method to analyze songs.
Harmony is the part of the music that studies the notes that sound at the same time, and chordsand how they are chained up, ProgressIf the melody's what you're singing, harmony's what guitar or piano play at the bottom.
In tonal music, each chord performs a function with respect to a centre called tonic: there are chords of Rest (tonic), of movement (sub-dominant) and tension (dominant). Understanding these three functions is the key to analyzing songs, bringing them out of their ears and composing them.
To sum up
- A basic chord or triate forms by stacking third parties: fundamental, third and fifth.
- There are four triades: greater, minor, diminished and increased, and the third one decides if it's greater or minor.
- Tónica (I) es escuerzo, subdominador (IV) es moción y dominador (V) es tenor que per recer.
- The dominant one generates tension because it contains the sensitive, the note that wants to get half tone up to the tonic.
- To analyze a song: find the tone, pass the chords to Roman numbers and mark their functions.
Melody, rhythm and harmony: what's every thing
The melody is a succession of notes in time: we read "in horizontal." Harmony is the "vertical" dimension: what notes sound together at every moment and how that sound block changes. The rhythm organizes both at once.
If you're singing "Happy Birthday" alone, you have melody. If someone's with them with three chords on his guitar, harmony appears, and the same melody starts to sound as a question, an answer or an end. Piano, guitar and tiple are harmonic instruments because they can play chords, a violin or a flute participate in harmony through arpegtiums or as they play with other instruments.
The chord: three notes stacked by third parties
The triad, the most basic chord, is built with a note and challengeshis third and its fifth. The type of third and fifth defines its color:
| Triada | Building from the core | Notes | Filling | Character |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Major | 3-3 and 3-3. | Do - Mi - Sol | C | Stable, light |
| Minor | 3 minor + 5ª fair | Do - Mi pólica - Sol | Cm | Stable, darker |
| Disminuida | 3 minor + 5ª diminished | Do - Mi pólica - Sol pólica | C and C | Tensa, Unstable |
| Aumentada | 3 and 3 and increased by 3 | Do - Mi - Sol | Cag or C + | Suspended, strange |
If you put another third on his back, you get a seventh chord. Reg. 7: Sol7 = Sun - Si - re - Fa. To review what's a third or a fifth, look what's a musical interval.
Tonic, subdominant and dominant: the three functions
If you build a triad about every note of Do Mayor's scale, using only notes of that scale, you get seven chords. Each one is named with a Roman number depending on the degree of the scale where they are born and performing one of three functions:
| Grade | Acorde | Tipo | Function | Feeling |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | Do | Major | Tnica | Repose, "be at home" |
| ii | Rem | Minor | Subdominante | Prepare the way to the dominant |
| iii | Mim | Minor | Tonic (weak) | Unambiguous rest, little used as an end |
| IV | Fa | Major | Subdominante | To get away from home, move |
| V | Sun or Sol7 | Major | Dominante | Pressure That Asks To Rejoin The Tonics |
| vi | Lam | Minor | Titanium (replacement) | Rest with sad color |
| vii° | Si° | Disminuido | Dominante | Pressure, as an incomplete V |
Why does the dominant "pull" into the tone? Because it contains the sensitiveThe seventh degree (If at Do Major), that's half a tone of the tone and tends to rise to it. In Sol7, and also, Si and Fa form a trittle, the most unstable interval: by solving, the Si up to Do and Fa goes down to Me, and the tension turns into rest.
The same thing happens in minor tone and with one detail: for the dominant to have sensitive, the seventh degree goes up. At minor, the V usually is My greatest (with Sun) and not Mim. That's the reason for being of the minor harmonic scale, we explain at [bigger and minor scales].](/blog/escalas-mayores-y-menores-explicadas).
Cadences: how sentences end
A cadency is the chord formula that closes a sentence, just as the score closes a sentence:
| Cadencia | Chords | Efecto |
|---|---|---|
| Authentic or perfect | I (Sun - Do) | Final point: clear conclusion |
| Plagal | IV - I (Fa - Do) | Soft end, the "Amen" of hymns |
| Semicadencia | It ends with a high (... - Sun) | Eat or Question: The phrase remains open |
| Rat or avoid | V. vi (Sun - Lam) | Surprise: you were waiting for rest and another color comes |
Common advances that you will recognize
| Progression | Do | That's where you hear her |
|---|---|---|
| I - IV - V | Do - Fa - Sol | Rock and roll, popular music, "La Bamba" |
| I - V - vi - IV | Do - Sol - Lam - Fa | "Let It Be" and a lot of pop |
| I - vi - IV - V | Do - Lam - Fa - Sol | "Stand by Me" and the fifty's pits |
| ii - V - I | Rem7 - Sol7 - Do | Jazz, bolero, Bossa nova |
| i - VII - VI - V | Lam - Sol - Fa - Mi | "Hit the Road Jack," Flemish (Andalusian cadence) |
| Blues of 12 bars | Lo7 (4) - F7 (2) - Lo7 (2) - Sol7 - F7 - Lo7 (2) | Blues, rock, jazz |
See that most of them turn around the same journey: get out of the track, move with the subdominant, strain with the dominant and come back. To find these chords in any other tone, use the [circle of quintas].](/blog/circulo-de-quintas-explicado)and if you play guitar, the first four come out with [basic chords]](/blog/acordes-basicos-de-guitarra-para-principiantes).
How to start analyzing songs
- Choose a simple song that you know and get his encryption.
- Find the tone: The chord where the song lies, most of them the last and many times the first.
- He writes the Roman number of each chord as his place on his scale of that tonic.
- Fold T, S or D and search for cadences at the end of each sentence.
- That's how we get them and we get them and we get them and we get them and we get them. secondary dominantThe dominant of another chord.
- If you recognize her in numbers, you understand her.
One example: "Happy Birthday" at Do
- First sentence: It goes from Do (I) to Sun (V). It ends with the dominant, so it remains open: a semicadence.
- Second sentence: goes from Sun (V) to Do (I). Close: true cadency.
- 3. Do, often turned into Do7, leading to Fa (IV). That Do7 is Fa's dominant: a secondary dominant.
- 4th sentence: passing through Sun (V) and closing at Do (I).
With these tools you can read most popular songs. music theoryThe harmony works with piano and guitar and with three chords and with more and more rich songs.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between harmony and chord?
A chord is a set of notes that sound together. Harmony is the complete system: how chords are formed, what function they have and how they are chained with each other throughout a work.
Can you play music without knowing harmony?
Yeah, a lot of people play with ears or with cipher without knowing theory. But understanding harmony allows you to memorize more quickly, transport, improvise and get ear songs, because you stop seeing loose chords and start seeing patterns.
What instrument's best to learn harmony?
The piano, because you see all the notes and you can play with one hand and melody with the other. The guitar and tiple are also very good to understand from the chords and accompaniment.
What's a secondary dominant?
It's a chord that works as a dominant of a different degree from the tonic. At Do mayor, Reg mayor (Re7) is the dominant of Sun, and so it usually appears just before V. It sounds as a small deviation that then returns to the tone.