40 Basic Elements of Popular Music Harmony ©2010
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Fundamentals
12-notes and the cycle of 5ths All the keys Major & minor
Major, minor scale construction. tones & semitones
The pull of 4-3 and 7-1
Intervals & Accidentals
Chord Construction
Triad and 7th chord construction
6ths, 9ths, 11ths, 13ths, sus and add chords
Altered chords
Inversions and hybrid chords
Chords from Scales
Diatonicism Constructing chords from a 7 note major scale
Diatonicism Constructing chords from a 7 note minor scale (natural, harmonic, melodic
Roman numeral analysis
Non-diatonic roman numeral analysis
Diatonic Cycle of 5ths
ii7 V7 I iiø V7 i Voice leading and 5th cycle Brackets & arrows
Secondary Dominants (& related ii chords) Cycle V progressions
Tritone substitution Dominants (& related ii chords) Dotted brackets & arrows
Borrowing chords from parallel major and minor
iv-I iv-bVII - I (Aeolian ii-V) bVI-bVII-I
The bVII chord & iv-bVII - I (Aeolian ii-V)
Hybrid progressions
Other common devices
The IV- I cadence. Cycle IV progression
Inversions and basslines
Pedal Tones
Modulation Pivotal and direct
Stylistic devices
Blues I7 IV7 (Non functioning dominants) Blues forms
Rhythm Changes Form
Passing Diminished Chords between I ii & ii iii i either direction and IV to I(2 inv.)
CESH 4 types and other static chord embellishments
Modes
Modes of the major scale and their characters
Harmonic minor mode 5
Melodic minor mode 1, 4 and 7
Modal interchange
Basic cadences
Major and minor in parallel
Common Pentatonics and Hexatonics
Major and minor pentatonics. Neutrality.
Major and minor blues hexatonics
Pentatonic relationships with the modes
Parallelism
Non-diatonic use of parallel chords
5, major, dom7 and other structures on...
...minor pentatonic, blues, whole tone, chromatic and other scales
How pentatonics are used melodically. Key area Minor over mjajor
Parallelism with pedal tones
