MP-102 Lecture 1: Intro

What is sequencing? Creating the order of musical events that make up a song, arrangement, or composition.

What is a song? Songs are a very specific type of music Designed to be “sung”: i.e. they have a melody and lyrics Form is usually easy to follow Generally easy to sing along with and listen to Based on a basic musical idea that can be arranged or interpreted in many different ways Many musical compositions are NOT songs

Basic building blocks Melody “Tune” of the song, made up of musical phrases Harmony chord progression Beat pulse of the song Rhythm “timing” of the notes with regard to the beat Harmonic Rhythm how many chord changes (per bar or bars)

Quick Review Notation Rhythm Major Scales Key Signatures

Building Triads Use your fingers: thumb is Root (1), middle finger is 3, pinky is 5 These three letters always go together, regardless of what key you are in The C-triad is the C-triad; it’s made up of C-E-G. Always. even if it’s built on C# or C-flat, whether it’s major, minor or diminished; The A-triad is the A-triad: A-C-E. Always. Even if you change the “order” i.e. C-E-A or E-A-C The roman numeral and quality will differ from key to key

Roman Numerals The Roman Numeral indicates the scale degree that the triad is based on: In the key of C, the C-triad is I because it is built on the 1 st scale degree; in the key of F, the C-triad is V because it is built on the 5 th scale degree; The Roman Numeral stands for the whole triad (all three notes). Arabic Numerals indicate “inversion” or notes that should be added to the triad

Most important triads In any key, the most important triads are I, IV, and V These triads are related by the magic number 5 Tonic, Subdominant, and Dominant define a key V almost always brings you back to I

Simple chord progressions that rocked the world I-IV-V-V La Bamba Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds Twist & Shout I-I-IV-V Blitzkrieg Bop I-IV-I-V Wimoweh (The Lion Sleeps Tonight) I-IV-V-IV Louie Louie Wild Thing Great Balls of Fire

Other progressions “Doo-Wop”/ “I Got Rhythm”/ “Heart and Soul” progression: I-vi-ii-V or I-vi-IV-V Extended progression: ex: No woman no cry I-V-vi-IV || I-IV-I-(V) 12-bar Blues “Johnny B. Goode” - Chuck Berry

Building chord progressions Part 1 – picking your chords In Jazz and Pop, chords generally play one of three functions: Tonic, Subdominant and Dominant Chord substitutions are used: ii and vi can stand in for IV iii and vi can stand in for I Tritone substitution for V (for more advanced Jazz cats :-D) There’s another way of looking at this: “Two out of three ain’t bad” When triads share two common notes, they can be substituted Change one note in a triad, and get a different triad CEG -> CEA; CEG -> BEG; or FAC -> FAD I becomes vi or iii; IV becomes ii Any chords related by the magic number 5 move easily to one another I is 5 notes away from IV; ii is 5 notes away from V ii-V-I

Building chord progressions Part 2 – harmonic rhythm and cadence Best to think in terms of 4 or 8 bar chunks Cadence in bar 4 and/or 8 Half-cadence on V “Authentic” Cadence: V-I “Plagal” Cadance: IV-I “Deceptive: cadence V–(anything except I) End on I; (probably start on I too) One or two chords per bar

Building melodies based on chords Think in terms of 4 or 8 bar chunks Use longer note values at cadence points Use antecedent/consequent structure Use chord tones More on this shortly Make a pretty shape Have a destination Have a climax point Make it “singable” Not too many big leaps Keep to within an octave or tenth from highest to lowest point Note repetition is OK to a certain extent