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ansthenia

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  1. Hello I'm a little unsure if the 4th tone of the 3rd species can leap to a different tone if it's consonant with the cantus firmus but dissonant with the 2nd species. For example: http://i794.photobucket.com/albums/yy222/ansthenia/Screen%20Shot%202015-05-10%20at%2008.36.10.png Ignoring the fact that the amount of similar motion isn't very good, Is this leap here ok in terms of handling dissonance? I thought maybe it's acceptable because the 2nd species, the note at this point which is causing the dissonance, is resolved by step? Thanks for your time
  2. Strictly speaking, you're right, but not in the way I think you think you are. Chord progressions are evaluated based entirely on the key, so while your arrangement may move down four degrees to G from C, it's still considered a fifth, because G is the fifth degree of C. Where the literal movement of notes becomes significant is in more holistic, emotive aspects of the piece—the mood/s you're trying to convey—though that's less to do with the chord progression, and more to do with melodies, counterpoints, and voicings. Ok I'm still a tad confused. I get that in the Key of CMaj the movement GMaj to CMaj would always be regard as down a 5th and never up a 4th. But what about, in the key of CMaj, the movement of Em to Am for example? Would that be a 4th because A is the 4th of E, or a 5th because E is the 5th of A?
  3. Thanks for the advice. I just put it there because the current book I'm reading says to always include the guide tones i.e 3rd and 7th in 4-part harmonization, but replace the 7th with the 6th if it creates a minor 2nd in close voicing. I'd most likely change it though if I planned on making an actual song with it, like you said it doesn't sound too nice for a less jazzy more consonant context. But I'm still curious about if it would result in a change of harmony due to the A-E. The jazz books I'm reading all make a point that sectionized harmony can easily be misinterpreted if the root isn't in the bass, but nothing is said about chord inversions where the 3rd is in the bass.
  4. Thanks for the reply. The bass is holding an A, but my intention was a 1st inversion Fmaj7 6/3 harmony and I was concerned if I'd turned it into an A and needed to put a A chord symbol down. The E appears above the A as the bottom note when I harmonized the melody in drop-2 voicing: http://i794.photobucket.com/albums/yy222/ansthenia/F%20or%20E_1.png I'm trying to learn sectional harmony from jazz books and apply it to the symphonic orchestra but it seems to be a pain without a consistent rhythm section at the bottom of your melodies and chords because I often end up having 7th's, 9th's, 11th's and 13th's lower in the harmony than the 1st, 3rd's and 5th's, which I'm pretty sure would change the intended harmony.
  5. Hello everyone, just a quick question about if chord inversions can change the root due to a perfect 5th in the bass. I've read in quite a few books that a perfect 5th as the bottom two notes points so strongly towards the bass that it's undoubtedly the root. Does this apply to inverted tertian harmony or only ambiguous note collections? (the books only show examples where it isn't clearly an inversion of a obvious chord stacked in 3rds so I don't know if it applies or not) . For example does this Fmaj7 chord turn into a chord with A as the root if I change the notes like this or is it still an F chord? http://i794.photobucket.com/albums/yy222/ansthenia/Fmaj7.png >>>>>> http://i794.photobucket.com/albums/yy222/ansthenia/Fmaj7%20Inversion.png Thanks for your time
  6. Yes, but this specific book states a difference in harmonic strength between chord progressions of a fifth and one of a fourth and has examples of C going to G as a fifth and C going to G as a fourth. Whether it's a fourth down or fifth up does have significance they're not interchangeable. So how do you determine if the root movement of C to G is a harmonic fifth up or a harmonic fourth down? Yeah it sounds logical that it's context within the key decides if it's a fourth or fifth, I'll study the book again keeping that in mind see if something clicks in my brain haha.
  7. A key is basically a collection of notes that you decide you are going to use within that section of the song (or the whole song) and this collection of notes always has one note that all the other revolve around. So for example if something was in the "Key of C" it means that the note C is the "home" note of that song (or section of the song if the key changes later), the most stable note without any tension. The simplest way of showing that you would be in the key of C would be to start on a C and end on a C, giving the impression that the piece started at home, moved around a bit and then went back home; the C "feels" like it stabilizes everything and gives everything a base. To say if something would be in the key of C "Major" or C "Minor" means the other notes that are used around that C "base". For example if the key was in "C Major" that means the home base note would be C and the others notes that you can use around C would be D, E, F, G, A, and B. This is based on the C Major scale. If you have a song that would be in the key of C minor then C is still going to be the home, most stable note, but the others notes you can use are going to be a little different (some notes are in both keys): C, D, E♭, F, G, A♭, B♭. Again to make sure C is recognized as the home note in this key (as opposed to it maybe sound like F is the home note) the simplest most basic way is to start on it and end on it, there are other factors however to which note is the home note within a collection of notes. You should learn different scales to be able to use a key, for example if you learn what the A Major scale is then you know what notes are available for you to use (meaning you also know what notes you shouldn't use) for all the different elements in that part of the song that is in A Major. The Key isn't only about the melody or just the bass line, it's everything you can hear going on that belongs to a key. If I say I want a part of the song to be in C Major then that means I have decided the home note and all the other notes that around going to be available to me: C, D, E, F, G, A, B. The melody, bass, background notes, secondary melody or whatever, I would write them all using only the notes that I know are in the key of C major, I can use them in any order I like for each of the different layers going on in that part of the song. Of course each note in a key can have it's own chord, meaning that in the key of C Major the home note could be a home chord; the C major chord. In C Minor this home chord will be a C minor chord, the quality of the home chord (major or minor) always correlates with the key (Key of E minor = home chord of E minor). Also just throwing it out there but the home note of a key is frequently called the "tonic" of the key, and the home chord the "tonic chord". Of course when you start understanding keys better you can do more things like using notes not inside that key and establishing a key in other ways rather than just making sure you start and end on the tonic. Good luck
  8. Hello Just in case of the slim chance that someone who visits here owns Paul Hindemith's book "The Craft of musical composition, Book 1: Theory" I have a question to ask about "degree-progression" that is confusing the hell out of me and if someone here understands it better and could explain it to me it would be greatly appreciated. Hindemith lists the harmonic value of a chord movement first by a fifth: "A progression based on the interval of a fifth between it's roots naturally has a surer foundation than one based on a minor sixth; this is the strongest of all chord progressions" and shows an example of a CMaj chord moving to a GMaj chord. The next strongest chord movement is by a 4th: "the next best chord progression after that based on a fifth is that based on a fourth" and shows an example of a CMaj chord moving to a FMaj chord. So obviously this book differentiates the different chord movements of a fourth and a fifth of having different strength. My confusion is how do you know when the chord progression is a fifth or a fourth? In the example shown a Cmaj chord moving to a Gmaj chord is considered a "fifth". Yet another example in the book shows a G chord moving to a C chord and calls this the movement of a fifth, but the movement "G-C" is exactly the same as "C-F" which was previously said to be a fourth. Hindemith sometimes calls a progression a fifth and then the exact same movement at other points in the book a fourth and vice versa, yet it's not like these are interchangeable as he has already established the difference in strength between a a root movement of a fourth and one of a fifth. I've read it all as carefully as I can but I can't figure out when a chord movement is considered a fifth up or a fourth down/ fourth up or a fifth down. If any understands this could you please give me some pointers?
  9. Hello I'm a little confused with mixing non-triadic chords in with traditional functional triadic progressions. How important is the root tone of the more non-triadic chords? For example, in the key of C major if I use a non-triadic chord that has a root tone of F then does this still function as a typical FMaj chord would in a progression simply because the root tone is still F? A few books I have on contemporary harmony go into how to figure of what the root tone is in a ambiguous non-triadic chord, but I don't really understand why the root tone matters when apparently these chords are "non-functional" anyway. For another example so you understand what I mean let's say in CMaj I start with the chords: CMaj-Amin-E (tones stacked as E-B-A-D, root of chord is E), what is the significance that the root of this chord is E? could it just be though of as a more dissonant alternative to the Mediant triad and function the same way in a progression? Thanks for your time
  10. Also this, couldn't use video code for some reason: -fqOvrdB44I You really can't go wrong with the Final Fantasy soundtracks. I could post so many amazing tracks from that series but there would just be an overwhelming amount. Some of the more popular ones are very melodic stand out stuff though (like the Seymour one I previously posted from Final Fantasy X) rather than being background atmospheric stuff. If you're still interested I can post some of the most popular tracks later. EDIT: Just thought I'd post this one because, while very different to your Zelda example, it has a tremolo-ish vocal at the beginning. It's probably not what you're looking for though: Nobuo Uematsu wrote that "Prologue" track in 5 minutes lol. Apparently at the last second before the game went gold Sakaguchi burst in Nobuo's room and was like "S***! we don't even have a song for this bit here, quick hurry just write anything we need a theme to play here!" and Nobuo was like "F***!" and just quickly wrote the arpeggios lol. It's quite hilarious how popular the track became considering the circumstances in which it was written. Here's the original prelude he wrote if anyone's curious: There were some variations throughout the series, eventually turning it into a grand orchestral score.
  11. I'm a MASSIVE video game music nut, so here's a hefty post of some more modern stuff and some Playstation 1 stuff.These are all 10/10 VG tracks IMO: ^^^^^^This was composed by the Street Fighter II composer, she's still at the top of her game ^^^^^^
  12. Hi everyone There are some orchestral pieces that I really want transcribed for the sake of study, I've searched long and hard and there isn't any sheet music or midi available for them. I was thinking about paying someone to transcribe them for me, but would this be illegal on their part?
  13. Hi everyone. I have some Kontakt samples where the dynamics are controlled using the Mod wheel. How would I go about moving this information to velocity, leaving the mod wheel free for something else?
  14. Hello So I'm going to try and transcribe a complex orchestral piece so I can study it, but it's to hard for me to do just by listening to the song normally. Do you recommend any software to make it easier to hear what's heppening somehow? is there anyhting else you can do to help apart from just slow it down?
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