A Player's Guide to Chords and Harmony (42 page)

ANSWERS TO THE QUIZZES

CHAPTER 1:

1. Pitch, rhythm, loudness, and tone color.

2. E major, B6 major.

3. An interval.

4. A chord.

5. G#, C#, B#.

6. An interval in which two notes have the same pitch.

7. The harp.

8. Beats or beating.

CHAPTER 2:

1. Diminished 4th (if the letter-names are the same as before) or major 3rd.

2. One interval is the inversion of the other.

3. A minor 9th.

4. There are nine half-steps in a diminished 7th, and two half-steps in a diminished 3rd.

5. Diminished 5th, augmented 4th, tritone.

6. The 3rd is a modal step of the scale. Modal steps occur in two principal forms - major and minor. The 5th is a tonal step. Tonal steps occur in one primary form - perfect.

7. A major interval always contains one more half-step than the minor interval with the same number of scale steps.

8. F#, E, E# (not F; F is an augmented 4th below B, not a diminished 5th).

9. Minor 6th, major 7th, diminished 5th.

10. An augmented octave.

CHAPTER 3:

1. An augmented triad.

2. E major: E, G#, B; B minor: B, D, F#; B6 major: B6, D, F; A augmented: A, C#, E# (not F); E6 major: E6, G, B6; F# minor: F#, A, C#; G diminished: G, B6, D6; F diminished: F, A6, C6 (not B); D major: D, F#, A.

3. Dm: D, F, A; F: F, A, C; Adim: A, C, E6; B: B, D#, F#; A6aug: A6, C, E; Cm: C, E6, G; B6: B6, D, F; D6: D6, F, A6; Gaug: G, B, D#; E6m: E6, G6, B6.

4. First inversion.

5. There are four augmented triads.

6. A.

7. First inversion.

8. A minor triad.

9. The root and 5th are doubled more often, the 3rd less often.

10. An open voicing contains gaps into which notes belonging to the chord could be inserted. In a closed voicing, the notes of the chord are as close together as possible.

CHAPTER 4:

1. The changes are the chords used in a song, as assigned to the measures of the song. Harmonic rhythm is the rhythm with which the chords in a progression change. The relative minor of a major key is the minor key whose tonic is a minor 3rd below the tonic of the major key; both keys use the same key signature. A deceptive cadence is a chord progression in which a dominant (V) chord moves to some other chord than the tonic (I). A riff is a short chord progression (or a bass or melodic line) that is repeated.

2. C# minor, C major, C# diminished (or C# minor, if the 6th step of the B minor scale is raised).

3. The tonic.

4. The V chord in minor is usually altered so that it has a major 3rd (the leading tone of the scale). The IV chord is occasionally altered so that it also has a major 3rd. Note that if the 6th and 7th steps of the minor scale are raised in this fashion, all of the diatonic triads except I are altered: II changes from diminished to minor and III from major to augmented because their 5ths are raised, while VI and VII change from major to diminished because their roots are raised. Because the 7th step of the scale is raised more often than the 6th, the triads that are most often affected (at least potentially) are III, V, and VII.

5. The progression in Figure 4-15 is I-II-V-VI-IV-I-II-V-I. The first Dm chord is in first inversion, and so is the C chord in bar 2.

6. The VII triad is used less often than the other diatonic triads, because it's diminished.

CHAPTER 5:

1. Augmented-major 7th, major 7th, dominant 7th, minor-major 7th, minor 7th, half-diminished 7th, diminished 7th (shown in this order in the figure).

2. Minor 7 flat 5 (m765).

3. Three.

4. The tonic.

5. Cm7: C, E6, G, 136; Emaj7: Amaj7: A, C#, E, G#; F7: F, A, C, E6.

6. A triad.

7. The 5th can be most easily omitted.

8. An E7 chord.

9. The lowest notes would be C and D#.

10. None of them.

11. F# diminished; G6 augmented; A major.

12. F. The chord would be a Gm7 in third inversion.

CHAPTER 6:

1. A chord consisting of stacked 2nds is a cluster-chord.

2. Bitonalism.

3. It's a suspended 4th (sus4).

4. Root, 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th. The question does not give enough information to say whether any of the notes above the root is major, minor, augmented, or diminished.

5. Because the note a 15th above the root of a chord is another root.

6. Dmaj9: D, F#, A, C#, E; B67# 11: B6, D, F, A6, C, E; Em 11: E, G, B, D, F#, A; F769#9: F, A, C, E6, G6, G# (the last note can optionally be spelled A6).

7. A flat 5th is the same as a sharp 11th. An augmented 13th would be the same note as the minor 7th.

8. Cm7. A 6 chord sounds sweet.

CHAPTER 7:

1. Ionian (C), Dorian (D), Phrygian (E), Lydian (F), Mixolydian (G), Aeolian (A), Locrian (B).

2. Lydian has a raised 4th step. Phrygian and Locrian have a lowered 2nd step.

3. An anticipation.

4. A passing tone.

5. W-H-W-W-W-W-H.

6. The harmonic minor.

7 F Dorian (or possibly F Aeolian).

8. Two whole-tone scales and three diminished scales.

9. Five tones.

10. A blue note is a note of the scale that is being played flat or sharp, and not necessarily by an equal-tempered half-step. Except when played on a keyboard, blue notes are "in the cracks" between equal-tempered pitches.

11. D minor pentatonic (which is the same as F major pentatonic).

12. The perfect 4th or perfect 5th.

CHAPTER 8:

1. A turnaround.

2. Three.

3. A chorus is one iteration of - in other words, once through - the entire chord progression (often, though not necessarily, 32 bars in length).

4. A tag is a portion of a song or arrangement, usually brief, that is played at the end of a chorus or the end of the entire performance of the song.

5. Modulation.

6. A pedal (or pedal tone).

7. Contrary motion.

8. E6. G.

INDEX