Bellevue SPA Theory/Composition

The Song

2009-03-30T10:15:00.002-05:00

All right everyone -- here it is. The song we are going to be working on for the remaining 4 weeks of classes. (By the way -- class is canceled today, March 30). You can download the file below, print it, and begin working on "fleshing it out." Here are some things we will need/want for this song:

Harmonization (chords)
Structure (form -- verses, choruses, intros, bridges, interludes, etc.)
Instrumentation

The list could go on. For example, we could have a drum loop going on. We could have an ostinato in the treble or bass. We could have an a capella section. We could have a bridge featuring a string quartet. The song could be for a soloist, or an ensemble, or a choir, or a combination of any of those. We could use the idea of a canon to have counter-melodies (descant) going on. The options are endless.

So put some thought into it and bring all your ideas to the next class. This is our song -- don't let it be written without your thoughts put forth. Thanks and God bless!

Josh

Here is the song

Class 4a

2009-03-02T17:38:00.003-06:00

Sorry for not posting last class. For now, this class post is for the composition assignment. Here are the lyrics to the "hymn":

1 Jesus, lover of my soul,
let me to thy bosom fly,
while the nearer waters roll,
while the tempest still is high.
Hide me, O my Savior, hide,
till the storm of life is past;
safe into the haven guide;
O receive my soul at last.

2 Other refuge have I none,
hangs my helpless soul on thee;
leave, ah! leave me not alone,
still support and comfort me.
All my trust on thee is stayed,
all my help from thee I bring;
cover my defenseless head
with the shadow of thy wing.

3 Wilt Thou not regard my call?
Wilt Thou not accept my prayer?
Lo! I sink, I faint, I fall-
Lo! on Thee I cast my care;
Reach me out Thy gracious hand!
While I of Thy strength receive,
Hoping against hope I stand,
dying, and behold, I live.

4 Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
more than all in thee I find;
raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
heal the sick, and lead the blind.
Just and holy is thy name,
I am all unrighteousness;
false and full of sin I am;
thou art full of truth and grace.

5 Plenteous grace with thee is found,
grace to cover all my sin;
let the healing streams abound,
make and keep me pure within.
Thou of life the fountain art,
freely let me take of thee;
spring thou up within my heart;
rise to all eternity.

There you are. So here the rules again:

The song must have a melody. It would be nice to have a harmony (parts, chords, Roman numeral, et al.).
You can use part or all of the lyrics. You may change, take away, or add to them. I'm more interested in a concept than a total dedication to every word.
I would like to see the melody written out. If you have any other parts (instrumental, bridge, etc.) it would also be nice to see them written out.
You do not have to have everything written out in publishable form. Just a sketch will do.

If you have any other questions, feel free to email. We will continue to look at the Bach Prelude soon and compare it to an old pop song. Thanks for your dedication. God bless-

Josh

P.S. Here is a link to the homework.

Class 2a

2009-02-09T17:48:00.002-06:00

So here's the homework assignment:

transcription1

Click on the link above to listen to the song. There is 1 verse followed by 1 chorus. The song is in 4/4 and has a pick up beat. Oh, and it's in the key of Db (the first note is also a Db). Email me at jstewart@bellevue.org if you have any questions.

More about today's class to come . . .

Josh

Class 1a

2009-02-03T13:33:00.002-06:00

Welcome back everybody! I'm excited about this coming semester, and I hope you are too. This is going to be the time where we put to use all the information we've learned so far. So let's get to it.

In this week's class we reviewed the main points of last semester: key sigantures, scale degrees and functions, and chords. If you are unsure about any of those topics, scroll down and review.

We then talked about the primary chords of any key: the tonic (I), dominant (V), and subdominant (IV). These three chords make up the bulk of modern music, especially pop, rock, country, and contemporary Christian. Other genres, like jazz, still use them, but add to them or substitute for them (we will be talking about substitutions next class). For now, we're interested in adding these three chords to a melody. To do that, pay attention to the strong notes of the melody, or the notes on the strong beats. A lot of times melodies will suggest their own harmonies. Also, make sure that the notes of the melody don't clash too much with the harmony. If your melody has a passage of the notes "E F G C" and you try to use a G chord to harmonize those notes, there will be a lot of dissonance with the C and, to a lesser degree, the E.

There are some "rules" for harmonizing this way, but for now I'm going to trust your ears. If I see some odd sounding harmonies, I may start imposing more rules -- but if you don't know be now, I'm not a big fan of rules in music. The structure of the musical language (order and propriety) imply its own guidelines (in my humble opinion), so I try to steer away from dogmatic lists of rules when the obvious is obvious. Enough said about that.

Don't forget your assignments: analyze the chords on the homework sheet (see below) and write an 8-bar melody using the pentatonic scale. The pentatonic scale is a five note scale using notes 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 (for any key). Please email if you have any questions. Thanks!

Josh

P.S. Here is the homework.

Class 11

2008-11-28T08:29:00.006-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you all had lots of food and fun times yesterday. I am in Virginia with family right now and was just thinking that I hadn't posted yet. So here it is.

Last class was sort of a continuation of last week's class. We talked about the diatonic chords in a minor key. You remember the diatonic chords in a major key, right?

I ii iii IV V vi vii°

The diatonic chords in a minor key are similar, with one exception. First, think of the minor chords as the relative minors to the major chords. If we begin on scale degree 6 (vi) and turn it into our new 1 (i), we can write our minor chords as follows:

i ii° III iv v VI VII

Does that make sense? The relative minor of a major key (take C major, for example) is a 3rd below the tonic (so the relative minor of C major is A minor). So our tonic chord (the one chord) for A minor is the same as the vi chord in C major.

Here's the exception I was talking about. Remember minor scales -- natural, harmonic, melodic? I talked about how the harmonic scale was the most used minor scale. This is because the 7th scale degree is raised a half step. This raised 7th scale degree creates a nice lead-in to the 1, and is used more than the regular, diatonic natural 7. Anyway, if we raise the 7th scale scale degree in our minor chords, we change the chords that use the 7th. This means the v chord, whose middle tone is the 7th degree, becomes major (V) and the VII chord, whose root is the 7th degree, becomes diminished (vii°). We will leave the III chord alone for right now, even though its top note is the 7th degree. So with those two changes, we now have:

i ii° III iv V VI vii°

If you don't quite understand yet, don't worry. We'll review much of this next semester as we get into more composition. For now, just remember that the V chord is major whether you are in a minor key or a major key (and also that the vii° chord is diminished).

By the way, we do have class this coming Monday (December 1). Thanks again for your faithfulness. God bless!

Josh

P.S. Here's a link to the homework.

Class 10

2008-11-24T11:55:00.003-06:00

Wow. Ten classes so far. You guys have really come a long way really fast. I'm proud of you all for sticking with it and learning some great stuff. Last class was another sort of "practice" day where we tried out some things we've learned. We transcribed sets of four notes in a given key signature. We looked some more at analyzing hymns (which we will do more of next semester). I've decided to go ahead and have class today (November 24) in spite of the fact that some of you are out of town. You should be fine if you check the blog later on after class. There will be a pretty substantial homework sheet for today's upcoming class, so make sure you take a look at it. I will let all of you know about next week.

later!

Josh

Class 9

2008-11-17T15:57:00.003-06:00

Okay, so I'm a week late with this post. Sorry. We didn't go over much new information in this class, which is fine because we're getting into some pretty thick theory.

Roman numeral analysis is tedious at first, but I promise it gets easier. Remember when you were learning to read? (I don't actually remember that far back, but I'm imagining here.) You knew your alphabet already, and you knew how to speak. Learning to read was simply a matter of putting together these letters you knew into words you knew. Well, maybe it wasn't as easy as that, but you get the idea. Think of chords as words. We're taking the notes you already know and putting them together to form sounds you already are familiar with. This median process of reading the chords is much like reading words. Once you begin figuring out patterns and common happenings (like cadences), the whole thing becomes much easier.

In this class we learned about secondary dominants. A secondary dominant is any non-diatonic chord that functions as the dominant (leading) to its own tonic. For example, say we're in the key of G. You're going along minding your own business when all of a sudden you see an A chord. Well an A chord has a C#, which is not in the key signature, so you make a guess that this chord may be a secondary dominant. You look at the next chord and see that it's a D chord. You think about it and remember that an A chord is the dominant of D (in other words, an A chord is the dominant -- 5th -- in the key of D). This A chord is functioning as a secondary dominant.

More on secondary chords later. Your homework was to analyze the hymn "Holy, Holy, Holy." God bless!

Josh

Class 8

2008-11-04T16:00:00.003-06:00

In today's class we transcribed a song from memory and began analyzing a hymn. Both of these exercises combine a lot of what we've learned from all previous classes -- such as key signatures, intervals, chords, etc. To me, this is where the rubber meets the road. As you keep practicing skills like transcribing and analyzing music, you will become more comfortable with the language aspect of music. Some day I hope it becomes second nature to you so that you can think and "speak" in the musical language.

In transcribing music, it is important to recognize the tonal center of the song, which is the tonic, or first scale degree. Then you can relate all the other pithes to it and to each other. We will be doing some more transcription from memory soon.

Roman numeral analysis is a much more scientific exercise. I haven't yet formalized any set of steps for analyzing a piece of music, but this might help you if you're having some trouble:

First write down (somewhere on the page) all of the diatonic triads of the key the song is in. This will help you unscramble the notes of each chord.
Figure out if the chord has three notes or more than three notes. Three notes equals a triad, so one of the pitches is being doubled. Ignore the doubled pitch and then figure out what chord it is.
If there are four pitches, think dominant 7th. It could be something else, but it is most likely a dominant 7th (meaning it is a V chord).
Figure out the inversion. The inversion is determined by the bass note. No exception. If the bass note is on the root, the entire chord is in root position, et al.

Also be on the lookout for notes that are hanging over. Any note that is sounding counts as part of the chord.

I talked to some of you about your thoughts on the class so far and whether or not to continue next semester. I got good feedback and am definitely thinking about continuing next spring. There is so much left to learn, and I don't claim to know it all. But there is a lot left we could learn and compose. I'll keep you updated.

One more thing. Some of you mentioned you won't be here the Monday of Thanksgiving week. Let me know if you'll be here or not. Either email me or leave a comment or text me (859-2298). Thanks!

Josh

P.S. Here's a link to the homework.

Class 7

2008-10-29T13:57:00.002-05:00

Sorry I'm a little late posting for this class. And I promise we'll get to your compositions soon enough.

This class was a review of last week. We went over triads, seventh chords, and inversions. Seventh chords are tricky because you have to know the lingo that goes along with the symbols. Remember this:

A plain 7 (like G⁷) refers to a dominant seventh -- a major triad with a minor 7th
A minor 7 (like C#m⁷) refers to a minor triad with a minor 7th
A major 7 (like Abmaj⁷) refers to a major triad with a major 7th
A diminished 7th and half diminished 7th are similar except for the 7th (dim 7th has a dim 7th, a half dim has a minor 7th)
Other 7th chords explicitly spell out the notes (like a Cm^maj7 -- a minor triad with a major 7)

We also discussed the diatonic chords (labeled with Roman numerals). Remember? They are:

I ii iii IV V vi vii°

So if we build diatonic triads on each of the notes of a major scale, we get a major 1, a minor 2, a minor 3, a major 4, a major 5, a minor 6, and a diminished 7.

Once we know what chords are diatonic, we can easily analyze a lot of music by determining what chords are being spelled and figuring out what inversion the chord is. Pretty easy, right? I hope so. We will soon see chords that are not entirely diatonic, and we will need to determine why they aren't diatonic and what function they serve. (For those of you who have heard the term functional harmony, that's what we will be learning.)

Thanks for your faithfulness and willingness to learn. God bless!

Josh

P.S. Homework coming soon.

Class 6

2008-10-21T17:04:00.004-05:00

Chords. The foundation of modern Western music. I have not yet talked about another very important side of composing -- counterpoint -- but perhaps soon we can talk about it. In today's class we finished our study of chords (for now) by learning about inversion and seventh chords. Last week we studied triads -- chords of three notes. We learned how to spell major, minor, diminished, and augmented chords in what is called root position (or the snowman look). Because there are three notes, there are actually three different arrangements of the notes, meaning the order they appear. In an F major chord (F A C), we can arrange the notes three ways:

F A C (root position)
A C F (1st inversion)
C F A (2nd inversion)

When we change the order of notes, the important note sounds at the bottom, so that each of the three notes gets its turn at sounding the lowest. We talked about labeling the inversions in Roman numeral analysis (e.i., I⁶) and modern day chord writing (e.i., F/A).

We then discussed seventh chords, which have four notes. The main purpose of seventh chords is to operate as a dominant chord so that it leads your ear to the tonic. That means that a lot of seventh chords, serving as the dominant (5th scale degree), suggest a strong movement up a 4th. Can you figure out why? We'll talk about it. Anyway, there are several types of seventh chords. The more important are:

Dominant seventh (e.i. C7, or C major minor 7) -- major chord with a minor 7th
Major seventh (e.i. Cmaj7) -- major chord with a major 7th
Minor seventh (e.i. Cm7) -- minor chord with a minor 7th
Diminished seventh (e.i. Cº7th) -- diminished chord with a diminished 7th

There is also a half diminished seventh chord, and the symbol for that is the degree mark with a slash through it -- ^ø. The half diminished seventh chord is a diminished chord with a minor seventh.

If you are having difficulty with chords or have any questions, please email me (jstewart@bellevue.org). You need to understand chords in order to go on with this class. Melody lines are very important, and we will continue developing our melody writing skills, but chordal harmony is what gives life and color to melody, and we will spend a good deal of time in the next weeks harmonically analyzing songs and pieces.

Thanks for all your participation. We had a great time listening to everyone's ideas yesterday. God bless!

Josh

P.S. Here's a link to the homework.

Class 5

2008-10-14T15:02:00.004-05:00

This class we reviewed all the intervals and began our adventure into the study of chords, specifically the triad (chords made with three notes). The triad could be called the foundation of modern Western music, and it is the triad that differentiates Western music from the East.

There are four main types of triadic chords: major, minor, diminished, and augmented. Major chords are diatonic, meaning they use the key signature of the root. Remember the root -- the bottom note of the basic triad. It defines the triad. To make a minor chord, you lower the middle note a half step. To make a diminished chord, you lower the middle and upper note a half step. To make an augmented chord, you raise the top note a half step. And that's it. Pretty simple.

Probably the only other often used variation of the triad is the suspended chord. We didn't talk about this in class, but the suspended chord is traditionally a passing chord, meaning that you leave it, or resolve it. To make a suspended chord, you raise the middle note a half step. Try it out on a piano. Once you play a suspended chord, your ears naturally want the middle note to lower back a half step to the major. Oh wait -- actually, you can suspend a minor chord too. It's just that you have to raise that middle note a whole step instead of a half step. Can you figure out why?

We also completed a melody in class. I had a good time hearing what you guys wrote. We're going to keep down that path until we get into some longer compositions. For now, just remember a few of these principles (not rules) of melody writing:

Keep a majority of the intervals small (2nds or 3rds)
If you have big leaps, make sure they agree with your ear
Think big picture -- look at the shape of the melody and balance it
Keep similar rhythm patterns unless you intentionally want to change the mood
End on the tonic

Ok? Don't forget your composition assignment. Write an 8 or 16 measure melody with any time signature and key signature. Have fun, but keep in mind the principles we talked about. Thanks and God bless!

Josh

P.S. Here's a link to the homework.

Class 4

2008-09-29T19:36:00.002-05:00

Intervals, intervals, intervals. I promise it gets a little easier.

Today we talked about all intervals of all qualities. By the way, the quality of an interval refers to its type (major, minor, etc.). The easiest way to identify intervals is to begin with the key signature of the beginning note. You remember from last class that the qualities of diatonic intervals are:

P1(unison) M2 M3 P4 P5 M6 M7 P8(octave)

So from there, you can figure out how to get to the other qualities of intervals. They are (from ascending to descending:

Augmented (A)
Major (M)
Minor (m)
Diminished (d)

Or, if the interval is of the perfect type:

Augmented (A)
Perfect (P)
Diminished (d)

Don't forget: perfect intervals are never major or minor. That is why they are perfect.

Before I end this post, let me work through an example or two just to spark your memory. Suppose you are given a Gb and are asked to find the interval a minor 7th above. You know that a 7th above G is F, so you think about the key signature of Gb to see what type of F it is. Gb has 6 flats, but F is the only natural note. So Gb to F is a MAJOR 7th. To get to the minor 7th, you must lower the F a half step. So Gb to Fb is a minor 7th.

Suppose you are given a B and are asked to find the interval an augmented 6th above. You know that G is a 6th above B, and then you think of the key signature of B to see what type of G is diatonic (remember, diatonic 6ths are major). You know B has 5 sharps, of which G is one. So B to G# is a major sixth. To get the augmented sixth, you must raise the G# a half step (Gx). So B to Gx is an augmented sixth.

Last example. Let's say you have an imaginary key given, like finding a diminshed 5th above D#. Well, there is no D# key signature, so we must think in its enharmonic, Eb. A perfect 5th above Eb is Bb, so a diminished 5th would be Bbb. You must then think of the enharmonic for Bbb that would be a type of 5th above D, in other words, some type of A. The enharmonic of Bbb that starts with an A is A natural. So, A diminished 5th above D# is A natural (and you thought it would be something weird!).

By the way, there is an easier way to find those imaginary key intervals. Ask me next class and I'll tell you how.

Last thing I briefly mentioned was interval inversion. This means finding out the interval below the given note. The formula was:

9 - interval = inverted interval

Important: major and minor are reversed for inversion. So a major 6th inverted becomes a minor 3rd. Perfects stay perfect, so a perfect 5th inverted is a perfect 4th.

God bless!

Josh

Class 3

2008-09-22T22:28:00.003-05:00

Thanks to everyone for being faithful with their homework assignments. You all are progressing quickly because you are willing to work. Thanks.

Today was a working day. We reviewed minor scales and then jumped right in to sight singing by scale degrees. We learned the intervals from the tonic based on key signatures. Remember, these intervals are diatonic but are only true when you start from the tonic (1). They are:

M2 M3 P4 P5 M6 M7 P8

M=major

P=perfect

4ths, 5ths, and octaves are perfect, never major or minor. 2nds, thirds, sixths, and sevenths can be major or minor. We will talk about the other alterations later.

We also talked about recognizing intervals aurally. This is not so much the science part of theory as the art part, but there are some ways to remember the differences between the way intervals sound:

2nd -- close together
3rd -- sweet
4th -- "Amazing Grace"
5th -- "Star Wars"
6th -- NBC sound
7th -- harsh
8th -- sounds like the same note

Different teachers may teach these differently, but this is just how I remember the intervals.

Next class: an in-class group project and altered intervals. God bless.

Josh

P.S. Here's a link to the homework.

Class 2

2008-09-15T20:47:00.004-05:00

Major keys. Minor keys. Scales and more. Here's what we covered today:

Circle of 5ths (minor)
Scale degrees
Major scales
Minor scales (natural, harmonic, and melodic)
Intervals

We finished talking about the circle of 5ths by discussing relative minor keys. Remember, to find the relative minor, you take the major key you're in and move down a third (keeping in mind the key signature). So if you're in the key of Db major, the relative minor is Bb minor (because B is flat in the key of Db).

Major and minor scales are made up of seven distinct notes, and each note holds a numerical value in that scale relative to the beginning (1, or tonic). The 5th scale degree is called the dominant and is important because, in a way, it defines the tonic. The 4th note is the subdominant.

Last thing. There are three forms of a minor scale. The diatonic form (following the key signature) is called the natural minor scale. To get the harmonic minor scale, you simply raise the 7th note. The melodic minor scale is achieved by raising the 6th and 7th notes going up and then lowering them coming down. Also remember the hierarchy of altering notes:

double sharp (x)
sharp (#)
natural
flat (b)
double flat (bb)

Make sure that whenever you have finished writing your scales that you have seven distinct notes. Like today in class, when we write the a# harmonic minor scale, we must write:

A# G# B# C# D# E# F# Gx(not A) A#

If you were to write an A natural instead of G double sharp, you would end up with two types of A's and no form of G. Make sense?

I realize today's class was pretty heavy, but it should get a little more interesting as we start moving past the basics. Thanks for all your hard work. God bless.

Josh

P.S. Here's a link to the homework.

Class 1

2008-09-08T20:46:00.008-05:00

Great class today. I'm looking forward to the semester. Here's what we covered today:

Key signatures
The circle of 5ths
Simple rhythmic dictation

Remember, the order of flats is BEADGCF. The order of sharps is just the opposite, FCGDAEB. For flats, you know what key you're in by looking at the next to last flat (exception: one flat is the key of F). For sharps, you know what key you're in by taking the last sharp and then moving up one note (just remember to take into account whether the note you're moving to is itself a sharped note).

The circle of fifths looks like this:

This diagram tells us the order of key signatures by adding sharps (moving clockwise) or adding flats (moving counter clockwise). The three key signatures at the bottom of the circle are the enharmonic keys, meaning they have two names.

Next class, we will look at minor key signatures and begin learning the intervals -- aurally and written. We will look at the homework I gave you and talk about scales. I trust that this is coming naturally to you. If not, shoot me an email at jstewart@bellevue.org and we'll talk. God bless.

P.S. Here's a link to the homework.

Intro

2008-09-08T15:03:00.004-05:00

Hey everyone! I'm excited about the class this afternoon. I've come up with a rough syllabus for the class. Honestly, I am going to taylor the class to whatever level you guys are at, but these are the things we're definitely going to learn:

• Key signatures (circle of 5ths)
• Scales
• Rhythms and time signatures
• Intervals
• Chords (tertian) and inversions
• Chords (7ths and beyond) and inversions
• Advanced scales
• Functional harmony
• Melody writing
• Harmonizing a melody

This may seem like a ton of stuff, or it may seem simple. Whatever the case, I hope you enjoy what's to come. I've discovered over my course that the more you learn about music, the more you realize there's more to learn about music. No one knows everything. The best classical piano player probably can't sing jazz, and the composer of a film score may know nothing of Eastern music. That's the beauty of music. It is a form of art given to us by an infinite God Who will not let us think too highly of ourselves, but Who desires for us to use music (and other resources) to know Him and worship Him.

Again, I'm looking forward to working with you all. God bless!

josh