Harmony for the compleat idiot (7)

...continued from front page

SUS4 CHORDS:

Chord Symbol	Notes in Chord
Csus4	C F G
Fsus4	F Bb C
Bbsus4	Bb Eb F
Ebsus4	Eb Ab Bb
Absus4	Ab Db Eb
Dbsus4	Db Gb Ab
Gbsus4	Gb Cb Db
Bsus4	B E F#
Esus4	E A B
Asus4	A D E
Dsus4	D G A
Gsus4	G C D

SUS2 CHORDS:

Chord Symbol	Notes in Chord
Csus2	C D G
Fsus2	F G C
Bbsus2	Bb C F
Ebsus2	Eb F Bb
Absus2	Ab Bb Eb
Dbsus2	Db Eb Ab
Gbsus2	Gb Ab Db
Bsus2	B C# F#
Esus2	E F# B
Asus2	A B E
Dsus2	D E A
Gsus2	G A D

How did you go? If you got them all right, you get an elephant stamp!

Made some mistakes? Don't panic! Reread the harmony article in the last issue carefully and try to find your error; you may need to go back to previous issues if you can't find it. If all else fails, email me.

More on the dots

Last time we started examining the wonderful world of music notation. You learnt about the treble clef and what note a dot on each line or space represents. (If you are still confused go back to the last issue, if you already know how to read music, skip this bit).

I promised you that this time I'd explain how the system handles sharps and flats. This is really simple. If a note is to be sharpened or flattened we simply put the appropriate sign before the note.

Here's some examples.

This is a B:

If we want it to be a Bb, we just put a flat sign in front of it like this:

Sharps work the same, here's F:

and here's F#

The sharp or flat sign must be centered on the appropriate line or space so there is no confusion about which note we want sharpened or flattened. We can even specify a single note in a chord. Here's the chord Bb Major:

You should remember that the notes in this chord are Bb, D and F. Notice that the "b" sign is centered on the third line so that it is only referring to notes on that line - ie: B's.

"Double flats" and "double sharps" are treated exactly the same. Here's Gbb for example:

…and Fx (remember that "x" means double sharp. Printed notation uses a fancy "x", writing a straightforward one by hand is fine):

Now here are all the sus4 chords we worked out as they would appear in music notation:

Check them with the answers we gave at the beginning of this article and make sure you understand how it works. If you get confused, refer to previous issues and if you are still stuck email me.

How about the sus2 chords? …here they are!:

Flats and sharps that appear before individual notes are called "accidentals" and there are rules governing how long they affect notes on the particular line or space. Flats and sharps can also appear at the beginning of a piece of music as a "key signature' where they remain active for the whole piece of music. In both of these cases the flats and sharps can affect other notes of the same name but on different lines or spaces. For example, a flat on the third line (B) can also affect the B's above the first ledger line above and below the first ledger line below. We'll go into this in greater detail later, for the moment presume that the flats and sharps only affect the note they are immediately in front of.

Some other three note chords

There are two other common three note chords:
1. The diminished chord and
2. The augmented chord

THE DIMINISHED CHORD
You can view this chord like a sort of "super minor" chord. A diminished chord has not only a flattened third (third note of the major scale) but also a flattened fifth. The diminished sign is either "dim" or a small circle, here's what they look like:

Cdim

Co (sometimes the circle is "superscript" like this :Co It doesn't really make any difference, the circle means diminished in both cases.)

So… we already know that the letter means the first third and fifth notes of the major scale, the "dim" or circle tells you to flatten both the third and the fifth.

Example:
Cdim

1. The "C" tells us that we need the first, third and fifth notes of the C major scale, they are (and you should be able to work this out from your knowledge of key signatures) C, E and G.

2. The "dim" tells us to flatten both the third and fifth so we get C, Eb and Gb

Here's how it will look in musical notation:

If the symbol had been "Co" or "Co" the result would have been identical. Lets do another one:

Do

1. The "D" tells us that we need the first, third and fifth notes of the D major scale, they are (and you should be able to work this out from your knowledge of key signatures) D, F# and A.

2. The "dim" tells us to flatten both the third and fifth so we get D, F and Ab

Here's how it will look in musical notation:

If the symbol had been "Do" or "Ddim" the result would have been identical.

THE AUGMENTED CHORD
You can view this chord like a sort of "stretched major" chord. An augmented chord is a major chord with a sharpened fifth. The augmented sign is either "aug" or a small cross, here's what they look like:

Caug

C+ (sometimes the cross is "superscript" like this :C+ It doesn't really make any difference, the cross means augmented in both cases.)

So… we already know that the letter means the first third and fifth notes of the major scale, the "aug" or cross tells you to sharpen the fifth.

Example:
Caug

1. The "C" tells us that we need the first, third and fifth notes of the C major scale, they are (and you should be able to work this out from your knowledge of key signatures) C, E and G.

2. The "aug" tells us to sharpen the fifth so we get C, E and G#

Here's how it will look in musical notation:

If the symbol had been "C+" or "C+" the result would have been identical. Lets do another one:

D+

1. The "D" tells us that we need the first, third and fifth notes of the D major scale, they are (and you should be able to work this out from your knowledge of key signatures) D, F# and A.

2. The "+" tells us to sharpen the fifth so we get D, F# and A#

Here's how it will look in musical notation:

If the symbol had been "D+" or "Daug" the result would have been identical.

For homework work out all 12 diminished and all 12 augmented chords. You will have to use double sharps and double flats if you want to maintain one letter per step in your scale, be aware of what these notes are in simpler terms, eg: Dbb is the same as C#.

A TWO NOTE CHORD
We have now dealt with most of the three note chords (there is another category called "added" chords but we will deal with them later). At this point we should mention an unusual chord which has become common in recent years. This is often called a "power chord" and consists of only two notes. It became common in late 1970's "new wave" music. The power chord consists of only two notes, the tonic or first note of the scale and the fifth. The symbol for this chord is the numeral 5. so… when we see a letter followed by a 5, the 5 means take away the third.

Example:

C5 (sometimes the "5" appears in superscript like this: C5. This means exactly the same thing)

1. the "C" tells us to use the first, third and fifth note of the C major scale. (C, E and G)
2. the "5" tells us to leave out the third (E).

so we get a chord made of these two notes: C and G

Here's how it will look in musical notation:

The power chord is unusual in that it does not suggest either a major or a minor sound and is sort of ambivalent. Clever use of this chord can produce a piece of music which alternates between major sounding and minor sounding depending on the notes in the melody. ("Prisoner of Society" by The Living End is a good example)

Work out all 12 "Power chords"

Next time we will look at some four note chords and examine some chord progressions.

Home

CD REVIEWS

Gut Funk Goolies
Beaut Bach
Leech Gramophone
CD 1-A190-2 $7.12

This is the live set we've all been waiting for. First, we all grooved and hollered to twelve prime fat-trimmed cuts on Get that Flunky Outa my House; then came the studio concept album, Stew, the Bobby-sock Bruiser; and now comes this two-CD set of material derived from both these albums, recorded at a series of concerts the boys (and their mum) played at the Concertballou in Sevastopol and at Kiev's Krashniy Ploshad Gardens last June and July.
Candy Grandhorn's existential lyrics sounding over the group's improvised extensions of the Great Fugue from Bach's Kunst der Fuge, sustained in particular by Piet Vest's obligato pizzicato grooves on electric spoons and the solid underpinning of Potsiy Flotziy's mule kick, sound even more keening and soulfully self-destructive than ever before. The entrance of Ruben Flannel's fuzz wah guitar on Contrapunctus 12 a 4, rectus et inversus must be one of the most unexpected contributions to modern music since Lee Morgan took a bullet on stage.
As Walter Fallow, jazz critic and bun eater, who was present at the Concertballou on the evening many of these pieces were recorded, said on leaving the venue: "Why can't you ever get a taxi around this shit hole?" Five earplugs.

Caitlin Lee Street Screamers
Livin' in a Cave on Moss
F'off Records
CD 232B $26.50

Caitlin Lee has done it again. This time she screams her way through a host of standards like you've never heard them before. The two originals on the album show the more tender side of Lee as she screams her way through lyrics such as "My bonny sweet baby/may your sleepy hours/see you to a dawn/ripening as you wake/into the vital flow/of choices to make/screeeeeeeeeeeechchchchchch".
Lee's approaches to such beloved standards as Take the A Train, Dickwad, Surrey with the Dickwad on Top and Vladimir Lenin and Joe McCarthy's Puny Lane, Dickwad transform what might otherwise be just tiresome and predictable renditions of familiar tunes into something not just shocking and provocative but downright intrusive and repugnant.
"Who are you? What do you want?" asked a cleaner at the Australian Stock Exchange when asked about the album.
Indeed! Sure to be a classic. Four and a half earplugs and a ransom note.

Home