- Hi, well this quick tip is coming to you
in the form of a harmony quiz.
So, if you're not really into harmony yet,
this may not be the quiz for you.
If you're into it and you just want to see
where you're at to what you
know and what you don't,
this could be quite a helpful one.
So, I've put a bit of four-part harmony
up on the board there and
I'm going to ask 10 questions
just to see how you get on with it.
But, just before we do
that let me play it to you
so you can hear how it goes and follow it.
And just listening to
it I'm sure you heard
there are various
interesting things going on.
Okay, so let me shoot 10 questions
and when we get to the end
we'll see how you get on with it.
The first question is: which
key is this piece of music in?
Which key is the piece in?
Question two: what do you
notice about the final chord?
What do you notice about the final chord?
Question three: can you
name the final cadence?
Can you name the final cadence?
Question four: can you find
an example of a passing note?
Can you find an example of a passing note?
Question five: can you find
somewhere in this piece
where there is an auxiliary note?
Can you find somewhere in this piece
where there is an auxiliary note?
Question six: can you show
us an example somewhere here
of an anticipatory note?
Can you find an example
of an anticipatory note?
Question seven: can you
find a seventh chord
within the key?
So can you find a seventh
chord within the key?
Question eight: can you find
a diminished seventh chord?
Can you find a diminished seventh chord?
Question nine: can you
find a Neapolitan chord?
Can you find a Neapolitan chord?
And the final question 10:
can you find an augmented
sixth chord and furthermore,
can you say what kind of
augmented sixth chord it is?
Well I wonder how you
got on with all of that
and if I'm talking a foreign
language please don't let it
worry you at all and if you
look in our advanced theory
package of films you can find the answers
to all of this.
But let me run through the
answers for those of you
who've been able to engage with that quiz.
First of all, what's the key of the piece?
Well, there's one sharp
in the key signature
so that tells us there
are two possibilities,
G major or E minor.
This piece is in E minor.
The D-sharps are a little bit of a clue.
Sometimes it's D-sharp,
sometimes it's D-natural
but that's what you might
expect in a minor key
because it's the raised seventh.
Sometimes we do that, sometimes we don't.
It's even got a C-sharp
here because sometimes
we raise the sixth
degree in a minor scale.
So, the first chord's a chord of E minor
so you know all these
things are indicators that
we're in the key of E minor.
Question two, what did you
notice about the final chord?
Well, we're in the key of
E minor so we're expecting
the last chord to be a chord of E minor,
and, actually it turns out
to be a chord of E major.
Because we've got a G-sharp
in the alto part instead
of a G-natural and that's
a little musical device
called a tierce de picardie.
So, that was the thing to notice.
Question three, name the final cadence.
Well, the last cadence goes chord V7
to chord I with a tierce de picardie.
So, it's a perfect cadence.
Question four, show an
example of a passing note.
Well, passing notes in this
piece, here we are the F-sharp
in the soprano is passing between G and E.
G and E both belong to the chord.
It's a chord I in E-minor.
F-sharp is just passing by step between.
There's also passing
note in the alto part.
We're going from B to G.
The B and the G belong to the chord.
The A doesn't, but it's passing by step.
So, there we are.
Really, what you've
got there is an example
of double passing notes.
Question five, show an
example of an auxiliary note.
Well, here's an auxiliary
note, this C-sharp.
The D-sharp belongs to the chord.
We come down a note to a note
that doesn't belong to the chord,
and then we come back
up to the note we left.
So, that's an example of
a lower auxiliary note.
Or, here is an example of
an upper auxiliary note.
The C belongs to this
chord as does this C.
The D is just going up
one and coming back.
So, that's an upper auxiliary note.
Show an example of an anticipatory note.
Well, C here in the soprano
part is anticipating the C
that belongs to the next chord.
So, D belongs to this chord.
C doesn't, but it's anticipating
that C that comes next.
Question seven, finding a
seventh chord within the key.
Well, here's an example of that.
This is a V7 chord in its last inversion,
because the seventh is in the bass,
so we say that's a V7d chord,
or we've already talked
about this V7 chord there,
so you could've talked about that because
those are both seventh chords
within the key of E minor.
Find a diminished seventh
chord was question eight.
The diminished seventh chord comes here.
Do you see that G-sharp and
an F-natural and a B and a D.
So, that's the diminished seventh chord.
Question nine was find a Neapolitan chord.
The Neapolitan chord comes here.
Remember a Neapolitan chord is built
on the flattened second
degree of the scale,
so we're in E minor, the
second degree is F-sharp.
So, flatten it by a semitone, F-natural,
build a major chord, F, A, C,
usually put it in first
inversion for a Neapolitan.
That's exactly what you've got there.
Lovely, colourful chord there, isn't it?
And, then the last question was
to find an example of an augmented sixth
and to say what it is.
It's here at the end of this bar.
C, E, G and A-sharp.
That is an augmented sixth chord,
and to be absolutely precise,
this is an example of a German sixth.
So, see how you got on.
How many marks out of 10 will tell
you something about what your knowledge
of some of these slightly off
the wall harmonic things are.
You can always watch our
advanced theory films if
you want to know more about them.
Or, you may just want to look at this
and maybe play it, listen to it.
So you can hear what
some of these chords are
that just give us a bit of colour.
