- Hi.
I'm Gareth, and in this video,
we're going to have a
think about this matter
of dealing with inessential notes.
Now, first of all, let's be
clear what we mean by this.
When we want to harmonise
a melody such as this,
obviously we want to look for chords.
Okay, well first of all,
which key are we in?
We've got three sharps,
so we could be in A major
or we could be in the
relative minor, F-sharp minor.
Let's have a quick look through the piece.
Well the first thing is, I can
see quite a few accidentals.
Accidentals could be telling us
a number of things, actually,
they could be telling us
we're moving to another key,
so it might be modulating
during the course of a piece
that's fundamentally in A major.
It could be that some of these accidentals
are chromatic notes
that are just decorating
and colouring the melody in some way.
But they also could be
indicating a minor key.
So if we were in F-sharp minor,
which are the accidentals
we're most expecting to see?
Well, in the harmonic minor,
we're going to raise the
seventh degree of the scale.
So that's going to be E
being raised to E-sharp.
If we're in the melodic minor scale,
we might be raising the sixth
as well as the seventh
degree of the scale,
normally in an ascending context.
So the sixth degree is D,
so D is going to turn into D-sharp,
we've already talked
about the seventh degree
turning into E-sharp.
On the descent, well, maybe
it's going to be E-natural
and D-natural.
So those will be the clues
that would be indicating F-sharp minor.
Now, when we look through this piece,
here we meet, in the second bar,
the second measure, E-sharp and D-sharp,
so they would qualify, wouldn't they?
We've got E-sharp over here.
We've got another E-sharp over here
so there's quite a lot
indicating F-sharp minor.
You might say, well, hang on a minute,
there's an A-sharp over here.
Well, maybe the A-sharp
is about something else
that's not about the
key, because remember,
these other possibilities
for what accidentals might be telling us.
But quite a lot of this, all
but one of the accidentals
is suggesting the
possibility of F-sharp minor.
We finish on two F-sharps.
Doesn't have to finish
on the tonic of the key
but it's a definite possibility.
It starts on an F-sharp, so really,
we can be pretty conclusive about the fact
that this is a melody
in F-sharp minor, okay?
So now we need to think about
chords in F-sharp minor,
so if you're doing
that, you want to maybe,
you can either think this if
you're fairly fluent in chords,
if you're less fluent, write out the scale
of F-sharp harmonic minor,
put the third and the fifth
above each of the notes of the scale,
number it in Roman numerals,
one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
Of course number eight
is back to number one
because they're the
same notes, effectively.
Then you've got your chords, okay?
When you want to harmonise the melody,
well those are the essential chords,
what we call the diatonic chords,
the chords that belong to that key,
in this case F-sharp minor,
and you'll be going through the melody
thinking, well, which chords
are going to fit what?
The trouble with this melody is,
you look at it and it's
quite busy, isn't it?
We've got all these
quavers or eighth notes
flying all over the
place, so we won't want
to put a chord under every
single one of those notes.
If we do put a chord that fits
with every single one of those notes,
then we're treating every single note
as if it were a harmony
note, in other words,
a note that belongs to the chord.
So if I'm in F-sharp minor,
and I look at this first bar,
well, I could harmonise it by thinking,
I-V-I-VI-I-IV-I.
For example, I could do that.
But it's going to sound a bit ridiculous
if I have such a fast
rate of chord change,
what we call the harmonic rhythm.
If I've got chords going
all the way at this speed,
one, and two, and one, and.
Crikey, that's just too fast isn't it?
So I'll want a slower harmonic rhythm.
In other words, the rate of chord change
is going to be slower than
the rhythm of the melody.
But how do I do that?
Because all these notes are different,
they all need different chords.
This is where inessential notes come it.
In other words, inessential notes
are the notes that are
called non-harmony notes.
The notes that don't belong to the chord.
So we've got inessential notes
like upper auxiliary notes.
So if I put down the tonic
chord of F-sharp minor,
and my melody just goes up a note
and comes back again, that's
called an upper auxiliary note.
Now, the F-sharp that I'm
playing at the top of this
belongs to this chord
one in F-sharp minor.
So if I go up to G-sharp, well the G-sharp
doesn't belong to the chord,
it clashes with it, doesn't it?
But if I'm starting with
F-sharp in the melody
and I go up to G-sharp and come back,
I regard the G-sharp
as an inessential note.
And in this case, it's called
an upper auxiliary note.
Or I could go the other way,
say I went from F-sharp, same chord,
but this time my melody goes
F-sharp, E-sharp, F-sharp.
That's a lower auxiliary note.
So auxiliary notes, one
kind of inessential note.
We also have notes called passing notes.
Sometimes called passing
tones in the American system.
Where I might have a
chord of F-sharp minor,
and say the first note is F-sharp,
so that belongs to the chord.
Then I had my G-sharp,
and then I go to A.
Well, when I get to A, that also belongs
to chord I in F-sharp minor,
so the first F-sharp does, the A does,
the G-sharp is just passing in between
two harmony notes, okay?
So the G-sharp is an inessential note
but this time it's called a passing note
or a passing tone.
If you write passing notes,
they've got to pass by step,
you can't be leaping around the landscape.
And if you know your auxiliary notes
and your passing notes,
well you're most of the way
to understanding inessential notes.
So it's not as complicated
as some people like to
pretend it might be.
We also have other things,
like anticipatory notes.
What does that mean?
Well, say I've got a couple of chords,
say I'm going to go V7-I.
And I've got a melody
going G-sharp, F-sharp.
Well say my melody wants to anticipate
the final F-sharp, so I put my V7 down,
with a G-sharp at the top,
and then I anticipate F-sharp
while I'm still playing the chord V,
so you can see the F-sharp,
you can hear it clashes, can't you?
But it's just anticipating that F-sharp
that's going to be repeated
as I change the chord
to chord I, which fits with the F-sharp.
So, you could have auxiliary notes
going up or down, you
could have passing notes,
you could have anticipatory notes,
there are other things you can have
but those are the really essential ones.
When it comes to these passing notes
and certain other inessential notes,
if they happen between beats,
well, they're called unaccented.
If they happen on a beat,
they're called accented.
And accented will always be stronger.
So, for example, if I'm
doing a passing note,
like this F-sharp, G-sharp, A thing,
where the G-sharp's a passing note,
if I slip the G-sharp between the beats,
you kind of hear it, but
it's not over-significant.
However, if I put it on the beat,
it will be stronger.
So you hear what's that sound,
I'll just do that again
because the bass note moved
for some reason.
So if I do this.
You can hear that it's on the beat
therefore it's stronger, that's
an accented passing note.
Okay?
So unaccented, off the beat, bit gentler.
Accented, on the beat,
little bit stronger.
Okay, now let's look at this melody again.
So what I'm now looking
for in order to deal
with inessential notes, in order to avoid
a harmonic rhythm that's just changing
on all these quavers or eighth notes,
is to think, well which of these notes
need to be harmony notes,
which of these notes
need to be inessential notes?
Okay, let's see if we can whizz through.
Well, the F-sharp is going
to be probably a harmony note
that belongs to chord I,
that'll be a sensible place
for this to begin.
This could be a passing note,
an unaccented passing note
because it's between the beat.
This A belongs to chord
I, so F-sharp and A
are harmony notes, the
G-sharp is a passing note.
This B could also be a passing note.
Because C-sharp belongs to chord I, okay?
D could be
an upper auxiliary note.
So,
upper auxiliary note.
And the C-sharp is the harmony.
So you see what's happening
in the first bar here.
The F-sharp, the A, and the two C-sharps
all belong to chord I,
they're all harmony notes.
And these three notes, the
G-sharp, the B, and the D,
are inessential notes.
Two passing notes, and
an upper auxiliary note.
So I can put all of that under one chord.
I mean, I can move the chord around
if I want to do something
like start in this position
and then move to different
inversions of the chord.
I could do that, so
there's room for movement
of some kind, if you want.
But essentially, one chord fits the bar.
Now, I could change the chord,
so I could start on chord I.
And then I could change to chord V.
And it wouldn't change anything,
because C-sharp would belong to chord V,
D's still an upper auxiliary.
So you see, there are possibilities
to change the chord, to have
a slow moving harmonic rhythm
or a slightly faster one,
but we don't have to
harmonise every single note
and get this kind of manic
change in the harmony.
And it's an area that I realise causes
an awful lot of confusion.
When people write to me to ask advice
or they send me some
harmony or some composition,
I frequently find that
they're saying to me,
"Well it just sounds a bit rubbish,
"what's wrong with it?"
And I frequently find
it's a misunderstanding
of inessential notes that's caused them
to put chords on every
single note in the melody
and the harmonic rhythm is just too quick.
And as soon as you slow
the harmonic rhythm down,
and recognise the inessential notes,
suddenly it's got a much calmer flow to it
and everything's much more convincing.
Okay, well, we could go on.
I mean, you could have a chord V there
if you wanted to or you
could stick with the chord I.
And then you know, how do
we decide on the chords?
Well, that's a separate issue,
but you look at the C-sharp
and you think, well, what
does C-sharp belong to?
Well, C-sharp's at the
top of chord I, isn't it?
It's the middle of chord III,
that's quite a dramatic
chord in a minor key,
chord III's an augmented chord.
And C-sharp's at the bottom of chord V.
So I and V are the most likely options.
III is a less likely option,
simply because it's an augmented chord
in a minor key, but it's a possibility.
So as long as you've
got your harmony notes
belonging to the chord,
then your inessential notes
will also function, okay?
Now, in the next bar,
just for ease of explaining
the inessential notes,
We could keep the harmony quite simple
and we could do that.
Now, why have I decided
to change the chords here?
Well, F-sharp and F-sharp
both belong to chord I.
E-sharp and E-sharp
don't belong to chord I,
and I can't justify
all that pile of notes,
E-sharps and D-sharps as inessential notes
in relation to chord I.
So, if you can't do that,
you'll have to change the chord.
Whereas, if I change to chord V,
then the two E-sharps belong to chord V.
So what then's happening in
this bar, or this measure?
This is an upper auxiliary note,
and this is a lower auxiliary note.
You see how that works?
So, in the second bar
or the second measure,
I've got F-sharp with a chord I,
an upper auxiliary coming
back to the F-sharp.
Then I'm moving to chord V,
so E-sharp belongs to chord V.
The D-sharp's a lower auxiliary.
Going back to the E-sharp.
Okay?
Now, when you come to the next bar,
you could say, ooh, this is
kind of the slowest moving bar
so I could just put chords
under each of those crotchets
or quarter notes, so I could go
something like V-I-I-V.
I could do something more
interesting than that,
I could use a chord VI in there
with one of the F-sharps, for example,
it doesn't really matter.
We're not fundamentally worrying
about the choice of chords
other than to find chords that fit.
So I could do something
quite straightforward.
I could do something else,
and it's another little trick
with the inessential notes
that we haven't yet talked about.
I could treat
G-sharp,
and F-sharp as appoggiaturas.
Okay?
So what's an appoggiatura?
It's a leaning note, and a leaning note
that goes by step into
the next note, normally.
And it takes half the value
of itself plus the next note.
So, if you were to think
of the F-sharp as a minim,
well, we divided that minim
into two crotchets, okay?
Between the G-sharp and the F-sharp,
so what I could now do,
is treat the G-sharp
as an appoggiatura, maybe using a chord I.
Treat the F-sharp as an appoggiatura,
maybe using chord V.
So I get I,
V,
so you see how that works
quite nicely as well,
by using them as appoggiaturas.
Does that sound better than
separate chords for each note?
It sounds alright, but,
it's just a little bit
more expressive, isn't it?
Actually treating them as appoggiaturas.
So you get the idea that
that's how that would work
and they're resolving by step
onto notes that belong to the chord
but the appoggiaturas
themselves are dissonant.
Okay?
Well, where are we going to go next
if we've done chord V there?
Well, for the sake of argument,
let's take a chord VI that
would fit with F-sharp and D.
Making this a passing note.
Okay?
It's coming on that beat, isn't it?
So I've got chord VI,
and then that's coming on a beat,
so it's an accented passing note there.
For argument's sake, I
could have a chord IV here.
In which case, this,
is an accented passing note.
B belongs to chord IV,
so that's a harmony note.
B at the end of the bar
obviously also belongs to chord IV.
A-sharp is a lower auxiliary note,
but because it's A-sharp
and that's not in the
key of F-sharp minor,
we call that a chromatic
lower auxiliary note.
Okay, so if you want to do something
that's just moving a semitone down
instead of a tone down, you
can have a chromatic one.
So what have I got in
this bar, this measure?
Chord VI, accented passing, onto D
that belongs to chord VI,
then I'm going to a chord IV
with an accented passing, going to B
which belongs to the chord.
A-sharp, chromatic lower auxiliary note,
rather fun, isn't it?
Back to a harmony note.
And then, I'm heading for a cadence
which could be a sort
of standard, maybe Ic,
V, or V7, to a I.
What am I doing there if do that?
Well, A's belong to the Ic,
this is an upper auxiliary note.
Because we're going up
and then coming back.
G belongs to the harmony notes,
to the harmony, to the chord.
F-sharp's a passing note.
E-sharp belongs to the
chord, the V7 chord.
And, F-sharp is an anticipatory note.
Anticipatory note, okay?
So, there you've got the F-sharp here,
anticipating the F-sharp
that belongs to chord I
in the last bar, or the last measure.
So Ic, upper auxiliary note.
Back to a harmony note, V7,
the G-sharp's a harmony note,
the F-sharp's a passing note.
The E-sharp's a harmony note,
the F-sharp is an anticipatory note
of the final F-sharp.
So hopefully, that gives you an insight
into how you would look at a melody
that's quite busy like this,
that you might've written, or it might be
somebody else's melody
you're trying to harmonise.
How to think of chords that would fit,
that's not been our prime
purpose of this video,
finding chords that fit.
But justifying every single note.
Every single note in that melody,
even though it's busy,
is either a harmony note
or it's an inessential note.
So, inessential notes do a great deal
to bring music to life.
So if you're writing a melody
in conjunction with some chords,
think about using them.
Because if you don't, it
can sound a bit bland.
You know, a little bit plain.
But if you do use them,
you've got make sure they're
all musically legal, alright?
So don't end up with random notes
that don't belong to the chord,
but are not inessential notes,
because they're the ones
that are going to stick out
like a sore thumb.
So, a little exercise
there in F-sharp minor,
dealing with inessential notes.
