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| Author | Topic: Stable Chords |
Anonymous
Anonymous Poster
From Internet Network:
62.195.201.x
| posted: 8/24/2003 at 12:40:39 PM ET
Hi,
I have just learned about stable tones and how they resolve.
But what are the stable chords and how do they resolve?
Best regards
NB
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trumpet guru
Registered User
From:
Washington State
Registered:
8/22/2003 | posted: 8/24/2003 at 8:48:49 PM ET
When people refer to an "unstable" chord, they are talking about a chord that wants to go somewhere else (resolve). The most common is the dominant 7 chord (ex: g-b-d-f). It is the tritone between the 3rd (b) and the 7th (f) which gives it it's tension. The most common way to resolve it is for the 7th the resolve down and the 3rd to resolve up. Any chord with 2 tritones in it will be very unstable like a Dominant7 with a flat 9th. (g b d f ab) This resoves the same as the dominant7 with the 9 usually resovling down too).
V7 - I progression in C would use the G7 chord listed above. The f would resolve down to an E and the b would resolve up to the C. (the third that resolves this way is also called the "leading tone" as it leads to the root of the following chord.
Jazz musicians like to use a dominant chord on built on the note 1/2 step above the chord they are going to.
ex: the G7 chord would resolve to an F# chord instead of to a C. In this case, the 7th resolves up and the 3rd resoves down. This is called a "chromatic dominant" and the theory of using it this way instead of the V7 is called a "tritone substitution".
They are also used in classical music (French6 and German6 are two examples) but it is tougher to explain.
GOOOOOOROOOOOO
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Anonymous
Anonymous Poster
From Internet Network:
62.195.201.x
| posted: 8/28/2003 at 3:20:47 PM ET
Thanks so much for your answer. Iam trying to understand, but Iam ashamed to say: I dont know what a tritone is.
Could you explain it to me??
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trumpet guru
Registered User
From:
Washington State
Registered:
8/22/2003 | posted: 8/28/2003 at 8:45:01 PM ET
sure,
A tritone is an interval between two notes which are 3 whole steps apart (C-D-E-F#). The tritone is from C to F#. You could call it C to Gb also. You may have heard it called a diminished 5th or Augmented 4th. Tritone means the same thing. Go to your piano and play a C and an F# together and they will clash (dissonance). If you play a D F# A C (D7 chord in root position)the clashing will cause you to want the chord to resolve in some way (the most common way is to a G chord; G B D G). Try it. First play the D7 listed above then . . . Play a G on the bottom, keep the D from the D7 where it is, move the F# up to G and the C down to a B. You may want to write it out so it is more clear. The A can go up to a B or down to a G in this case it doesn't matter. You end up on a G triad voiced like this: (G D G B). There are other ways to resolve chords and multiple voicings to choose from, but this is an example of the very common V7 to I progression.
It seems funny, but the tritone (even when used in this way) was strictly avoided until the baroque era, and composers who used it then were sharply critcized and even inprisoned. The Italians called this interval the diabolica en musica (devil in music) because of the way it clashed. Now we thrive on the tension and release that those kind of intervals offer us. I hope this helps. I have taught music at all levels from Jr. High to University but it is tough to explain these things without a keyboard to demonstrate on.
GOOOOOOROOOOOO
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noolnool
Registered User
Registered:
8/29/2003 | posted: 8/29/2003 at 9:24:34 AM ET
Wow, you know your stuff.
I understand the tritone now and tried different variations of it. Thanks for the help! Its great to learn all these things about music.
Ive been watching this board a while now and i know you dont like anonymous posts so thats why i just registered  .
BTW: wasnt it wagner or verdy who almost only used unstable chords and never let them resolve?
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trumpet guru
Registered User
From:
Washington State
Registered:
8/22/2003 | posted: 8/29/2003 at 8:21:47 PM ET
Wagner used more dissonance, and Verdi used the tritone, but was not considered harmonically progressive for his time (like J.S. Bach was).
Music has progessed harmonically so much throughout the eras that the stable/unstable concept is not particularly useful for me.
I prefer to talk about dissonant and consonant chords and sounds rather than stable and unstable.
Thanks for the nice words.
I have been many things but I am a teacher above all. I have earned the degree "Master of Music" but I mostly work with young kids now so I find it fun to discuss music with other interested folks. Can you tell me more about what kind of music you are working with so I can be even more specific with my answers and comments with you? I am now semi-retired from life as a trumpet artist and am mostly writing and playing jazz now. My "paying gig" is as a junior high band teacher now, but I have taught college jazz, music theory, band, trumpet and choir too. My performance experience is in all kinds of music, but I made the most $ playing jazz, big band jazz and reggae up and down the west coast. I was researching music sites in the middle of the night a couple weeks ago and came across this one. I've enjoyed visiting with you all. I hope I don't sound like a "know-it-all", but when I have knowlege to share I try to do a good job explaining it for folks.
LATER,
GOOOOOOROOOOOO
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noolnool
Registered User
Registered:
8/29/2003 | posted: 8/30/2003 at 9:41:04 AM ET
Thanks for the answer!
Well, I dont think anyone thinks you're a know-it-all because you help us.
But the dissonant chords have to resolve (in most cases then) too right?
I try to write pop songs, just for myself in the first place.
Its been a while though since I've finished a song cause a while ago
i decided that my music knowledge isnt capable enough so I started learning
out of books and the internet. And i promised myself not to write another song before
I completed certain study books i have. Iam full of inspiration now.
Music is everything to me and i find it very interesting to learn all these things.
I also try to play keyboard but songwriting itself is more my thing.
I would love to be good at both but that seems hard to accomplish.
But you never know as I started out not so long ago.
As i said I write pop songs but i used to do so without the vocals as i didnt have a good mic. Now i do so i will try to write a pop album. But not exactly like todays pop.
I hate it. Maybe pop with a soul flavour, as iam a big soul fan.....
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trumpet guru
Registered User
From:
Washington State
Registered:
8/22/2003 | posted: 8/30/2003 at 12:39:24 PM ET
You are right about most people wanting dissonant sounds to resolve, but in contemporary music sometimes the composer may want to leave you hanging (so to speak). Some composers set out to "irritate" the listener with unpleasant sounds to better express certain emotions or to fully express extreme conflict.
Another example of "unstable chords" not being resolved is in the Blues. The traditional blues uses only dominant chords. While the roots of these chords are very basic (I7, IV7, and V7) in the standard blues forms the dissonances (in this case the tritones between 3rds and 7ths)only partially resolve. So what you get is a dissonance that resolves to another dissonance. A good example that is used in SoulWhich is based on the Blues) and Blues(often as an ending chord) is a dominant7 with a #9 (C E G Bb Eb (D#)). Try voicing it this way: C G E Bb Eb(D#). This is one of my fovorite sounds. These things would bother the earlier ear, but thanks to TV and Movies especially most listeners now days are not bothered by things that would have proved insanity centuries ago.
The first real revolution in dissonance (in Western Music) happened in the mature baroque period when composers were exploring the tension and release that dissonance and consonance provided. Later the Romantic composers pushed the envelope much further seeking to express the full range of human emotions. The Post-Romantics went even further at the same time the French Impressionists were trying to use dissonance in a pleasing way by "blurring" the contrasts instead of accentuating them. Then the 20th century composers removed all limits and rules observed previously.
Pop music (by it's nature), needing to appeal to as wide an audience as possible, is less progressive harmonically. Music, like everything else has a constant cycle of innovation and simplification. It is called the romanticism/classicism cycle in the classical world. The "romantics" pushed the envelope and innovated while the classicists refined those innovations which led to boredom and then more innovating. Things things exist simultaneously in each era too (Haydn was an innovator and Mozart was a refiner).
I hope this doesn't bore you, but it is how arts progress.
I admire your desire to understand how your music works. I would suggest that you not stop writing while you learn more things though. How will you try out the things you learn. I think a writer should write regardless of full understanding. Your understanding will come quicker and be more significant if you work new ideas into your music so you can experience the "feel" of different sounds.
You can also keep a notebook of chords you like and progressions you like so you don't forget them.
I could go on forever, but I wont. Later,
GOOOOOOROOOOOO
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