# Harmony



## Scott Cairns (Feb 22, 2005)

Can anyone recommend some good books on harmony? Preferably something simple and straightforward. :wink: 

Thanks.


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## Frederick Russ (Feb 22, 2005)

Hi Scott,

I cannot recommend enough Lyle Murphy's System of Horizontal Composition based on Equal Intervals - Books One and Two for starters. However once you get through them you may want to go through the whole course. Just my two cents.


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## Scott Cairns (Feb 23, 2005)

Thanks Guys. You know as soon as I thought about harmony, EIS sprang to mind.

I might look into it after this project.


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## sfmsc (Feb 25, 2005)

I've found "Tonal Harmony" by Dorothy Payne and Stefan Kostka to be fairly basic and straightforward.


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## choc0thrax (Feb 25, 2005)

I wish there was a complete idiots guide to harmony. I have that Tonal Harmony book. It's about 650 pages of pure boringness. I got to about page 50 and stopped reading it. Maybe I have ADD or something but I just couldn't sit with the book for long enough to learn anything. Though this book does very well as a paperweight or if your doing home renovations and need to take down some walls just throw this thing at it and it'll do the job.


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## lux (Feb 25, 2005)

Scott,

here are a couple of nice resources.

http://www.tonalityguide.com/index.php

http://www.uta.fi/mute/english/har01.htm

http://www.dolmetsch.com/theoryintro.htm

Hope this helps a bit  

Luca


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## sfmsc (Feb 26, 2005)

I should add that I took harmony + counterpoint around age 13 with a piano teacher who knew it inside and out - at that age it was "extreme total boringness"...but I did absorb some of it. So a lot of what's in that boring book is vaguely familiar to me many years later, including the order in which the material is presented.

The point is, you might find it useful to simply search for someone who privately teaches this material in your area, since the books are admittedly dry. You can also skip around books for things you find most useful or interesting. Sometimes the examples in books are a bit silly.


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## Scott Rogers (Apr 5, 2005)

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## Jerry LaBrie (Apr 14, 2005)

I use a book titled Harmony by Walter Piston which is a text book with lots of exercises . There also is an Idiots Guide to Music Theory that is very basic ( mostly scales and I, IV V progressions). The idiots guide is more my speed. I break all the rules anyway so I guess it doesn't matter.

Jerry


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## fictionmusic (Apr 14, 2005)

Gordon Delamont has some really good books on Harmony called 
Modern Harmonic Technique (Vols 1 2 and 3) as well as Modern Arranging Technique. They are published by Kendor Press.

As well there is The Lydian Chromatic Technique by George Russell which concerns itself with scales against harmony and a pretty idiosyncratic approach to using a series of modes with heightened dissonace combined to make a chromatic scale.

Or Paul Hindemith's book: Craft of Musical Composition Vols 1 and 2
which deals with harmony from a perspective of overtone analysis. His is pretty idiosyncratic as well (and in fact is often referred to in Russel's texts)

I swear by the Delamont books but I tried a web search and couldn't find an address for Kendor.


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## José Herring (Apr 14, 2005)

Hey Scott,

You're going to find a lot of contradicting info on this because basically the idea of harmony is something that people studied after the music had been written. So in Harmony as a study you're studying ideas of how people progressed from chord to chord. Then somebody, usually a theorist, came along and tried to develop rules of harmony of which the guys that actually wrote the music didn't even know. So today you get this hodgepodge of rules that really can't be applied successfully.

In studying harmony for about 5 years on and off at one of the best music conservatories and in my own private study I've come across about 3 or 4 easily learned harmonic techniques.

First is the way in which chords progress in a key. The harmony book by Rameau is a great book though unbeliveably scienific it is split up into 3 or 4 books so you can skip the science books if you want and just stick to the music theory part.

Second is the drilling of the chord structure within a scale. Learn to bang out chord progressions first straight up the scale then in the manner in which Rameau suggest. 

Third realize that it's all pretty free. Bach invented the well-tempered system for a reason. So that we could go from key to key and chord to chord and tonality to tonality with very little problems.

So basically just keep in mind the relations of chords. Many notes of a scale appear in other scales and you can use this to jump or modulate from key to key. And the other thing to remember is the more distant the note is from its tonic note the less stable the progression is going to sound. In the key of "C", Fmajor and Gmajor share a lot of notes with Cmajor so to the ear they sound like they go together. Where as Cmajor and bdim sound more distant so less related and to some people especially lay people the contrast is a little too much to take just straight out of the gate.

there's a bit more but not much more. And the 650 page manuals are just more ranting about nothing of any real value. Just remember that its all just under your keyboard. No better guide to harmony was ever invented than just following your hands and your ears.

Cheers,

Jose


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## José Herring (Apr 15, 2005)

Good post Scotty me boy!!! Good post my man. :D 

Jose


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## Scott Rogers (Apr 15, 2005)

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## Scott Cairns (Apr 15, 2005)

Hey Guys, thanks for the great replies! I think I've learned all I need to know about harmony just from this thread. :lol: :lol: hahaha.

And Scott, now I understand why the fifths are frowned upon, you explained it so well, they really do seem to "wash out" some of the more subtle shadings of harmonic progression. At least to my mind.

Actually, I compose bones and horns in fifths a lot, is that a bad thing? Lower down, anything closer than a fifth usually sounds pretty muddy.

I keep remembering what Gabriel Yared was told by his teacher (heard it in an interview recently), his teacher said; forget harmony, learn composition and counterpoint. 8)


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## Scott Rogers (Apr 15, 2005)

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## José Herring (Apr 15, 2005)

Scott Cairns said:


> I keep remembering what Gabriel Yared was told by his teacher (heard it in an interview recently), his teacher said; forget harmony, learn composition and counterpoint. 8)



That's actually pretty good advice. I'm in the inbetween zone of whither harmony. I usually just pay attention to counterpoint but then I get really good responses from people when I write harmonically too. So I'm like drifting back and forth back and forth. I should try to find ways to blend them both better.

Jose


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## Nick Batzdorf (Apr 18, 2005)

Hey Scott R., I'm just curious whether you actually believe I didn't know that the "rule" about no parallel 5ths isn't really a law.


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## Scott Rogers (Apr 18, 2005)

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## Nick Batzdorf (Apr 19, 2005)

No problem - I'm not huffy or anything. It just seemed curious to take the discussion that direction when I was just pointing out that there's a big difference between "jazz" and traditional harmony. 

By the way, I took a couple of EIS lessons from Craig, got distracted, but intend to go back to it. It's a good idea to keep studying as you...approach...middle age, I think.


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## Frederick Russ (Apr 19, 2005)

Nick Batzdorf said:


> No problem - I'm not huffy or anything.



Are too are too!!!! :D Besides, it befits your role as Virtual Instruments Magazine CEO.... (think Mr. Jameson of the Spidey series)


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## Nick Batzdorf (Apr 19, 2005)

Okay Frederick, don't tell me I didn't warn you:

C9 #11 sus 4 b9 with a TWIST!

Hah! :twisted:


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## Scott Rogers (Apr 19, 2005)

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## Nick Batzdorf (Apr 19, 2005)

Let me guess - did they have implants, tattoos, pierced vulvas? Super-freaky, the kind of girls you don't take home to motherrrrrrrr?


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## Scott Rogers (Apr 19, 2005)

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## José Herring (Apr 20, 2005)

wait, wait, wait. I thought it was toothless hookers hanging out at Guitar Center. I'm so confused about this.

:lol: 

Jose


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## fictionmusic (Apr 20, 2005)

josejherring said:


> wait, wait, wait. I thought it was toothless hookers hanging out at Guitar Center. I'm so confused about this.
> 
> :lol:
> 
> Jose



Man everywhere I go tonight I keep banging into these toothless hookers. OK. I have to know: are they toothless because of crack or bad lifestyle habits, or is it a professional enhancement?


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## Scott Rogers (Apr 20, 2005)

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## fictionmusic (Apr 20, 2005)

Scott Rogers said:


> fictionmusic said:
> 
> 
> > Man everywhere I go tonight I keep banging into these toothless hookers.
> ...



Hey it could have been worse, I originally was going to add I used to drive a '69 Vulva (the last year they were made in Sweden). It had a leather interior and was really roomy!


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## Nick Batzdorf (Apr 20, 2005)

We won't buy them anymore. My wife's 850 wagon's transmission failed after only 65,000 miles, and they wouldn't make good. Too bad for them, because so far that's cost them four car sales.

By the way, she doesn't hang around either Guitar Center, has all her teeth, has no implants or body piercings, and only hooks occasionally.


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## Nick Batzdorf (Apr 20, 2005)

And I have a fondness for Volvos and vulvas - my first car was a '59 544. 

No, it wasn't new when I got it.


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## Scott Rogers (Apr 20, 2005)

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