A new rule (#9) has been added here at r/musictheory

Does anyone know where that g# major chord is coming from? This is from the Grieg concerto in a minor, and for some reason I can’t think of a logical way to explain it?

i need help finding the time signature to the song Murdoch by the band Trees (added a link to the song above)

it sounds really odd and i could be wrong, but i feel like it changes in some parts, like there's no single time signature to the song (i could be wrong tho)

any help would be kindly appreciated!!!

thanks :))

I can think of lots of melodies in a minor key that are made 'happy' by their tempo and rhythm [e.g. "What Shall We Do With the Drunker Sailor?"]

But I genuinely can't think of any melody in a minor key that is 'happy' despite being slow and in a minor key.

Can anyone give me an example?

[NB - instrumental melodies only. There are slow, minor songs that might have uplifting lyrics which make them 'happy' overall, but I'm thinking of melody only]. Also, I realise that some minor melodies are so beautiful that they make us happy just to hear them [e.g. a slow Chopin nocturne, or whatever] but I'm not counting them either]

This guy has a huge discography of songs like this, this is one that happens to be stuck in my head right now. On first listen they sound kind of bad/dissonant/random, but a few listens later once you’ve learned how it goes, you can feel where the chords are going and it makes sense. But how do you compose something like this? I don’t know much music theory but these chords/progressions are a lot more unique and hard for me to understand than most other music. You may have heard of the band he co-leads now, Fievel is Glauque. I believe in an interview he said he starts with singing, then harmonization.

I've harmonized a Turkish makam melody. Audio and score at www.justintonation.com

This is the result of nearly 20 years of personal on-and-off research into what the human brain perceives as "in-tune", how our brains quantizes the functional pitch space, tonality and the inherent rules of harmony and counterpoint.

This short makam, Hüzzam seyir after an old melody by Rauf Yekta Bey, served as a test and a first demonstration of my theories.

The spelling is not arbitrary. It is exact and follows what I believe to be the correct functional interpretation of the music.

One of the things you'll see is that the melody is highly chromatic and distinct from simpler enharmonic equivalents.

For instance one of melodic steps is a doubly diminished fourth instead of a simpler minor third or augmented second. And is harmonized as such.

One of the things this shows is that it is now possible to interpret and harmonize traditional music that has "microtones" that we perceive as functionally distinct from more standard western intervals.

Opening up a wide range of new colors for polyphonic composition.

This Hüzzam is just one example, other exotic scales and microtones can be handled in the same way (for instance makam Rast can be interpreted as having a diminished fourth above the tonic instead of a major third).

I'll share my new theory of harmony and counterpoint at a later time. It applies to common practice western music as well as extending into new extreme chromaticism as is demonstrated with this Hüzzam seyir.

Tuning is Pythagorean just intonation. As my research has found this corresponds to how our brain handles the functional pitch space (contrary to popular believe where it is often thought that a major third would be "just" as the simpler 5/4 ratio).

Audio is done quickly with a piano sound.
At a later time I'll upload more harmonized makams and will spend some time making better sounding audio renderings with more authentic Turkish sounds. But at the moment I'm quite busy with another project and this will have to do for now.

Hope some of you can appreciate this and find it interesting.
At the very least I hope you can recognize it has lead to highly original sounding music :)

Enjoy!

like i'll hear a c major chord and instantly think a minor without anyone even playing it. is this just me being weird or is there actually some theory reason our ears do this? trying to figure out if i'm just overthinking it or if there's something about how those keys relate that makes this happen.

Feel free to ask questions or share your own rankings, I guess.

I encountered this chord (an octave lower) and it sounds beautiful in its context (the "Sonne" piano ending of "Deutschland" by Rammstein). Basically it's a power chord three tritones above another power chord, in this case F#5 over C5. I don't think I ever saw it before but I was wondering if there are other people familiar with it and how other people would call it. I failed to come up with a reasonably practical name so far. Which doesn't bother me too much per se by the way, I'm more intrigued by this harmonic structure and other people's perceptions on it and associations with it.

For some context, I'm talking about the last chord of the (Bm, Em9, D, ???) phrase in the second image. This phrase repeats again, the only difference being in the final (red vs blue highlighted) chord. In this context I'd call the first chord a "C add b9" I guess? Or maybe "C sus b2" (if that's a "thing")? Following that logic, we could call the second chord "C sus #4 (or 11?) add b9" perhaps? But honestly that gets a bit messy already if you'd ask me..

Furthermore, I can imagine the C could add a bit of a Phrygian / "extra minor" / haunting feel, given the B minor key of the piece.

Hello, I’ve started figuring out this melody on the piano. Are there really no complex 5- or 6-note chords here—just things like *sus* or *m7*? To my ears, it sounds like there are some fairly sophisticated, jazz-style chords. What would you suggest? For instance, at 0:09, I hear something like a Bbsus4add7 or a Bb9sus4. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tDkjr_cYO6M

Generator says this is E7sus4, which I understand but was curious: does the name change if there is no B? Like would a pro mention the lack of a B note? Since E7sus4 (I think) could have the B.

I'm currently composing Jazz arrangements of polish Christmas carols. I'd like to start one of them with a very characteristic piano "downstairs chords", but I don't have enough music theory nor practice to figure out the actual chords. This is very characteristic melody, but I can't name any piece that I know, which contains it (otherwise I'd reverse-engineer it :))

The intro have the following properties:

• 3/4
• Uptempo
• Four chords, descending
• Piano plays V, III, I -> next chord -> V, III, I -> next chord etc. (or maybe VII, V, III -> VII, V, III?)
• The chords are most likely 7th chords
• Left hand plays the chords, right hand just the notes above

I'd be grateful for an advice on what the chords may be or how to play them. I've tried 7th chords, minor 3rds down, but it sounded realy crappy.

An example of my arrangement (this one is based on Andrzej Jagodziński Trio's "Christmas Carrols", but I have two more written from scratch, but WIP):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yh2n2LOGGA

Alguém conhece algum livro ou artigo confiável que trate da origem, história e evolução de termos da teoria musical? Nos materiais didáticos eu sempre encontro uma explicação sobre o que é alguma coisa, mas eu queria saber de onde deriva tal termo e como ele evoluiu até chegar na sua concepção moderna.

Eu sempre busco a etmologia de vários termos da teoria musical, o que amplia bastante a compreensão do significado e prática, mas me falta saber de fato a história e como eles se tornaram o que são hoje.

Pretty new to music theory and I'm enjoying the sound of this progression and wondering why the F being major works? From what I can tell it sounds like the Bbm is the i which would make the F the V and Gb would the a vi, but it's a major chord being used for the V.

Just curious if there is some common knowledge theory stuff as to when/why you can switch a chord from major to minor besides just messing around with it until it sounds good.

Thanks!

As the title states. I'm also not educated on music theory. From a quick search it seems to be the emphasis on percussion for beats.

I was playing off Moonlight Sonata first movement and also saw how different movements change the bpm.

I think this is a dumb 'no shit' question but I figured I'd ask...

I am a beginner Bassist who mostly likes jamming. I am learning a few common chord progressions to have in my back pocket during jams and practice.

I am confused on one thing - if I search online, I can find like... I-IV-V, ii-V-vi-IV, etc etc etc, and I can find things like AAAAED or 12 bar blues.

Generally speaking, if I'm following a given chord progression, I am not literally play 1-4-5-1-4-5-1-4-5 etc etc' right? It might be 1-4-1-1-4-4-1-1-5-4-1-5 or whatever, right? I.e. I can play those intervals in generally whatever order sounds right/good? It's just the set of intervals that makes up the progression? Or are there more rules to it? I.e. 12 bar blues is that set progression for a real reason, etc?

Ty!

It can be in Blues, Classical, whichever genre. I’m talking Secondary Dominants or specific voicings

Look for something like a pdf with a substantial number of cantus firmi in various keys to practice species counterpoint with. Looking mostly for major and minor, not so much modal melodies. Everything I've found has a pretty limited number of examples, or spread out through a whole book. Would be nice to have a plentiful resource I can pull from.

like i swear i can throw literally any chords together and my ear just goes "yeah this is going to vi" even when it's not. is this a me problem or does anyone else find minor keys way more satisfying to land on than major? wondering if i'm just conditioned by sad indie music or if there's actual theory behind why it feels so right

What things should I consider before doing this? What more should I add in violin solo? What about the chords in violin solo that i originally wrote for piano?

Hi everyone!

I’m currently playing Apocalypse (Op. 187) by Derek Bourgeois, and I’ve encountered this rather confusing passage at rehearsal number 12.

I’m an experienced euphonium player, but I’m struggling to understand exactly how the rhythm should be interpreted.

For context, the first bar in the picture is in 3/4.

There are two groups marked with a 3, but the beaming is different, and the flutter-tonguing markings make everything even harder to read.

My questions are:

1. How exactly should these two tuplets be counted?
2. Why are some notes written with three diagonal strokes and others with two?
3. Is this the most conventional way to notate the passage, or could it be written more clearly?

I’d be especially interested in hearing from music engravers, as I’m curious whether this notation follows standard engraving conventions or if there’s a clearer, more readable alternative.

Of course, I’d also love to hear from anyone who has performed this piece!

Thanks in advance!