We have just published a corrective upgrade for Pizzicato 3. This is version 3.0.3, for Mac OS X and Windows. The owners of version 3 may download it freely on our site, in the “Customer services”, “Free update” section.
Last month, we examined how to build a chord made of 3 and 4 notes with the simplest scale, the major C scale, which consists of the white notes of a piano keyboard.
You may consider the notes of one chord to constitute a small musical fragment. A complete work consists of a whole collection of fragments placed one after the other. But the idea is not to randomly gather some tens or hundreds of independent fragments. The point is that these fragments must follow themselves as though they were made to be together. This impression may be produced by the presence of similar elements in successive fragments. These similar elements can be notes, rhythms, chords or any combination of these elements. Thus, by creating a main thread, a coherent musical piece may be built. The desire to listen to this music is stimulated by variations and modifications that appear here and there in its fragments.
While initially limiting oneself to the sequence of chords inside the same scale (here major C), you can consider the major C scale as being itself a set of coherent notes and thus the fact of sequencing any two chords built with the notes of this scale is a way to ensure some musical coherence. In other words, the link between any two chords of the C scale is the fact that all notes belong to the C scale. In practice, you will notice by yourself that all combinations will not sound with the same richness.
Using Professional Pizzicato 3 (or its demonstration version downloaded on our website), download and listen to the http://www.arpegemusic.com/download/excomp-006.piz example. Here is the beginning of it:
Click the small yellow arrow in the toolbar of the score window and the score will be played by Pizzicato. This file contains 6 independent fragments of 3 chords on the first page. We sequenced here the C chord with the 6 other chords of the scale, each one of them being built on the other 6 notes, by taking each time one note out of two. Each fragment starts with C, goes to another chord and then returns to C.
While listening, you will notice that the most harmonious fragments are fragments 2, 3, 4 and 5, although the "harmonious" term always remains a little bit subjective. For these 4 cases, you will be able to note that the central chord contains one or two notes in common with the C chord. This reinforces again the link between the two chords. In fragments 1 and 6, the C chord and the central chord do not have a note in common.
This Pizzicato document contains 7 pages. Page 2 is the same example but starting from the chord built on D (minor D, made of D, F and A). The 6 measures of page 2 all begin with the minor D chord which is sequenced respectively to the 6 other chords and then return to minor D. Then, pages 3 to 7 respectively start from the minor E, major F, major G, minor A and diminished B.
You will be able to notice that the most harmonious sequences are often those whose chords have one or two notes in common, but another phenomenon also intervenes to increase or decrease the harmonious character of these sequences. Indeed, the scale is built on a series of notes whose sound frequencies have precise mathematical ratios between them. It happens that certain notes of the scale are more significant than others, because of these mathematical ratios. The basic note is C. Then comes G, which is in a ratio of 3/2 vibrations with C. It means that the duration of 2 vibrations of C is equivalent to the duration of 3 vibrations of G. We also have F, which is in ratio of 4/3 with C, etc. As the mathematical ratio increases in complexity (i.e. fractions are made of larger numbers), the familiarity of the two concerned notes decreases. The furthest ratio away from C is formed by the B note. According to the notes present in the chords of this document, the combination of the mathematical ratios justifies that some combinations sound less harmoniously despite the presence of notes in common between the two chords. Conversely, in other cases the mathematical ratios enable to sequence two chords without any note in common, with an impression of harmony.
Three phenomenons are present:
- The scale is built on unequal intervals (there are no black keys between the E and F white keys, nor between B and C).
- The chords are built by taking one note out of two in the scale, independently of the intervals.
- The mathematical relationship between the notes is not equal for the notes of the scale.
These properties combine themselves to form the examples to which you can listen in this Pizzicato document. Listen to it and you will have an idea of the atmospheres you can establish using only chords with 3 sounds on the C scale. You will notice that some sequences are more apt to express a happy or a sad emotion, others are more neutral, others are frankly ungraceful, but sometimes this effect is wanted, as to express anguish or fear, therefore the chord is not to be forgotten!
So that you can print this document for reference in the continuation of this series of lessons on music composition, here a link to the same document in PDF format. Print it now for the rest of the exercise:
http://www.arpegemusic.com/download/excomp-006.pdf
Once again, listen to the various fragments of this score. For each measure,
determine the category to which you associate the sound atmosphere, according
to your taste and impressions, among the following choices (you may add
categories if you wish), by marking each one of them with a color on the
printed score.
- Happy, positive, pleasant (mark in yellow)
- Sad, serious, dramatic (mark purple)
- Pleasant, neutral (mark in blue)
- Unpleasant, ungraceful (mark in gray)
It is probable that a number of the fragments containing the Bb5 minor will appear in the last category. Indeed, this chord contains in itself two notes in significant dissonance: B and F, with the result that it is not very harmonious in itself. For this reason that chord will be often avoided, except when its unpleasant character is expected.
You will also notice that sometimes the chords are reversed, i.e. that they are not necessarily in their original order. For example, the major C chord is formed by taking one out of two notes starting from C. You have then C, E and G. The C, E and G chord is the chord in its fundamental position. By taking the same notes but changing the order and the octave, you get two other positions, called respectively the first and the second inversion of the chord:
The sound color which results from it is slightly different, even if it is the same basic chord. Because of the inversions, the mathematical ratios are modified and the sound result is different. Moreover, the upper note is also different and the ear perceives it extremely well.
Frequently, as in this exercise, a low note (in the second staff) accompanies the chord, for example with another instrument. This note is called the bass of the chord and it can be the fundamental note (C in the chord above) or one of the other notes of the chord (here E or G). Once again, the sound color changes, because of the different mathematical ratios which result from it and also because the lowest note (just like the highest note) is perceived more easily by the ear than the notes which are in the middle range. Thus while keeping the same chord, you can make a musical fragment evolve by modifying the positions of the notes of the chord and bass. This gives you a new technique to vary the sound impressions resulting from a chord sequence.
Each fragment of the document presented in this lesson can be seen as a stable point (the first chord), which moves towards another chord, then returns to the stable starting point. This is particularly true for the first series, using the C major chord as the stable point, because C is the main note of the major C scale.
We will now use the printed score in which you marked the atmospheres associated with each sequence, in order to create fragments of several successive chords. Start for example from a C chord and select a sequence in the first page. Let us take for example the sequence C - F - C, but instead of going back directly to C, let us keep only the first part: C - F. The second chord being F, go now to page 4 of the score, which contains all the sequences starting with F. Select a sequence of the same type. Let us take for example F - G - F, but let us use only the first two chords, F and G. We thus have now C - F - G. Go now to page 5, since the last note is a G. Take the sequence G to C to finally have the sequence C - F - G - C.
The principle of this exercise is thus to start from a chord and to select a sequence to another chord you like. Then without going back to the starting chord, go to the page which corresponds to the sequences on the basis of this chord, and so on. Like a domino game where you have two chords drawn on one domino and where you need to make two dominos correspond with the same chord. Here is a practical example in the following document: http://www.arpegemusic.com/download/excomp-007.piz :
Listen to the result. The document contains several other empty measures in which you can now exercise yourself using these guiding principles and create several chords progressions. Take into account the following elements:
- All possible combinations offered by the document which you printed
- Your personal taste to select the combinations you like
Next month, we will see how to manipulate and test chords progressions easier, thanks to the conductor view, the chords progressions window and the music composition tools of Pizzicato Professional 3. By then, I expect you to exercise yourself on the principles explained here!
