MP-102
Lecture 1: Intro
What is sequencing?
 Creating the order of musical events that make up a
song, arrangement, or composition.
What is a song?
 Songs are a very specific type of music
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Designed to be “sung”: i.e. they have a melody and lyrics
Form is usually easy to follow
Generally easy to sing along with and listen to
Based on a basic musical idea that can be arranged or
interpreted in many different ways
Many musical compositions are NOT songs
Basic building blocks
 Melody
 “Tune” of the song, made up of musical phrases
 Harmony
 chord progression
 Beat
 pulse of the song
 Rhythm
 “timing” of the notes with regard to the beat
 Harmonic Rhythm
 how many chord changes (per bar or bars)
Quick Review
 Notation
 Rhythm
 Major Scales
 Key Signatures
Building Triads
 1-3-5
 Use your fingers: thumb is Root (1), middle finger is
3, pinky is 5
 These three letters always go together,
regardless of what key you are in
 The C-triad is the C-triad; it’s made up of C-E-G.
Always.
 even if it’s built on C# or C-flat,
 whether it’s major, minor or diminished;
 The A-triad is the A-triad: A-C-E. Always.
 Even if you change the “order” i.e. C-E-A or E-A-C
 The roman numeral and quality will differ from key to
key
Roman Numerals
 The Roman Numeral indicates the scale degree
that the triad is based on:
 In the key of C, the C-triad is I because it is built on the 1st
scale degree;
 inththe key of F, the C-triad is V because it is built on the
5 scale degree;
 The Roman Numeral stands for the whole triad (all
three notes).
 Arabic Numerals indicate
 “inversion”
or
 notes that should be added to the triad
Most important triads
 In any key, the most important triads are I, IV, and V
 These triads are related by the magic number 5
 Tonic, Subdominant, and Dominant define a key
 V almost always brings you back to I
Simple chord progressions that
rocked the world
 I-IV-V-V
 La Bamba
 Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
 Twist & Shout
 I-I-IV-V
 Blitzkrieg Bop
 I-IV-I-V
 Wimoweh (The Lion Sleeps Tonight)
 I-IV-V-IV
 Louie Louie
 Wild Thing
 Great Balls of Fire
Other progressions
 “Doo-Wop”/ “I Got Rhythm”/ “Heart and Soul”
progression:
I-vi-ii-V
or
I-vi-IV-V
 Extended progression:
 ex: No woman no cry
 I-V-vi-IV || I-IV-I-(V)
 12-bar Blues
 “Johnny B. Goode” - Chuck Berry
Building chord progressions
Part 1 – picking your chords
 In Jazz and Pop, chords generally play one of three functions: Tonic,
Subdominant and Dominant
 Chord substitutions are used:
 ii and vi can stand in for IV
 iii and vi can stand in for I
 Tritone substitution for V (for more advanced Jazz cats :-D)
There’s another way of looking at this:
 “Two out of three ain’t bad”
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When triads share two common notes, they can be substituted
Change one note in a triad, and get a different triad
CEG -> CEA; CEG -> BEG; or FAC -> FAD
I becomes vi or iii; IV becomes ii
 Any chords related by the magic number 5 move easily to one another
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I is 5 notes away from IV;
ii is 5 notes away from V
ii-V-I
Building chord progressions
Part 2 – harmonic rhythm and cadence
 Best to think in terms of 4 or 8 bar chunks
 Cadence in bar 4 and/or 8
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Half-cadence on V
“Authentic” Cadence: V-I
“Plagal” Cadance: IV-I
“Deceptive: cadence V–(anything except I)
 End on I; (probably start on I too)
 One or two chords per bar
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Building melodies based on
chords
Think in terms of 4 or 8 bar chunks
 Use longer note values at cadence points
 Use antecedent/consequent structure
 Use chord tones
 More on this shortly
 Make a pretty shape
 Have a destination
 Have a climax point
 Make it “singable”
 Not too many big leaps
 Keep to within an octave or tenth from highest to lowest point
 Note repetition is OK to a certain extent