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MUSICAL ELEMENTS
Recap
• What is a Melody?

• What is Conjunct Movement?

• What is Disjunct Movement?

• What is imitation?

• What is a Sequence?

• What is an Ornament?
 • Harmony is created when we
Harmony play more than two notes at
the same time
 • When notes sound nice when played together,
Consonance we describe this as consonant
• If the notes are 3, 4, 5 or 6 notes apart, they
usually sound consonant
 • When notes clash or sound unpleasant when
Dissonance played together, we call this dissonant
• When notes are 2 or 7 notes apart, they
usually sound dissonant
Intervals
• An interval is the distance between two notes

Interval 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Major Major
Major third Major sixth
Types of second Perfect Perfect seventh Perfect
Unison
interval Minor fourth fifth Minor octave
Minor third Minor sixth
second seventh

Consonant or dissonant?
Intervals
• An interval is the distance between two notes

Interval 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Major Major
Major third Major sixth
Types of second Perfect Perfect seventh Perfect
Unison
interval Minor fourth fifth Minor octave
Minor third Minor sixth
second seventh

Consonant or dissonant?
Scales and Chords
• Chords are made up of the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of a scale

• To find out the chords, we must first work out the scale

• We use the formula T, T, S, T, T, T, S to work out a major scale

Using this formula, work out a C major scale

Scales and Chords
• Chords are made up of the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of a scale

• To find out the chords, we must first work out the scale

• We use the formula T, T, S, T, T, T, S to work out a major scale

C D E F G A B C

Using this formula, work out a C major scale

Scales and Chords
• Chords are made up of the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of a scale
• We need to then use a keyboard to add our chords on top of our scale
• The formula for this is play, miss, play, miss, play

C D E F G A B C
Scales and Chords
• Chords are made up of the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of a scale
• We need to then use a keyboard to add our chords on top of our scale
• The formula for this is play, miss, play, miss, play

G A B C D E F G

E F G A B C D E

C D E F G A B C
Scales and Chords
• We then have to number our chords from 1 to 8
• In music, we use roman numerals to identify chords:

I ii iii IV V vi vii I
G A B C D E F G
E F G A B C D E
C D E F G A B C
What do you notice about the way that I have labelled these chords?
Primary Chords
• The notes with capital roman numerals (1, 4 and 5) are our primary
chords
• Our primary chords are the most important chords
• The primary chords are always major chords

I ii iii IV V vi vii I
G A B C D E F G
E F G A B C D E
C D E F G A B C
Secondary Chords
• The notes with lowercase roman numerals (2, 3, 6 and 7) are our
secondary chords chords
• The secondary chords are mostly minor, but chord 7 is a dissonant
chord

I ii iii IV V vi vii I
G A B C D E F G
E F G A B C D E
C D E F G A B C
 • There are three types of
Inversions inversion:
• Root position – the chord as it
• To make chords easier to is
play, sometimes we play the • 1st inversion – the root is an
notes in a different order octave higher
• 2nd inversion – the root and
• This is called an inversion third is an octave higher
 • Diatonic harmony only uses chords from the
Diatonic key

Harmony • For example, in the C major chords we have

just looked at – we would only use notes
from these chords
Chord Progressions

• Once we have found out what our

chords are, we can organise them into
different patterns
• This pattern is called a chord
progression
Common Chord Progressions
4 Chord Song

• A common progression that is used in

pop music is ‘the four chord’ song
• It uses chord 1, 4, 6 then 5
• Many pop songs use this formula

I VI vi V
Common Chord Progressions
4 Chord Song
Common Chord Progressions
12 Bar Blues

• A common progression that is used in

blues and rock ‘n’ roll music is the 12
bar blues
• It uses the primary chords

I I I I
IV IV I I
V IV I I
 • A cadence is two chords played at
Cadences the end of a phrase
• There are four types of cadence:
Perfect Cadence
• A perfect cadence sounds finished
• It is satisfying

V I
Imperfect Cadence
• An imperfect cadence sounds unfinished
• It leaves the listener waiting for a final chord, which never arrives

I V
Plagal Cadence
• A plagal cadence sounds finished, but is not as satisying
• It is used in a lot of church music and sounds like ‘amen’

IV I
Interrupted Cadence
• An interrupted cadence sounds strange and unfinished
• This is because the bassline goes up one step

V VI
 • A harmonic device is a
Harmonic technique used to support
Devices the harmony
Harmonic Devices
Pedal Note
• A pedal note is a repeating note playing underneath a changing melody
Harmonic Devices
Drone
• A drone is a long held note playing underneath a changing melody
 • Sometimes, chord 5 has an extra note on
Dominant 7 th
top – it is the 7th note in the scale

Chords • This is called a dominant 7th

• It is used a lot in jazz
 • This is when the middle note of a
Power Chords chord is missing, and the
ROOT(tonic) doubled in an octave
• It is often used in rock music
Task
• Load your MELODY from last lesson.
• Copy whatever Melodic content you have
and experiment with adding HARMONY to it
• Add a few different harmonic styles (copy
and paste your melody a few times to
harmonize it!)