Topics covered in Music 191

Notes of major and natural minor scales.
(Singing and spelling in all keys.)

Triads found in major and natural minor scales (and harmonic minor variations on V and viio).
(Spelling in all keys.)

Intervals from the tonic to other notes of the major and natural minor scale.
(Singing, spelling, and identifying in all keys.)

The fundamental functional harmonic structure of tonic - variable - predominant - dominant tonic.
(Singing and playing I-V-V7-I and i-iv-V7-i in all keys.)

The original melodic/contrapuntal reason for that structure: scale degrees 7 and 2 lead to 1, and scale degrees 4 and 6 lead to 5. Chords that contain 4 and 6 tend to have predominant function, chords that contain 7 and 2 tend to have dominant function, and chords that contain at least two of the three pitches of the tonic triad (1, 3, and 5) tend to (or can in the right circumstances) have a substitute tonic function.

Basic rules of good 4-part voice leading for root-position chords.
(Playing and spelling in harmony exercises.)

Proper use of non-chord tones: especially passing tones, neighbor tones, and suspensions. Other NC tones such as escape tones, retardations, and appoggiaturas dealt with later.
(Included in harmony exercises.)

Additional guidelines for 1st-inversion chords. Generally don't double the third when it has a leading-tone implication (in major chords). Going from a root position chord to a 1st-inversion voicing of the same chord often results in voice exchange with an upper voice (the third going to the root) or an opportunity to respace the entire chord. An upper voice that might normally go to the third of the chord can go to the root or fifth instead, since the third is covered in the bass. When the use of a 1st-inversion chord results in stepwise movement in the bass (where it would not occur in the case of a root-position chord), that's often a good occasion for an upper voice to move by leap.
(Included in harmony exercises.)

Proper uses of 2nd-inversion chords: as neighbor chord over a static bass note, as passing chord between two other chords with passing stepwise motion in the bass, as a cadential delay/prolongation of the dominant chord. It's not considered a stable or fully consonant chord in classical music, and thus should only be used in these specific ways, not as a stable chord.
(Included in harmony exercises.)

Proper voice leading of dominant seventh chords (and, by extension, seventh chords in general). Regardless of inversion, leading tone (third of the V7 chord) goes up to the root of resolution chord, and the seventh of the chord (4th degree of the scale) falls to the third of the resolution chord. In deceptive resolutions, these voice leading tendencies are generally retained, even if the functional role of the resolution notes changes.
(Playing and spelling, especially in root position.)

Cadences:
Authentic: V-I, if the root of the I chord is in the top melody, it's "perfect" (a "PAC").
Deceptive: V-vi or V-VI (or less frequently V-IV or V-iv).
Half: anything-V, often I-V (like a plagal cadence on V) or V7/V-V (like an authentic cadence on V).
Plagal: IV-I or iv-I or iv-i (a.k.a. the Amen cadence).
Phrygian: iv6-V (or VI-V) in minor, characterized by the b6-5 semitone movement in the bass.

Secondary dominant seventh chords. The V7 chord relative to some non-tonic destination chord.
(Spelling and identifying in all major and minor keys.)

Diminished seventh chords and their relationship to the dominant seventh chord. The viio triad is the same as the upper three notes of a V7 chord. The viio7 chord is the same as the upper four notes of a V7b9 chord. Therefore, a viio7 chord has the same function as a V7 chord, with the same directional tones. Thus, a secondary V7 and a secondary viio7 have the same usage. Because a diminished seventh chord is made up of all equal intervals (all m3/A2 intervals, dividing the octave into four equal parts), it can be usefully reinterpreted by enharmonic respelling, making it a useful pivot chord for modulation to distant keys.
(Spelling, identifying, and enharmonic respellings.)

Secondary diminished, diminished seventh, and half-diminished seventh chords.
(Spelling and identifying.)

Borrowed chords (modal mixture) from the parallel key. One or more notes of the scale - degrees 3, 6, and/or 7 - is altered, resulting in a chord that belongs to the parallel key. For example a deceptive cadence V7-bVI occurring in a major key, a plagal cadence iv-I (or ii65-I) occurring in major, etc.

Other chords arise through chromatic alteration. The Neopolitan sixth chord can be thought of as being a chromatic alteration of a iio6 chord (which itself would be borrowed from minor if you're in a major key) with the root flattened so that it results in a bII6 chord; in a Ne6 chord the bass is the doubled note, since the other two pitches have strong directional implications. The augmented sixth chords (It6, Fr43, and Ger65) can be thought of as an alteration of the iv6 chord (Phrygian cadence), with the root of the chord raised (4 becomes #4). The augmented 6th thus results between b6 and #4 in either a major or minor key, and the tonic of the key is always included, too. The fourth pitch will either be the a doubling of the tonic (It), the 2nd degree of the scale (Fr) or the b3rd degree of the scale (Ger). The Ger65 is enharmonic with a V7 chord, and the Fr43 is enharmonic with a V7b5 chord.
(Spell and identify in all keys.)

In all of these chords involving chromatic alteration, it's good to recognize where the chromatically altered note is occurring and where it is leading.
(Sing and spell chromatic lower neighbors to all notes of the scale.)

Jazz chord nomenclature. Chords are always considered to be in root position (for example, Em7 has E in the bass, and G6 has G in the bass, even though they contain the same four pitches). If a note other than the chord root is in the bass, it's written as a "slash" chord, with the bass note after a slash, such as C#7/G# (which is just a chord in second inversion) or C#7/D# (which would be a ninth chord in fifth inversion) or C#7/C (in which the bass note is unrelated to the rest of the chord). Chords that exist in jazz for which there is no counterpart in classical music include sus4 (3rd of the chord is replaced by the note a perfect 4th above the root), 2 (3rd is replaced by the note a major 2nd above the root), 6 (the note a major 6th above the root is added to the chord), add9 (the major ninth is added), and 6/9 (the major 6th and major 9th are both added).
(Identify and spell.)

In relating jazz harmonic analysis to classical analysis, two new concepts must be considered. One is the tritone substitution whereby the tritone between the 3rd and the 7th in a V7 is enharmonically reinterpreted as the 7th and the 3rd of a V7 chord a tritone away from the original, such as G7 (B and F) and Db7 (Cb and F). Thus, these chords are freely substituted for each other, known as a "tritone substitution", and should be indicated as such, "bII7", and/or "V7 TT sub". This is common even if the V7 is a secondary V7, as in "bII7/ii", which is a more functionally useful description than bIIIb7 because it functions as V7/ii. Because the progression ii7-V7-I7 (or iiż7-V7-i7 is so common in jazz), a secondary combined ii7-V7 is often used in place of a secondary dominant. Therefore, it's often more meaningful to write something like iiż7/ii followed by V7/ii rather than iiiż7 followed by VI7.
(Identify in analysis.)

Harmonic series. Pitched notes have energy at the frequencies that are whole-number multiples of the fundamental frequency. Brass instruments such as horn, trombone, and trumpet and woodwinds such as flute an clarinet allow the player to focus on harmonics to produce different notes from the same tube length. String instruments can produce harmonics by lightly touching the string at fractional positions of the string.
(Identify and spell with all fundamentals.)