Theoretically speaking

This semester of immersing myself in music theory has been exactly what I needed.  It's been good to revisit ideas that I sort of knew but only half-remembered from the first time around in my undergrad classes.  Right now, the concepts and ideas are all floating around like a ball of disorganized Christmas lights.  The minor modes and synthetic scales are still a bit jumbled and the chord functions are less than crystal clear, but I can see now where my confusion lies.  I can see more easily the little traps I tend to fall into while analyzing the harmonies of a piece of music.  The more ways I can think about each idea, the more untangled they become and can be nailed down in the proper spot.  (The nailing down of ideas floating around in my head was actually a big motivation for me to start writing Music Zombie.)

The two courses also seem to compliment each other.  In Jazz Theory, scale and chord function are being hammered down, and the same ideas will pop up from time to time in Tonal Analysis.  For example, to figure out the key center of a particular part of music (or in the case of a jazz tune, the tune itself) both professors mentioned (spookily, at about the same time) looking for the dominant.  In music-speak, this means to look for the chord built on the 5th scale degree of a key.  In the key of Eb, the dominant is Bb7 (because Bb is the 5th scale degree of the key of Eb: Eb-F-G-A-Bb.)  And, if you'll recall, a chord is a stacking of intervals of thirds.  That is, notes that are separated by a note in between them.  C-E-G is a C major triad.

The 7 part of the chord symbol means to add a lowered (flat) seventh scale degree on top of the chord.  The chord without the 7th is usually strong enough for Western ears to hear the pull down to the tonic (home key), but the addition of the 7th scale degree makes it even more obvious.  The lowered seventh makes the chord really want* to resolve to the tonic key.  By resolving to the tonic key, the listener can establish key.  If the dominant instead goes to a chord that is not typical, such as a VI chord, it becomes a Deceptive Cadence.  (A cadence is the music-speak term for the harmonic ending of a musical phrase.)  In a Deceptive Cadence, the composer fools our ears and brains and catches us by surprise.  "HA! Fooled you!!"  When the cadence resolves in the way that our ear expect it to, we call it a Perfect Authentic Cadence.  "Practically perfect in every way."

Anyway, lots of other things seem to cross over too, and everyday I get a clearer picture of how music works.  Music isn't random and the little parts fit together beautifully when one takes the time to see it.

*Our brains actually "want" the resolution.  Notes and tones, being non-alive things, can't really want anything, but I digress.