Learn how to write diatonic harmony in both a classical “strict style” and a more film-oriented “free style”, and see how the two are combined in cues from well-known film scores. Course material is presented from a compositional point of view, showing not just how a chord resolves, but the progressions it appears in and, most importantly, where that progression tends to appear in a phrase. The material is comprehensive, covering that of a university-level textbook but adding the more film-specific techniques of free style as well. Plus, get the course Fundamentals of Reading Music absolutely free when you enroll in Diatonic Harmony!
Diatonic Harmony – Course Content
- Preliminaries
- Strict Style vs. Free Style
- Strict-Style Rules for Four-Part Writing
- Voice Leading
- Non-Chord Tones
- Melody-Bass Counterpoint
- Harmonic Progressions – General Concepts
- Common Root Motions
- The Three Progression Types
- Writing Melodies from Progressions
- About Our Examples
- Cadential Progressions – Strict and Free Style
- Dominant and Final Tonic Chords
- Common Subdominant Chords
- Less Common Subdominant Chords
- Initial Tonic Chords
- Tonic-Prolongational Progressions – Strict Style
- Root-Root Prolongations
- 3rd-3rd Prolongations
- Root-3rd Prolongations
- Leading-Tone 7th Chords
- Expanding a Chord with Arpeggiation
- Tonic-Prolongational Progressions – Free Style
- Major Keys
- Major-Tonic Substitutes and Multiple Prolonging Chords
- Minor Keys
- Minor-Tonic Substitutes
- Prolonging Chords Other than Tonic – Strict Style
- Pedal 6/4
- Passing 6/4
- Other Passing Chords
- Putting It All Together
- Composing in Strict Style
- Composing in Free Style
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