Getting Inside Harmony 2

Take your harmonic development to the next level by gaining a solid footing in more advanced principles including melodic and harmonic tension, chord substitution, and chromatically altered chords.

A firm harmonic foundation and the ability to aurally recognize chord progressions is indispensable to writers and arrangers, and a necessity for musicians interested in understanding the art of improvisation. Getting Inside Harmony 2 takes you to the next step in your harmonic development: you'll move beyond the standard chord patterns and harmonic progressions typically found in popular music, and gain a solid footing in more advanced principles including melodic and harmonic tension, chord substitution, and chromatically altered chords. You'll examine secondary dominants, diminished seventh chords (and their substitutes), standard chord patterns and their variations, minor key harmony, and modulation. You'll study the inner workings of each progression to be sure it gets into the "inner ear," and equip yourself with the most appropriate chord scale for each chord. Through keyboard chord voicings and voice-leading exercises, you'll gain an understanding of the musical tools that go beyond the demands of a particular musical style, and develop a greater sense of control in your writing - by the end of the course you'll find you're in a position to actually contribute your personal touch to the development of any number of musical styles! By the end of the course, you will:

• identify all standard chord progression patterns and be able to suggest a vast number of musical re-harmonization possibilities for each of these patterns
• apply appropriate chord substitution to a song's progression
• use a wide range of non-diatonic, chromatically altered chords and derive their appropriate chord scales
• work within all forms of minor key tonality

For more course information visit Berklee Music