Music - Minor Backing Chords and Melodies

Bbbbolger

Im just wondering if anyone could give me some tips or guidelines as to how to do these questions. I usually get good grades on 16 bar melodies and backing chords but we never really covered the minor versions and I really don't want to be caught out next Thursday. Hope someone can help. Thanks.

ChemHickey

Bbbbolger wrote: »

Im just wondering if anyone could give me some tips or guidelines as to how to do these questions. I usually get good grades on 16 bar melodies and backing chords but we never really covered the minor versions and I really don't want to be caught out next Thursday. Hope someone can help. Thanks.

I don't do that question I do q4, but minor wouldn't be much different to major. Just remember if you are rising in the bass to raise both 6th and 7th notes and when falling flatten (naturalise) them. Make sure you avoid augments as they are more frequent in minor melodies and I can't remember much from my progressions (from my Grade 8 theory) but I always liked ivb > V. Its a phrygian cadence I think and sounds lovely for an imperfect cadence. Hopefully this'll bump it so others who do this question (pictureframe , leaveiton etc.) will see :P :P :pac:


Also, It might be a bit late, but if you're good with q1 then you'd probably be goood with q4 too as it is practically q1 again with some bass work! :L

Bbbbolger

Thanks very much. Yeah I'm decent at q1's so I'll hav a look at q4. It's just q6 that I'd like to find out how to do minor (I realised if a minor comes up in q1 I can just do q3 or vice versa). We put all our time in class into doing q6 and I'd love to be covered for it. It's usually such a nice question!

ChemHickey

Bbbbolger wrote: »

Thanks very much. Yeah I'm decent at q1's so I'll hav a look at q4. It's just q6 that I'd like to find out how to do minor (I realised if a minor comes up in q1 I can just do q3 or vice versa). We put all our time in class into doing q6 and I'd love to be covered for it. It's usually such a nice question!

Q3 is lovely as well! If you Google minor melodies there should be loads! If you still can't find anything I'll see if I can fish out some of my theory notes!

Spouch

Bbbbolger wrote: »

Im just wondering if anyone could give me some tips or guidelines as to how to do these questions. I usually get good grades on 16 bar melodies and backing chords but we never really covered the minor versions and I really don't want to be caught out next Thursday. Hope someone can help. Thanks.

Raise the 7th. You can raise the 6th and 7th ascending and flatten them descending if you like but that's a melodic minor- its not a must but you can if you want to.

For chords in a minor key i iidim IIIaug iv V VI viidim so don't forget that.

ChemHickey

Spouch wrote: »

Bbbbolger wrote: »

Im just wondering if anyone could give me some tips or guidelines as to how to do these questions. I usually get good grades on 16 bar melodies and backing chords but we never really covered the minor versions and I really don't want to be caught out next Thursday. Hope someone can help. Thanks.

Raise the 7th. You can raise the 6th and 7th ascending and flatten them descending if you like but that's a melodic minor- its not a must but you can if you want to.

For chords in a minor key i iidim IIIaug iv V VI viidim so don't forget that.

To add, try to not just raise the 7th, if at all possible, raise the 6th too. Just raising the 7th (harmonic minor) makes the notes sound a tad Egyptian (try playing these notes- fnatural g# a g# fnatural) and see how it's Egyptian esque.

But as spouch said, knowing the chords helps a lot.

Bbbbolger

So, for example, if I had a backing chords question in the key of C minor. The chords I'd use are (assuming I still can't use III and VII)

Cm (c, e flat, g)
D dim (d, f, a flat)
Fm (f, a flat, c)
G (g, b, d)
D (d, f#, a)

And the chords I could use while ascending are C, D, E flat, F, G, A and B and while descending C, D, E flat, F, G, A# and B#.
That's what I get from reading the comments but please correct me if I'm wrong!

ChemHickey

Bbbbolger wrote: »

So, for example, if I had a backing chords question in the key of C minor. The chords I'd use are (assuming I still can't use III and VII)

Cm (c, e flat, g)
D dim (d, f, a flat)
Fm (f, a flat, c)
G (g, b, d)
D (d, f#, a)

And the chords I could use while ascending are C, D, E flat, F, G, A and B and while descending C, D, E flat, F, G, A# and B#.
That's what I get from reading the comments but please correct me if I'm wrong!

Well, not the chords per-se, but the notes you use while ascending are going to be a raised 6th/7th and while descending are a flattened/naturalised 7th/6th. I can't help as much as I would like as I do the other question (4) but even googling may help you with this! :L

Bbbbolger

Sorry I meant notes there, not chords. I think I have a handle on it now. At least enough to get me through the paper. If it turns out that it is a minor I might try speed up a bit and attempt to get q4 and q6 done. Couldn't hurt to have a backup I suppose.

ChemHickey

Bbbbolger wrote: »

Sorry I meant notes there, not chords. I think I have a handle on it now. At least enough to get me through the paper. If it turns out that it is a minor I might try speed up a bit and attempt to get q4 and q6 done. Couldn't hurt to have a backup I suppose.

If you're thinking about that, q4 would be easier than 6 I think. You'll be fine anyway.

Bbbbolger

Cheers. Thanks for all the help! If I get an A with a minor on it you get some credit haha