Hi Ben!

This is place where I will give you assignments and upload videos. You will do the same starting tonight. Bookmark it, subscribe to it as it will be easier to follow when I post new things in!

Ben I will post your assignment when I receive your guitar CV!
From what we talked before on MSN, you are looking to improve your arranging and songwriting. Assignments will be directed towards that no worries. Shoot me a message when you get internet. I will also send you PM right now to keep you updated with MTP!

Hey Pedja,

I just got internet again here, but I haven't had time to write the Guitar CV. I will do so tonight after I've had my classes at university today. Expect it up around 6 or 7.

Got it all Ben, excellent stuff !
We will start tomorrow with your first assignment if you don't mind

Sure thing, Pedja. Looking forward to it. I hope you can in some way incorporate bringing back my motivation and inspiration. At times I've felt that I've actually needed a more "personal" teacher than just GMC all in all. Someone that will want me to do certain exercises and get "dissapointed" if I don't do so. I can't really find better words now, but you might know what I mean

Believe it or not, I know exactly what you mean
I will push you and make you feel bad for not practicing so you will practice and eventually realize that awesome things happen when you spend some time with your guitar, but more on that tomorrow...

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with, Pedja. From what I've seen at the other users' MTP threads it's looking very good!

Thanks a lot Ben, really appreciate it. You know I will put my best effort so it should be great and lots of fun!
We have been waiting for this for a while, remember? Now we can finally use this new MTP system and do wonders. I will start tomorrow because I am tired from trip and can't post assignment right now. I could but I could leave things out and thats just not right! So its best to wait until tomorrow, will shot you PM and one on MSN as soon as I post it!

Yeah, no problem at all. I don't have time to look at anything untill tomorrow at least. I have a few or more chapters in books to read etc. in the next days due to university. Interesting books none the less, so it's not really that bad

Can you at least share some details of what you have in mind with the MTP here?

Sure thing Ben...

Composing, arranging, repertoire, improvising, theory and harmony, technique and repertoire for starters!

That sounds very nice!

Regarding theory and harmony (and arranging) is it possible to have a look at chord progressions and how one would go about making something less predictable than just your regular 7th, 9th, 11th etc. chords? I would also like to know a bit more about key changes and how to approach these in the best manner without making it sound totally out of order...

This is exactly what we are going to do as you need all these tips and tricks in order to improve your songwriting and arranging

Lets get started Ben!

I decided to put emphasis on theory and harmony in your 1st assignment. The reason why I am doing this is because this will help you a lot with composing and arranging, especially reharmonizing which you mentioned as something you aim to learn.

Your 1st assignment is Theory reading. You will have a test on these 2 posts of mine.

Theory reading :

- I would like you to read my posts from links provided below.
- Once you read it all, memorize 3 and 4 part harmony in C major scale.
- Learn to apply scale degrees rather then numbers ( I in C major is C, IV in C is F etc).
- Write out in this thread all notes for 3 and 4 part harmony in C major scale.


Here are the links :

Cadences

Major scale harmony and chord functions

Let me know if you have any questions Ben. Very soon after you finish this one, we will start with some standard reharmonization techniques!

Pedja

I'm just gonna do these theory exercises whenever I have the time during the evening, Pedja. So here's a little of it...

C major harmonization

3 part harmonization

I = C = C E G = 1 3 5
ii = Dm = D F A = 1 b3 5
iii = Em = E G B = 1 b3 5
IV = F = F A C = 1 3 5
V = G = G B D = 1 3 5
vi = Am = A C E = 1 b3 5
vii = Bmin_b5 (Bdim) = B D F = 1 b3 b5

I usually write Bminb5, but it looks kinda weird here. I cannot lower the b in b5, I think.

EDIT: looks like I can.

4 part harmonization

I7 = Cmaj7 = C E G B = 1 3 5 7
ii7 = Dm7 = D F A C = 1 b3 5 b7
iii7 = Em7 = E G B D = 1 b3 5 b7
IV7 = Fmaj7 = F A C E = 1 3 5 7
V7 = G7 = G B D F = 1 3 5 7
vi7 = Amin7 = A C E G = 1 b3 5 b7
vii7 = Bmin7_b5 = B D F A = 1 b3 b5 bb7

If you're asking for half-diminished on the last chord, it would only be b7 (thus Bb). The mentioned bb7 would also just be a 6th (and in this case A).

I don't usually write whether the chords are major, minor or diminished when writing the degrees. (etc. Imaj7 vs. I7), but I think I've seen both used, and I don't really know what would be considered correct.

I hope that is some of what you wanted, otherwise feel free to correct me. There might be some errors (either "real" errors or typing errors), as it was just from the top of my head.

All great Ben except on the last chord !
Bmin7b5 is the correct way of writing it. We also call it half diminished because it has minor instead of diminshed 7th Everything else (triad) is original to diminished 7th chord.
If you take Bmin7 chord, you will see its B D F# A. Since C major scale has no F# but rather F, we practically lowered the perfect 5th down a half step, which makes it Diminished 5th. This is why we add to Bmin7 b5 in the and (as the 5th of the chord is flatted).
There is no double flatted 7th or any reason to write b7. If we just write Min7, it goes without saying that its a minor triad with minor 7th. If we wanted to use Harmonic and Melodic minor I chord which is minor triad with major 7th, we would write it as Min/Maj7 with root in front of it (C min/maj7 ).
Hope that makes sense?

Have you read about diatonic reharmonization?

What can you tell me about that? How would you go about it to reharmonize something diatonically ?

Yeah, I know about the half diminished, but suddenly got a bit confused whether you were asking for half diminished or diminished.
Makes perfect sense. I was just trying to get as much information down as possible

I'm not too sure about reharmonization, let alone diatonic reharmonization, and I'm not sure I've read about it before. Was it in one of the two links you gave me? I must admit that I skipped a bit through them.

Now I'm just taking a wild geuss though:

If we have a I IV V I progression C, would diatonic reharmonization involve changing the tonic, subdominant and dominant to something besides C, F and G? When thinking diatonically, I can't really help but thinking in moving up in diatonic steps, but I'm not sure if we're just talking 1 step or more steps. Say I would become iii, IV would become vi and V would become vii.

I'll google it now before lecturing myself something wrong...

These are all good guesses !
You missed II as being sub dominant functioning chord ans VI being tonic function chord
So here is the lay out

Tonic functioning chords : I, III and VI
Sub dominant functioning chords : II and IV
Dominant functioning chords : V and VII

That sums up diatonic reharmonization in major scale. It would be nice to see you do one piece with regular harmony and reharmonize it diatonically. Consider that your assignment !

I'm still a bit confused about it though. Are these considered good choices for reharmonization because of their shared notes with the I chord?

Example: C

I = C = C E G
iii = Em = E G B
vi = Am = A C E

E.g. there's both C E in I and vi?



Another question - when we're talking re-harmonization in a piece, are we RE-harmonizing the entire piece into something "different" or are we merely placing the iii or vi chords as harmony upon the I-chord? (I geuss this would in the I + iii case would give us a I7 chord...)

Good questions Ben!

Yes these are good choices because they contain some sort of combination of 1 3 or 3 5 of the I chord.
When we talk about reharmonizing, we can do both things: reharmonize whole piece, or just change some original harmony and change it with diatonic reharmonization (for time being).

Let me think of a good piece for you, in the meanwhile you should do the same. Think very famous pop songs, like Titanic song (My heart will go on) or Mariah Carey , Britney Spears stuff. This is all strong melodies with diatonic harmonies that could be reharmonized, and this is what we need to do right now!

Sorry to hijack your thread guys but I had a question for Pedja......When you say reharmonize do you mean use chord substitution??

So if I had I-IV-V progression I could reharmonize it with say a iii-ii-VII instead???

Thanks and sorry again for hijacking your thread....

Thanks for asking that. I actually think that is what I meant before. I see two possibilities:

1. Harmonize I, IV and V with iii, vi and vii played by another instrument.
2. Substitute I, IV and V with iii, vi and vii.

I'm still not 100% sure which one I am supposed to do.

I actually have another question...

In the following example I first wrote the Guitar part in the first four bars and I then added the synth to the same part. Moving on to the last 8 bars in the piece, I added the harmonized parts from the two next guitars. These two guitars move up in 3rds, 4ths, 5ths and 6ths in each bar. First four 16th notes in 3rds, then five 16th notes in 4ths, then three in 5ths and finally four in 6ths.

What would that kind of approach be called - first writing a part and then adding that kind of harmony. Is that re-harmonization?

Ben remember you can harmonize I with III and VI note just III. Depending on what melody allows you! IV can be substituted with II so keep that in mind as well.



That is just guitar harmony Ben. Harmonizing melody using various interval harmonizations. Here we are talking about changing whole harmony underneath while keeping the actual melody of the piece.
I like the way you are thinking, this is good, we are moving forward a lot, love it!

Yeah, of course. It was just examples. I didn't write out every possibility.


Anyway...

Do you want me to find a song (e.g. "My Heart Will go on" from Titanic) and reharmonize using for example iii chord INSTEAD of I chord (substitute I with iii or vi) or do you want me to actually harmonize the I chord using the iii chord? (or vi for that matter...)

I want you to find song and reharmonize as much as you can in it using diatonic reharmonization for tonic, subdominant and dominant chords.
You can pick "My Heart Will go on" or as I said Mariah Carey or Britney Spears songs

Alright, I'll have a look at it later tonight after Uni.

Ok Ben, pick a song today and we can perhaps start working on it tonight.

I don't really know any pop songs, to be honest... I have found the chords to My Heart Will go on. Should I write the re-harmonization chords here?

Okay give it a go Ben, lets see what you got

Intro:
C#m B A B C#m B A B

In here we already see some sort of re-harmonization from the I IV V progression, which would have been E B A. Instead we have C#m, which is the vi chord. The key is E major, and the chord progression vi, V, IV, V.

If we were to re-harmonize the C#m, which is the vi chord, we could reharmonize it with E chord, which is I or IV chord, which is A. E shares the 3rd, 5th of C#m, while A shares 1st and 3rd.

The B chord of the intro is the V and can be re-harmonized with the vii, which is Ebminb5. These two chords share the 7th degree of the E major scale, which resolves into the 1st degree and I chord, which is E. The V chord could also be reharmonized with iii-chord G#m, which shares the 1st and 3rd.

As for the IV-chord A, it could be re-harmonized using the vi-chord C#m. This chord has the 3rd and 5th of the A chord. It could also be re-harmonized using ii-chord F#m, which has the 1st and 3rd of the A chord.

-----------------------------

I hope that is some of what you wanted out of me. I don't really have much more time now, but just want to add, that it's far more interesting when adding 7ths to the chords, I think. E.g.

Dmin7 and Fmaj7.

-----------------------------

I hope I've understood a little of this correctly, otherwise please say so

Ben just make sure that if Root is in the melody not to reharmonize with III chord but rather with VI chord!

Can you explain that a bit further in a few sentences and maybe with a short example?

I mean "if root is in the melody". When you say root here, do you mean as in the key of E? Or do you mean the root of the chord (e.g. C#m)? In the latter case I would say that the root of the chord...is always in the chord?

I'm not quite sure I get what you are saying here.

If you mean root is in the melody (e.g. I IV V) as in E major in that, why can I not harmonize with iii-chord G#m? They share some notes in B and G#?

As I see it, if you're not substituting the chords, G#m adds to E major so that it becomes maj7, where as C#m makes it E6. If we were to substitute the chords this is of course somewhat irrelevant?

Oh, and another kinda cool thing:

There's a guy in my class at university, who is also a Tottenham fan, who has been teaching guitar for many years. He's also a graduate from LA Guitar Institute. He's 36 by the way, which is a bit older than me, but he is very cool. He has offered me and another guitarist from my class free guitar lessons. Hahaha. I think that's quite awesome.

Sure thing Ben!

If you are in key of E major, and you have E in the melody and E major originally playing in the background, you should reharmonize it with C# minor (VI) instead of G# minor (III). G# minor has G# B (3 5 of E) and D# (7). Since III chord has major 7th of the key, and melody is a root, we get clashing type of sound (b6 or b13th interval in comparison from G# to E). This is why we avoid it and reharmonize with VI chord which has more stable sound if root of the I chord is in the melody. I hope that makes sense now. Let me know if you have any more questions.

Very cool to hear about GI Spurs guy Let me know how lessons go with him

Oh, then I understand it. I thought you meant "melody" as in general "song" and not as "melody line with underlying chords". No problem understanding it then

Yeah, I'm not sure how he'll be approaching it, but we're going to bring out our guitars some day all three and jam for a bit. I haven't heard him playing, but a graduate from a guitar school can't be all that bad

Awesome!
You guys will have a blast, watch a Spurs game before and after jamming

Am I done with the assignment or do you want me to correct or do something else besides that?

By the way, even though you say there's a clash between notes in the above example, it could theoretically be used anyway (freedom of being creative). And I geuss the clash would sound less clash-y if the E note was played an octave or more above the G#m?

You are not done yet
I want you to lay out the arrangement for the song and put original harmony once through then do your reharmonization. Melody should always stay the same no matter what!
It is ok to use G# minor with E as the melody note but that works when E is passing note (eight note value or so).
Between VI and III, VI chord is more tonic stable chord because it contains actual root of the chord in it!

I'm not sure I know what you mean. Do you want me to record the chord progression and then record the re-harmonization as well?

I was thinking more of doing it in Guitar pro because you are very good at that. If you feel like recording it, go ahead, it can only benefit you !

I don't even know the melody line of My heart will go on. Hahahaha. But I'll have a look at it anyway

EDIT:

I think this is some of what is going on. I'm just gonna try and do some re-harmonization quickly and then I'm off

I am going to bed now, work on it and submit it fully by Sunday !

Sleep well, Pedja.

I've tried something. I'm not sure it is exactly how you wanted it, but I definately already got something out of it.

The change from the first part to the second part (C#m B A B vs. E G#m F#m G#m) is quite evident. But I geuss this is also a matter of changing modes.

I've kept the melody line playing the same, but changed the chords to the reharmonized ones. In the last part both sets of chords are played underneath the melody line.

I chose to reharmonize C#m with E, because of the start note of E and resting note of G#. Those two prominent notes in the melody line are in both chords. Had I chosen A, there would have been a clash between the G# in the melody line and the A chord.

In the next bar I chose to reharmonize B with G#m because of the resting note B which is in both chords. This note is not in the vii chord and therefore I felt G#m was the better choice.

In the next bar I have reharmonized A with C#m because of the note C#. I could have also chosen F#m. The note C# is in both F#m and C#m, but to me C#m felt more natural as C# is the root of the chord.

In the same bar we move on to a resting note B. I have chosen G#m here, as the note B is not in Ebminb5 (though there are two b's in the name ).

It's really the same in the 3-4 next bars, except the melody changes, but the landing notes are the same. I don't see any reason to explain that.

Ben this is excellent, just what I wanted you to do! I am very glad to hear you already learned some things from this assignment. I will pick a next tune for you and lets see what you can do with that one

Hahaha. Cool. I'll wait and see.

I'll be very busy next week by the way. I'm going to be at work Monday from 14:15 to 23:15, university Tuesday from 13:00 to 17:00, university Wednesday from 13:00 17:00, Thursday university 15:00 to 17:00 and work from 17:00 to 23:15 and Friday I'll be away between 14:00 to 16:00 and 16:00 to 21:15.

Ok Ben, I will give you assignment for this weekend then so we can make up lost time in next week

Yeah, do that. I'll be out for the Spurs game though, as well as having to look at the collab. But go for it, Pedja. I'll find the time!

By the way... what would the term for "re-mode-ifying" be? Like... If you have a certain melody and chord progression and you within a song change that from let's just say aeolian to phrygian?

Enjoy the game, Arsenal is playing Man City, that will be a great game as well

First time I heard of that term Ben but explanation you give sounds right Adjusting melody and its notes by mode you are in.

It was actually just something I came to think of. I don't know if it makes sense. I have never used it before though. I'm not sure how one would go about pulling it off smoothly.

A lot of jazz improvisers use this trick. Listen to Coltrane, he loves to start on one pitch and do voice leading from it, just altering the rest of the notes to fit the mode that supports chord.

Cool. I'll definately listen to him.

I love those small tricks. I like melodies that are simple and minimalistic, which only progress in slight changes such as key or modes