A book on chords?

[shingo]

Hi,

I have been reading some of Bob's old threads about chords and his learning of them. I have become interested in this and would like to learn them as well but I need to start right at the beginning, much of the discussion in those threads goes over my head.

Is there a book of somesort that could introduce chords and their formation/variation/structure etc that I can go through to give me some good knowledge of the workings of chords and then perhaps leave me aware of how to go about practicing them.

I would like to be able to identify any string of notes as a chord, (if this is possible), so that a run of melodic notes can be learned much faster with the tag of a --chord to which I will already know the position, or a --chord with --added.

Thanks for any suggestions.

[Bob]

Any of them.  I think they focus a lot on part-writing. 

And they get very technical fast. 

They leave out... the idea that you can generally group them into predominant, dominant, and tonic chords.  I think there's another group before that that can be anything, so... anything, predom, dom, tonic.  You can have many possibilities in each area, but you can also simplify most things down to those groups and that pattern.

They also give you details on how the notes move, for part-writing, but... not so much on identifying chords in a key.  I find it helpful just to be able to recongize/know chords -- what it is, what it is in the key, and how it's functioning.  I imagine my memory for exactly how each tone is supposed to move has faded.  But that doesn't matter so much if I'm not writing music.  For playing, identification and quick understanding is good.

Kofskta (sp?), Kennen... I'm blanking on others. 

Also watch out for that explanation.  It can get sooo detailed.  Just get the idea and push through.  I wouldn't worry so much about knowing exactly how notes should move in a perfect authentic cadence (unless you want to write those since you're composing). 

Search for something like Tonal Harmony or Chromatic Harmony and you'll find stuff.  Maybe don't just stick with one book.  Get the idea, see it/play it in all keys, and move on.  It can be very tedious, detailed reading.  I remember spending at least 30 minutes reading about tonic and dominant and it was all stuff I knew already, but it was tedious reading. 

But some things -- say parallel fifths -- I have seen that since college.  I don't think anyone cares or hears it if I play it.  I know of it and I understand about keeping voices independent, that broad idea, so that helps.  I doubt I can write perfect part-writing but I don't have much reason to.  What I'm focusing on now is drilling things about chords.  There isn't much drill in theory books or theory classes.  It's a lot more like thinking and doing an exercise and then correcting it.  I want instant recognition though, so I drill more now.  Even if I understand it, I don't want to put much effort into thinking -- or I can't -- while I'm playing.  So it has to be instant and effortless.

[Bob]

That's also the traditional approach.  I'm leaning toward there being more to chords and progressions than just what the text books say. 

[shingo]

Thanks for your response Bob .

I have been digging through the stuff I currently own as I havn't found anything dedicated just to chords. This may be a good thing as it will force me to understand it more due to the colecting of and interpretation of what I am reading.

So  I am now starting to understand more and beginning to plot my own course with regards to how I will actually carry out my learning.

I will also go and review some of your old topics again to see if I understand those better.

[chopinatic]

Thanks for your response Bob .

I have been digging through the stuff I currently own as I havn't found anything dedicated just to chords. This may be a good thing as it will force me to understand it more due to the colecting of and interpretation of what I am reading.

So  I am now starting to understand more and beginning to plot my own course with regards to how I will actually carry out my learning.

I will also go and review some of your old topics again to see if I understand those better.

There are books out there, Google is great for finding what you need. Do a search!!
I find also that alot of studying chords is just playing pieces, breaking them down into what chords there using. Like Bob kinda says: Improvise, practice and you will find your own harmonys and things that sound good together, books will not be able to tell you everything, working things out yourself is also more rewarding

Try getting a chord chart and play around with them, work out variations by just playing the notes in different order. Fuse chords together. Use different bass notes etc etc the possibilities are endless!!!!

Good luck

[shaunarundell]

Margaret Brandman, an Australian music teacher,  has a complete series of books focused on both Jazz and Classical

a few in the series are

"Contemporary Piano Methods" books 1- 4
"Chord work books" 1 & 2 (Comprehensive guide to chord study)
"Harmony comes together" (vol 2 coming soon)

If you want to learn all the differing chords, these are the books for you. These are full of information and lots of exercises in  identfying, writing and inverting and using chords

For example, chord book 1 contains

section 1 - basic elements of chord building
               intervals, scales, circle of fifths, etc
section 2 - triads
                major, minor, inversions, figuring, dim, aug, chord tables, etc
                 modes
section 3 - four note chords
                sevenths, dom, major, minor, dim, half dim, inversion,
                2 in 1 chords, major 6, minor, 7, minor 6ths, major 7 flat 5, dom 7 flat 5
                altered chords maj 7 # 5, maj 7 flat 5, min #7
                Dom 7 suspended 4t
and book2 2 extends to 9ths, 11ths & 13ths, altered noted in extended chords

And then "Harmony comes together" puts it together in the context of voice leading, part writing and progression development

I can't tell you home much these books have assisted my chord identification ability - I really feel that I can pick up any piece of music, no matter how complex (large Beethoven sonata or advanced Chopin ballad or a more modern Jazz piece) for example) and have no trouble in working out all the chords and their figuring after about 6 months of study

if anyone is interested I can post the table of contents and an example page or two and find where they can be ordered online ?

shaun