Melody and Harmony
Senior 2 · Music
Melody and Harmony
Lesson 4 of 5
25 min
Sing the last line of any hymn and stop one chord before the end. Everyone in the room feels it: the music is "hanging". Then the last chord arrives and the tension disappears. Music is built from this movement between tension and rest, just as a story moves from a problem to its solution. This lesson explains where the tension comes from (dissonance), where the rest comes from (consonance), and how chords are put in an order that creates both.
An interval is the distance between two notes. Count the letter names from the lower note to the higher one, including both: C to E is C, D, E, three letters, so it is a third. When the two notes are played one after the other, it is a melodic interval; when they sound together, it is a harmonic interval.
Play or sing each pair together and listen.
Dissonance is not a mistake. It is the "problem" in the musical story, and it gives the music energy. What matters is that it resolves, moving to a consonance. In C major, the tense tritone B–F usually resolves inwards to the restful third C–E: B rises to C and F falls to E.
A chord progression is a series of chords played one after another. The most important progression in Western music uses the three primary triads.
Here is the same progression in tonic sol-fa short score (octave marks left out; the tenor and bass sound lower than the soprano and alto):
| Part | I | IV | V | I |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soprano | d | d | t | d |
| Alto | m | f | r | m |
| Tenor | s | l | s | s |
| Bass | d | f | s | d |
Look at how smoothly the upper parts move: the soprano only moves d, d, t, d, and the tenor holds s whenever it can. Good part-writing keeps shared notes and moves the other parts by step. The bass does the leaping, from root to root.
A cadence is the pair of chords that ends a phrase.
| Cadence | Chords | Effect | Like |
|---|---|---|---|
| Perfect | V to I | finished, final | a full stop |
| Plagal | IV to I | soft and final; the "Amen" at the end of many hymns | a full stop |
| Imperfect | any chord to V (for example I to V) | unfinished, waiting | a comma or a question mark |
Tip
Cadences are punctuation. Ends on I after V: full stop (perfect). Ends on I after IV: "Amen" (plagal). Ends on V: comma or question (imperfect). In an exam, look only at the last two chords, and ask which chord the phrase ends on.
Say whether each harmonic interval is consonant or dissonant: (a) C–G; (b) D–E; (c) E–G; (d) C–B.
Solution: (a) consonant, a perfect fifth. (b) dissonant, a second. (c) consonant, a third. (d) dissonant, a seventh.
Name each cadence: (a) IV to I; (b) V to I; (c) ii to V.
Solution: (a) plagal. (b) perfect. (c) imperfect, because the phrase ends on V.
Write the progression I–IV–V–I in G major, with the notes of each chord.
Solution: G (G B D), C (C E G), D (D F♯ A), G (G B D).
A song's first phrase ends on chord V and its second phrase ends V to I. Explain why this pair of phrases works.
Solution: the first phrase ends with an imperfect cadence, which sounds unfinished, like a question. The second ends with a perfect cadence, which sounds final, like the answer. It is the same question-and-answer idea you met in melody, now made by chords.
Remember
Sources and credits
The bass clef, the four-part progression, the notation drawings, tables and practice were written by Ganzaa.
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
