Fiddlewidget for String Teachers
Activity 6c-Finding Harmony Parts- Cleaning up the Rough SpotsTime required: about 30 minutes to present the material, and up to an additional hour to practice. Materials: 1.The written score produced in Activity 6b, with the melody, tenor and baritone parts shown in numbered scale degrees. 2. The instrument that we are demonstrating, i.e. violin, viola, etc. Whatever additional instrument the teacher finds most convenient can be added as well-this could be a guitar, a piano, or just a human singing voice, provided it can hit the pitches required. It is assumed that we've tried out the three-part harmony produced in the last Activity, and found a few spots where it doesn't sound quite right. You can usually just look at the way the triads are "stacked" and guess at where those spots will be. The general rule-of-thumb, which we will break almost immediately, is that consecutive numbers shouldn't be stacked right next to each other in a chord. The first place that happens in our example tune is the 2nd full measure where you see this pattern:
Because the underlying chord is a 5 (D), that 5 over the 4 actually works fairly well here because
it fits in a dominant 7th chord structure. We haven't talked about that yet because I'm trying to avoid getting
bogged down in theory so we can have some fun.
However,if you feel your students are curious and ready enough to explore that, we can go down that road a little,
in this little optional diversion:
Optional Diversion: The dominant 7th chord
(This is one of those opportunities to introduce some theory as it is used-it should take about 15 minutes and requires only pencil
and paper; a Fiddlewidget, if your students have them, will make it go a little faster but is not necessary.)
Dominant 7th chords are variations based upon the 5 chord as defined by the Nashville Numbers system. The word
"dominant" implies the 5th scale degree. Our example tune is in the key of G, so the dominant (5) chord is a D major chord.
Thinking in terms of the D scale, the D major chord is 1-3-5 or d, f# and a.
Thinking in terms of the G scale, the D major (5) chord is 5-7-2 or d, f#, and a. So these are two ways of
thinking your way to the same chord, just like we mentioned in Activity 5.
So now that we've found the dominant chord, to get the dominant 7th we just add a fourth note to it.
That note is the flatted 7th scale degree in the 5 (D) scale, which is a c natural.
If you are thinking in the G scale, using the 5-7-2 for the dominant, you'd add the 4th scale degree of THAT scale,
also a c natural.
Either method of thinking will lead you to the same place. It's like your having both a roadmap AND a GPS device; you can
use whichever method is most convenient and it's good to know them both.
Activity, for this diversion:
Write out the notes of the D major scale, and circle the 1st, 3rd ad 5th scale degrees.
Write out the notes of the G major scale and circle the 5th, 7th and 2nd scale degrees. Both methods should give you the
same notes, d, f# and a.
Now get the Fiddlewidget tool, if you have one and use that to find the same chord; set it to the key of D and notice
the 1,3, and 5 notes highlighted. Now set it at the key of G and notice where the 2nd, 5th and 7th scale
degrees line up. Mark them on the window with a dry erase marker if you want. You'll have the same d, f# and a
notes that you had before, and you'll also instantly see the closest, easiest way to get from the 1 chord (G)
to the 5 (D), no matter where you are on the instrument.
Now we can leave this little diversion and get back to a couple ways to "fix" this close harmony situation, if you
don't want to just leave it alone as a dominant 7th chord.
cleaning up the rough spots?continued
Getting back to our "problem" area in Buffalo Gals, let's look at some other "fixes".
Opening the harmony
If you are looking for something else, other than just leaving it alone as a dominant 7th, you could change the tenor part slightly,
leaving that second note on the 7 instead of moving down to the 5. This configuration would look like this:
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