Hey YouTube! mDecks Music here and welcome back to our series on how to write music using Mapping
Tonal Harmony Pro. What we're gonna do today is go into the world of classical music specifically
Beethoven, our last series was on pop music and we use Bob Marley's "No Woman No Cry" to exemplify a
lot of the techniques you would see in a popular music context. So what we're gonna do today is go
back and look at something specific to the early classical or the late classical period. So the
song we selected to start the series with is a Beethoven piece Sonata Opus.2 number.1 in
F minor. This is Beethoven's first Sonata it's one of his earliest pieces and basically
what we're gonna do is delve into it and we're gonna talk about all the harmonic and melodic
and rhythmic elements and techniques that make it sound like Beethoven. And then actually what we're
gonna do is as we go through the series is compose our own version of a classical piece using all the
techniques and elements that we're talking about as we go. So you can see it used in somewhat real
time as we go through and analyze each section of the song. So before we jump into the piece,
let's just start with a brief overview once more of the map, how it works and how to navigate our
way through the map. So here we are in Mapping Tonal Harmony Pro in the most basic form of
the map, right. So over here on the left you'll see there are all these different versions of
the map. They get more and more complicated and show you more and more paths and more and more
ways to get to and from the chords within the key that you're playing in. We only need, for the first
section of our song -- even though it's Beethoven -- the most basic form of the map. So that's what we
have selected down here, and we can change the key of the map down here on the keyboard if I want to
play in Db or F or Ab. All I have to do is hit those keys on the keyboard. Our song is
in F minor, so now we have a view of our map in the key of F minor and all the chords relative
to the key of F and F minor and the three regions that we've talked about ad nauseam. If you want a
more in-depth understanding of the map we have a whole series on reharmonization, this is just
like a quick explanation of how to navigate the map what everything means but if you want to have
a better understanding of that just click on the link that we put up here for you and it'll go to
a much more in-depth explanation as to what the map is and how it works. But just for now, we
have our three regions: we have our tonic region -- which is for our one chord -- and all of its friends reside.
We have the four chord, over here, the Bb in this case -- the sub-dominant region -- and our dominant
region over there. And then obviously we go back to the one chord usually when we are there. So what
we have here are a bunch of circles of fifths and the chords are inter laid around the circles with
regard to their geographic location within the circle of fifths. Not all the chords are present
just the ones that are relevant to this iteration of the map. So we have F and then D minor a few spots
over. On the inside of the circle are all the minor chords of F minor. So if I'm playing an F minor, I
would use a lot of the chords on the inside of our circles. So the three regions: tonic, sub-dominant, dominant, chords from
the major key on the outside of the circles, chords from the minor key on the inside of the circles.
And if you want to see the chords functionally, instead of by name, all you have to do is hit the
function button right there and now you can see the chords relationship to and from one another
in the context of their function. Like this is the I this is the IV this is V. And that
helps you kind of see the pads a little clearer or it lets you transpose from one key to the next a
little easier. So that's just basically what we're gonna talk about as far as like how to navigate
the map and what to do in a basic level. Like I said, if you want a more in-depth understanding
of it click on the link we put earlier and or just watch through harmonization series we have it's a
really good one. So I definitely recommend doing that either now or later anyways. Okay! So just to
make this whole process a little easier what we're going to do is just plug in the chord progression
that we have for the first 8 bars of our Sonata....
It will help us have a better understanding of the
chords within the map and the key we're playing in, and let us see all the paths. So what we're
gonna do is we've already got the edit mode on and we've got the key calibrated to F minor -- we talked
about it being an F minor -- so mapping harmony automatically assumes that we're studying an
F minor and we are so that chord is already there for us. In the third measure we're gonna go into
a first inversion -- click on the triangle C7 -- alright that gives us our V-VI-V designation in the
chord progression of top. We're gonna go to the next. Next chord shows up in measure 5. So half of
our phrase is a I-V progression, it's just F minor to C7. So in measure 5 we go back to our
one chord -- F minor again -- measure 6 has a first inversion of E diminished. So click on the triangle
to get the third in the bass, throw that in there. The next measure we have another inversion, only
this time it's of our one chord, so the back of triangle first inversion. One chord right
after that, in the same measure we have a G minor 7b5 in first inversion. And he ends his
phrase with a sus chord he goes C7sus, resolves to C7. So there's our progression plugged into the map....
So now we've got the progression programmed into the app it will show us a lot of the elements and
techniques that are there and that we're going to talk about. For example: when we go from the
first chord of the song to the inversion of the C7 chord, our base detector kicks in. Because
we move the base note to E. Mapping Tonal Harmony Pro is telling us that we've moved by way of
a step in the bass, which we've talked about in previous series that that's something that you
want your bass to do -- move in fourths and fifths or in stepwise movement -- and Mapping Tonal Harmony
is detecting that and saying "yes that's a good thing." And then we go to the next chord and the
cadence detector kicks on. This authentic cadence is telling you -- and again stepwise movement in the
bass -- the bass detector says you've moved by way of a step again. At the same time you're
executing an authentic cadence. And the next chord more stepwise movement in the bass because of the
inversion of the E diminished chord that we use we put it over G we put in a first inversion. So
there again we have two consecutive movements of stepwise movement in the bass. The next chord gives
us our third because yet again we're using another inversion -- F minor over Ab -- we have this bass
doing this cool a stepwise movement thing. Another cadence indicator is
now tripped on too. So there's all these elements that were going on we didn't even realize they
were there. And Mapping Tonal Harmony is making those techniques and those elements much
more obvious and apparent to us now. Our fourth, because yet another inversion of the chord were
using, has allowed the bass to step up again a fourth time. So that's why you see the four next
to the step wise base indicator. No cadence there. So now the cadence detector has gone off again but you
notice this time it's outlined in red. And this is just indicating to you, the listener, whoever's using the app,
basically that something else is a is about to happen. That this G minor7b5, while that is
a path to go to C7sus, it's not the strongest conclusion of that harmonic path. That there's
somewhere else to go. Like if I gone directly from G minor7b5 to C7 you see the path is yellow
which is saying that's a good strong resolution point from that region of the map to this region
of the map. But, since we went there indirectly, by way of C7sus, it's pointing out to us that we
went from the sub-dominant region to the dominant region. We just didn't land on the chord that you
may have expected to or we landed on a chord that doesn't resolve to that corporation
directly, slightly delays it. So when I see that red line and Mapping Tonal Harmony Pro,
I know something else is about to happen. I know that this isn't quite done yet and you can hear
it too if you listen to it. That sus chord wants to resolve there, right. So those are a lot of
the elements that you may not even have seen or noticed we're there. And see I plug them into
the app and it starts to show you how you're doing this, this is happening, this cadence, this stepwise
moving in the bass. So that's one of the reasons I like using Mapping Tonal Harmony Pro when it comes
to analyzing any sort of harmony or any sort of elements that a song may have. So what this red
line is also indicating is there's one of the elements that we're about to talk about which
is basically a half cadence. And a half cadence is basically when you create tension before the V
chord as a means of arriving to the V chord as a point of conclusion, or finality, or as a target
basically we talked about before. We are trying to make the C7 our target. If we do it directly
from G minor 7b5 it doesn't necessarily sound like a target it actually sounds like it
wants to go somewhere else. But, if we set that up by creating some tension before -- by using the
sus chord -- it does become a logical sort of target area. It does become a sort of logical conclusion
point to the progression. So that's what a half cadence is and that's the way our
phrase that we're analyzing right now -- the first 8 measures -- ends. And that's something specific
to a lot of classical music but especially in this case something Beethoven uses a lot.
So something else we can pretty plainly see now that everything is on the map, is all the paths
within the map, all the arrows showing us the way to get to and from the chords that we're
using. And it's pretty apparent that there's a lot of traffic going back and forth between
this region and this region (the dominant region and the tonic region). And the four chord region,
or the sub dominant region is more of a way to get to that than it is anything of interest. It's
not really a point of interest. You never see him go from sub dominant he's just using that
sub dominant region as an on-ramp sort of speak to get to this main highway of V-I-V-I-V-I.
As we talked about before that movement is one of the strongest pulls in music. It's one of the
strongest tension release points in music that you'll hear. You could play, you could establish the
key that the song is in or that the progression is in. And what Beethoven is doing here, if you notice,
he's using a lot of the chords. A lot of the chords are in that dominant region. So he's basically just
like drawing out this tension-tension-tension by using all these different versions of V chords
or chords in the dominant region. He's drawing out the tension-tension-tension that
you expect to eventually resolve there, to that one chord. So you've got this main highway between this
tonic region and this dominant region and you've got a lot of dominant region chords to even like
exacerbate that tension that much further. This is a really common element in Beethoven's music,
in classical music in general. So be on the lookout for that as we move forward. What he's done also by
doing this, is say "this is what key we're in." Okay I know it seems sort of silly to have to
say that, but one of the most important elements that we're going to touch on is early on in
the song, in the Sonata, in whatever you're writing, establish the key! And the best way to do that is
this movement... V-I (dominant-tonic) alright, or a bunch of dominant region chords to the tonic. And
that's all he's really done in the first line of this song, all right. That's all he's really done in
the first four bars is go from the tonic region to the dominant region and then back again. And
by doing so he's calibrated our ear, this is the key that we're in, this is what you can expect to
happen so that when something else happens outside that box you're like, "oh wow that was kind of cool!"
So this whole V-I movement really crucial to establishing the key that the song is in and
also creates a lot of tension release sort of technique and elements that you're going to see
again and again and again. So in addition to this like V-I movement being so prevalent
in the Harmony, and so used to establish and calibrate the key that you're in. He even uses
it -- he's like hitting us over the head with it here-- he even uses it right in the beginning with the
melody. You have a V-I, so he starts off the song by breaking the 1 chord... but he has a pickup note
that he adds to that. So Beethoven even starts the melody, starts the song, with this Sol-Do movement.
This V-I and it's in the melody... alright! And there are tons of songs that will do that as a means
of saying this is what key were in. So this is something you hear all the time like for example:
the Star Wars theme... V-I. he's going Sol-Do. In this case I'm playing G to C. Or.... the theme to Harry
Potter does the same exact thing -- V-I, Sol-Do -- "this is the key you're in." So this is something
that it seems kind of obvious and unnecessary to state, but establish the key, establish it early
on and beat the listener over the head with it. Just be like, "this is what key we're in." And Beethoven
had no shame in saying and being obvious about it. Like V-I, C-F. This is what key are
in, alright. And this is gonna allow him to do some really cool things later on with regard to your
expectations as to what's gonna happen and how he breaks those. So be on the look out for that.....