- Hi, I'm Gareth Green. And in this video, we're going to be thinking about harmonising from a bassline. Now, quite often, we're doing this the other way around. We're thinking, well, here's a melodic line
at the top of a texture, so what would be the chords that would fit with a given melody, or a melody that you've already composed? But what about thinking about
this the other way round? It's quite a good discipline for anybody who's writing harmony to be able to think from the bass upwards. It's also quite interesting historically that in the Baroque period, where we first really established major and minor tonality, Baroque thinking was very
much from the bass upwards. So you had this thing
called the figured bass, where they were thinking, "Well, what's this bassline
telling us in terms of chords?" And then, "How do we put "the rest of the texture
together from there?" But I think for a more
modern framework as well, it's quite interesting just to make sure that not only can you harmonise a melody, but you can also harmonise a bassline. One of the things you're
going to think about when you do this task is actually, do we end up with a
melodic line at the top that makes sense? Or do we end up just by working out chords that fit the bassline, but
we've got a melody line that's shooting all over the landscape and doesn't make much sense as a melody? So in a way, that slightly
enhances the challenge, but it's a good one to think about. So, here we have four bars, four measures, of a bassline in the key of E-flat major. So here's the bassline. Okay, that's a very
kind of typical bassline that you might come across, isn't it? Now what we've got to do, first of all, is really think about, what are the chords that we might select to go with that bassline
in the key of E-flat major? Now when you're selecting chords, you don't have to start at the beginning and kind of go A to Z. I mean you could look at this straight away, couldn't you? And you could think, "Well, the first note's E-flat, "we're in the key of E-flat major, "so probably chord I
is going to make sense "for the first note." You could also look at the
last note, couldn't you? And think, "Well, there it is. "It's a dotted minim, a dotted half note. "E-flat is the last note of the phrase, "so that's probably going
to be a chord I as well." Having looked at the last chord, we could probably look at the bar, the measure before, and think, well, it's got to be some kind of cadence, tso maybe this is going to be V to I, because that's the only thing that's really going to work there. And the interesting thing is; already we've dealt with over half of the implied harmony of the bassline, which is pretty cool, isn't it? Okay, well let's now sort
of move on and think about, well, what else might
appear along the way? And we can work forwards
and we can work backwards. I mean, for example, I'm looking at this note in the bass, thinking that looks like a passing note or a passing tone, doesn't it? It's just slipped in after that third beat of the bar, the measure. So probably we're going to be thinking about harmonising this note, and treating the next one as a passing tone, a passing note. So possibly, we could be
looking at that G thinking, well, it could be chord III, could be. Nothing wrong with using chord III, but it's one of the weaker
chords in the spectrum, so is there anything
stronger we could use? Well, we could possibly use a chord VI, but this is worth thinking about. If we use a chord VI, it's
going to be C, E-flat, G, which means we've got G in the bass because we're working from the bassline. So it's going to have to
be VI in second inversion. Now we've got to be very careful about second inversion chords, so maybe not such a great idea. Now that leaves us really with one option. It's really going to be chord I, but because we've got G in the bass, it's going to be I in
first inversion, Ib, I6, however you know it. So can you see the
logic of what I'm saying about that chord? It could be, I'm not saying
you can't use a chord III, I mean you could do, but
I'm just sort of saying, well, because it's not the
strongest chord on the spectrum, it's worth thinking,
are there other options? You immediately come
to chord VI and think, "Oh, that's a stronger
chord than chord III, "I'll go for that." But then you are thinking, "Ah, but if it's chord VI,
you're in second inversion, "so VIc or a VI6-4 chord." So probably better to
use the other option, which is I in first inversion. So this idea of sort of working backwards as well as forwards. Now here's something to
spot back in the first bar, the first measure. Just have a look at this
bassline for a second. And you notice in terms
of degrees of the scale, what's it doing? It's going one, two, three. Now if you get that one,
two, three movement, it's very possible that
this I in first inversion might be bobbing up again. So if we think of this note
as I in first inversion, a Ib or a I6, well, that's
quite often what happens when you progress from the first degree to the third degree, or
the other way around, the third degree back to the first degree. So it's one thing to think about. Once we kind of see that
that possibility exists, we then think, well this note is a kind of passing note between the E-flat and the G. Is it a passing note? It's on a beat, but it's certainly passing
between E-flat and G. So is it a passing note
because it's on a beat and it's taking up the
whole of the second beat, or could it be one of
these passing chords? What about these things we
know as the passing 6-4? Okay, now the passing 6-4, that's when you go from... let me just put this in a different thing, that's when you go from I, to Vc, to Ib, or that's going from I to V
in second inversion, V6-4, then going to I in first inversion, I6-3. Or you can do the opposite. So do it the other way
around if you want to. So that could work quite
happily as a progression there. There's another one that's commonly used where we go from IV, and then we go I in second inversion, so Ic or I6-4, onto IVb, or IV6, IV in first inversion. Or the other way round,
so you can do this, okay? So, those are the passing 6-4's. So do you see what I mean? These 6-4 chords, these
second inversion chords, are passing between I
and I in first inversion, or between IV and IV in first inversion. Now, because you can see here, we've kind of got I there
and I in first inversion. Well, could it be that actually we're looking at this scenario where this could be a Vc? Hmm, well it certainly
could be, couldn't it? Now one thing just to bear in mind is that we have a replacement option for the V in second
inversion, and it's this one, where instead of using that, we can use a VII in first inversion. So in either of these, okay? So VII is a chord that
we're often told to avoid, but it works particularly well as a replacement passing 6-4. So you could use the Vc, it's a perfectly reasonable thing to do, but you could also use a VIIb. VII doesn't sound great in root position because it's a diminished chord, put it in first inversion, it tends to sound much better. So here's VII in its root position, slightly kind of ugly sounding chord, put it in first inversion, actually sounds much better because we're sort of hiding
the tritone within it. So well, why not? Let's be adventurous
and we could use the Vc, but why don't we use the VIIb? The VII in first inversion. So you can see that that progression from I to Ib is giving us an option for a passing 6-4 or this
replacement passing 6-4. Okay, well, where are we going next if we start looking at
this next bass note? I think the most obvious
thing to say about that one is it's the root of chord IV. So that's possibly the
strongest option to go for, particularly having had
on the previous chord, chord I in first inversion, we can now use chord IV in root position. So that's handy. We've started this
whole thing, haven't we? With root position, first
inversion, first inversion. So possibly time to come
back to root position, particularly bearing in mind we've got another inversion
chord coming up there. So I think that's probably
the best thing to do. Could you use chord II in first inversion? You certainly could. That's another option to think, well if I use chord II in first inversion, well that would also last
me for the next chord. So I could have a chord II that took me through those two beats. That would be a perfectly
reasonable thing to do. If it's not that, it's going to be chord
VII in second inversion, probably not a great idea. Okay, well we could either stick with a II for those two beats or we could say, "Okay, let's have a different chord." So what are we going to do then with our remaining note here? We've got this F. Well, it could go from a IV to a II, that'll be a perfectly
reasonable thing to do. Well, let's do something
a bit more adventurous. How about we go back to this notion of a VII in first inversion? Could be II, but VII in first inversion, just another chance to use it. And it's quite nice in a
way to have it in the middle of the first bar, the first measure, and then have it come again in the middle of the second
measure, the second bar, but in a different context. So we've got the passing 6-4 replacement in the first measure, but we've got something
that's using the same chord but not as a passing 6-4 replacement in the second measure. So, it's kind of giving
us a harmonic framework that will work quite nicely. Okay, now, I think it's
worth planning this harmony. So you've got that going. When you are working
from a bassline upwards, you need to start thinking, actually, what am I going
to do with this melody, So it's going to sound like
a half decent melodic line, otherwise you have that danger that I spoke about earlier where you've got the melody just jumping all over the landscape. Have a look at the first
measure again, the first bar. The bassline is going one, two, three, in the context of a
replacement passing V6-4, or an authentic passing V6-4. When the bassline goes one, two, three, quite often, another part,
particularly the melody part, might be going three, two, one. So I'm going to suggest
that's how we start our melody because it's going to make
for a decent melodic start. And also because we've now
got this contrary motion between the top and the bottom, that's going to enhance
our replacement 6-4, and it's going to reduce vastly the opportunity for us to end up writing consecutives or parallels because we don't want to end up with octaves and fifths and things. So yeah, that's probably
quite a handy start, isn't it? So we've got one I, VIIb, Ib. You see that sounds
quite nice, doesn't it? So that's all handy. Now then we've had some conjunct movement in the first measure, the first bar, we're also becoming cognizant by the end of the first bar that the top and the bottom parts are beginning to get quite close together. Now if you get too close together between the top and the bottom, you haven't got enough room in the middle to squeeze in the alto and tenor parts. Just the fact that we've
just got a sixth there is already putting us under pressure. So my instinct is to say let's get the melody to go up. And maybe we don't want it to move in quarter notes or
crotchets all the time, but maybe what we could do is to do this. Now you might be a little bit surprised at this at first, that C fits the chord IV, and it also gives the melody a lift. That works quite nicely. It's got a kind of nice
shape to the melody because we're going up at that point, that's going to make us sort
of something quite distinctive in the melodic character. But then you're going to say to me, "Well hang on a minute,
what's that C got to do "with your VII in first inversion?" Well, yeah, it's a fair point, but it could be a VII7 in first inversion. Ah, that makes it even more interesting. So we are reiterating that
VII in first inversion in the first measure, the first bar, but now we're making it a seventh. So if it lasts for that second beat. Sounds quite nice, doesn't it? And it enables the melody just to settle for a moment, so it's not just going on in quarter notes or crotchets all the time. Well, we've had a big leap up. That's helpful because it's given us space between the top and the bottom. The bass is going by step,
the melody's leaping, so again, it's helping
to reduce the problem of parallels, consecutives. But having had a big leap up, we probably want to step
back inside the leap. So the most obvious thing to do next is to go for a B-flat in the melody so that we've mitigated our rising sixth by stepping back inside it and it fits with that
I in first inversion. So, so far. So that's kind of working I think quite well, isn't it? We've got plenty of contrary motion and we've got something
that's sort of sounding like a quite distinctive melody. Well we've gone by step, we could afford to have another leap, but we are also going to
just take note of the fact that the bassline is stopping
for a couple of beats. So this could be an opportunity for our melody to move a little bit. And how about we do something like this? Which I'll explain in a moment. Okay, so what am I up to now? Well, this first F obviously
belongs to the chord V. This is a passing note or a passing tone. And by moving up to the A-flat there, well that's turning our chord V into V7. Always a good thing to do. We've had quite fast harmonic rhythm in the first two measures,
a chord on each beat. Then suddenly in the third measure, we've got one chord for the whole bar. That's okay because we're
approaching a cadence. So a change in the harmonic rhythm is often a good thing. But actually to take a chord V and then to turn it into a V7 is enriching that V,
making it more interesting. Okay, once we've gone there, we haven't really got any
choice about the last note because when we're writing a V7, a seventh is supposed to fall by step because I've got the seventh in the top part it's
going to have to finish by coming down to a G. Okay, let's just think
about that melody then. Taken that a melody can often work well if it's basically going in
contrary motion with the bass because that's eliminating our troubles with parallels, consecutives. Taking that we want a balance of conjunct and disjunct movement, that maybe it wants its own little bit of rhythmic character. Well, do we think we've achieved that? I think that works alright, doesn't it? And then if we read our chords and think, well, does the harmonic life of this work? Seems to work quite nicely, doesn't it? I mean we could maybe
spruce it up a little bit, but we've got something going. Okay, let's just see if now I can complete these middle parts reasonably quickly. So do you see what I'm doing here? I'm thinking, well, I've
got the root in the bass, I've got the third at the top, well we're going to have
to double something. We want to double either
the root or the fifth because we don't really
want to double a major third if we don't have to. So that's the kind of
really only thing you can do with that first chord now you've got the top and the bottom. Okay, well when we progress, we're going to use common notes where we can in the same part, or we're going to move by step. So that alto probably wants to come down, the tenor probably wants to come down. So we could do something like that. Now, we talked about this last note of the first measure by saying, actually the top and the bottom are now only a sixth apart, beginning to squeeze the space, because between the E-flat at the top and the G in the bass, well, we've only got room for a B-flat. So, what are we going to do? Are we going to put B-flat in the tenor or are we going to put
B-flat in the alto part? Well, I'm going to suggest we put B-flat in the tenor part, so which really means we
have to share the E-flat in the soprano with the alto. That's not a great sin. I'm also doing that because if I were to take the alto down to B-flat at the end
of that first measure, the soprano part then jumps up to C, which that B-flat's now
a ninth away from that C. So I've got to be careful I don't end up with too big of a gap on the next chord between
the soprano and the alto. So probably that's a good reason to have E-flat in the alto, to enable the alto to kind of move on. Don't forget as well, kind of stability in the alto part is usually the sign of good harmony. So don't worry if the alto
part looks a bit boring. The fact we can now repeat
another E-flat there. I'm getting a bit boxed in. I could have C in the tenor, but that's going to give
me a double major third. So how's about if I double
the A-flat in the bass? But I'll make it two beats, because A-flat is a common note with the next chord going from IV to that VII7b chord will work quite well. So I'm going to need to move the alto down to a D to accommodate it, so you can see what I've done now. That sort of works quite
nicely, doesn't it? Which also means the
alto then can progress up by step to E-flat, so I can take the tenor up to B-flat. So that's keeping all the inner parts kind of fairly steady, I'm not leaping all over the place. We've now got an interesting situation because again, the top
and the bottom parts are pretty close together. I mean we've only got a fifth between the top and the bottom with that F at the top and
the B-flat in the Bass. So I'm a bit stuck aren't I, I've only got D in the middle to play with and I've still got this business, I've got an alto and a
tenor part to deal with. Well there might be a solution to that. We'll come back to it in a minute. I'm going to miss out
this chord for a moment and I'll explain why. Let's see if we can finish the cadence. Good idea to put your cadence stuff in. Well how about the alto has a D going to E-flat at the end and the tenor repeats a B-flat? So you've got a common
note repeating in the tenor with that B-flat as a common
note between V7 and I. You've got the alto moving by step. We're also resolving our V7 properly. The seventh is falling
by step in the melody, we spoke about that. But the third, which is in the alto, is also rising by step. So that's one reason for wanting to deal
with that a little bit. Now I could just, at the
beginning of this bar, put a D in the alto, share
the B-flat with the tenor, perfectly reasonable thing to do. In fact, perhaps we'll make a decision to share the B-flat in the tenor because that gives us a
nice steady tenor line, doesn't it? Don't worry that middle
parts look a bit boring. If middle parts look boring, that's often a sign of good harmony. It's the top and the bottom you want to make more interesting. In the alto part here, because we've had this E-flat here and we're going to go to this D here, we have an opportunity
to write a suspension. So how about if I put a minim, a half note E-flat in the alto there? Because then, I've actually turned that V into a 4-3 suspension. So you see in this third
measure, this third bar, we started off by just saying, "Well, we'll just have
chord V for the whole bar." But it felt just a little
bit boring, didn't it? After the previous excitements of the first two measures. So now we've just managed
to spruce it up a bit. We said, well, it's starting with V, but it's finishing with V7. Now we've managed to get a
suspension into the deal. The thing about a suspension, we have to have those
three moves: P, S, R. Prepare, sound, resolve. P has to be the same note as S, S has to move by step, normally downwards. This is a 4-3 suspension because the E-flat to S
is a fourth above the bass going to D, which is a
third above the bass. So it fits all the
requirements for a suspension and it's going to make that cadence sound a bit more interesting. Okay, so what have we now got? And the end result is actually, it sounds as if we've
harmonised the melody, because we've tried to
get a strong melodic line. In fact, we've harmonised the bass. But you don't want to end up with something like the
alto line as the melody. It'd be quite easy, wouldn't it? Use exactly the same chords but turned out with a
melody that's going to go... Because that's not a good melody, is it? So that's great as a
nice stable alto line. You don't want a melody line that's going to be like the tenor part. Just doesn't kind of
sing to us as a melody. So you see what we're doing? We are thinking from the bassline, "What's the implied harmony? "How do we get a melodic line "that's got some shape
and some character?" And then we think about
stability in the middle. So we end up with this. So I hope that's useful in how to go about writing
some four-part harmony from a bassline. Well, if you found this video helpful, let me point you to our website, www.mmcourses.co.uk, where you can find a heap
of Music Matters resources. So if you're wanting
help with your harmony or your aural or your sight reading or your keyboard harmony or your analysis, whatever it is you're looking for, we've got stuff to help you. So, go on to that website
and on the homepage, click on Courses and
you'll see the whole list of things that we can offer there. While you're on the homepage, you can also click on Maestros and that will take you into the depths of our international Music
Matters Maestros community, fabulous group of people, they are too. Lots of perks come in with that, including the opportunity, if you are a level two member, to attend a monthly live stream in which I teach for an hour on these kind of topics, on composers, we look up music, we
do all sorts of stuff. But there's a live chat running, people can ask questions, we can interact with each other. It's a wonderful forum
of like-minded people and it's open to folk of all levels. There's also our level three group, which in addition to everything that is offered to level
one and level two members, you also have access to a
second monthly livestream at which you can submit
your own compositions, your own harmony exercises, your own performance recordings. You get one-to-one feedback
and evaluation from me. And again, we share it with the group so everybody gets to hear everybody else's contribution. And everybody, again, terribly supportive, which is wonderful. And we learn so much from each other. So if that's of interest,
have a look at Maestros. Anyway, it's all there, www.mmcourses.co.uk.
