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Solfege Transcription: 1.10.

2018 1

Quarter note vamp on Ebmaj7 chord. LH plays root on 1 and 3, RH plays chord. Singing with
neighbor. Confused chatter. Vamping stops.
I’m confused what the instructions were. Sing what?
First part of response is inaudible. Sing something that fits with what I’m playing.
Anything?
Yeah.
Ebmaj7 quarter vamp begins again.
Sing to your neighbor, tell them how your break was.
Vamp introduces Cm7 while students sing scale degrees. Lands on Bb7, then pauses.
7-2-4
Where’s 7 really?
Class sings cacophony of notes that are not 7.
Where’s 1?
One student finds 7, resolves to 1.
Very good, everyone sing tonic.
1
Where’s 7?
7
2?
2
4?
4
Excellent, we’re going to try this again.
Ebmaj7 vamp begins. Students are silently unsure of what to do.
Sing to your neighbor.
After slightly louder confusion, vamp stops.
So, what am I playing right now? What harmony am I playing right now? 01:22
Chatter
Where’s tonic? 01:25
1
Solfege Transcription: 1.10.2018 2

Here’s my bass note plays Eb, so what harmony am I playing?


1
Yeah, it’s a little funky 1 because I’m adding the 7th there because that’s what we do this
semester. But, it’s just a 1 chord. So what scale degrees are safe? With subtle student
response: 1, 3, 5, and what else could we throw in if we wanted to be a little out
there? Students began responding with “7” halfway through the sentence. 7, good, what
else could we throw in if we wanted to be a little out there?
2?
2, yeah that’d be a major 9th. That would be okay, we could do that. How about 6 also? So,
almost everything is safe to do on a 1 chord. 4 is the one you kind of want to stay away
from. So, sing any scale degree you want. Switch to numbers now instead of just singing to
your neighbor. Find 1, see if you can find your way through, and if you need to, just do
step-wise motion. If you want to be a little more adventurous, just start to arpeggiate
around, leap a little bit around in there. Here we go.
02:15 Ebmaj7 vamp starts. Students begin to sing using numbers on tonic. 02:29 Bb7 hits.
With hesitation: 7-2-4
02:33 Ebmaj7 vamp begins again. Students begin to sing numbers on tonic.
Think about your meter now. In fact, just march a little bit, just lightly march the meter,
the beat
02:46 Bb7 chord.
7-2-4
Where’s my beat?
Snaps on 1 and 3.
There’s the beat, here we go.
03:00 Ebmaj7 vamp begins again. Students sing. 03:13 Bb7 hits.
7-2-4
Better.
03:17 Ebmaj7 vamp begins again. Students sing. 03:26 Bb7 hits.
7-2-4
Now is that a sound you want your grandmother to hear you make? Think about it, what
are you going to do to make the sound a little bit more beautiful, a little bit more
convincing? That you… even if you’re going to sing something that’s, that’s wrong, do it in
a convincing way. Here we go.
03:45 Ebmaj7 vamp begins again. With conviction. Students sing. 04:01 Bb7 hits.
Solfege Transcription: 1.10.2018 3

7-2-4
Good.
04:05 Ebmaj7 vamp begins again. Students sing. 04:17 Bb7 hits.
7-2-4
04:21 Ebmaj7 vamp begins again. Students sing. 04:33 Sits on Bb7 chord. Students hesitate, but
continue singing tonic harmonies until back to tonic. Tarries with Bb7 chord once more until
back to tonic. "Eb's never a good key for me." 05:20 Goes to Abmaj7.
05:41 Stops playing. What harmony am I hanging out on right now? A couple students
correctly guess 4. 4, so what are the, we didn’t do this last semester. What are the scale
degrees on IV, or predominant, chord? Let’s expand it out because a IV chord and a ii
chord, they’re both predominants, right? And so we can kind of substitute those things
freely without having to worry whether it’s going to sound good or not. So what are the
safe predominant scale degrees? Shout them out. Actually, sing them out.
1
Yeah, 1 is safe on tonic and predominant function. In fact, we going to use that to our
advantage this semester, so hold onto that one. So, [1 is good. What else is good on a
predominant chord? Sung on tonic].
2
Keep going.
4
What else?
6
6, in fact, we want to stick 6 somewhere in there, be it the hallmark of predominant chords.
Alright.
06:31 Vamps on Abmaj7. 06:44 Includes a ii (4 beats)-V (4 beats)-I turn around to vamp on
Ebmaj7.
Yeah, you guys didn’t remember that one. We only did that one at the very end of last
semester. When I’m sitting on a predominant like this, like this… plays Abmaj7 now
remember what I did when I slid down to the ii chord? What did we sing? [2-4-6-1, 2-4-5-7,
1-5-3-2-1] That was our standard cadence formula, so be on the listen out for that, so here
we go, back on tonic.
07:16 Vamps on Ebmaj7. Students sing. 07:24 Goes to Abmaj7, 07:31 then Fm7 for 4 beats, then
Bb7 for 4 beats, then back to Ebmaj7.
While vamping on tonic and changing harmonies respective to their references: Try one, one
more time. So, what speed are you going to sing it? I’m going to be really clear about the
beat on this one since we’re having a little trouble picking it up so I’m going to go to my IV
chord, slide down to my ii, just a second after I replace the meter.
Solfege Transcription: 1.10.2018 4

Goes to Bb7 and then Ebmaj7. Students catch on starting at the previous ii chord and finish with
the standard cadence formula.
Starting on tonic, changing chords respectively: Got it? Understand what I’m doing? Here we
go, make it predominant. Listen to the slide down to ii.
After V7 comes a 08:25 deceptive cadence. Students once again caught on at the previous ii
chord and resolved to 1 when deceptive chord was landed on. Students quieted when they
recognized the unfamiliar deceptive motion, did not sing for the subsequent IV chord, and
jumped back in to use the formula, starting again on the ii chord during the turn around to V7
and I. The I chord was not attacked, leaving the students to resolve the V7 chord, and everybody
dropped out. Recovery happened seconds later on 3-2-1.
Very good, everyone get out your textbook open to page 185, please. 1-8-5. We’ll take a
look at the chorale at the bottom of the page. And let’s see here, let’s have you guys up to
Logan, you guys are our sopranos today, and Celeste, you are my altos, and we'll go to
Ryan, you guys are my tenors, and you guys, I’ll join you, are the basses. What key are we
in, the chorale at the bottom of page 185?
Eb
Eb major, we sure about that?
Uncertain and from a couple of students: Yes
Absolutely, I don’t see any accidentals. Everything looks diatonic, and we end on an Eb
major chord. 3 flats in the key signature. Find your first note. We’re in the same key as I
was just playing. Sing tonic.
1
Good. Sing your first note of your part. Reading of the chord. There we go. By the way, we
need… no. We’ll do that next time. Here we go.
10:02 Chorale is read.
Very good, what is your name?
Sarah.
Hi Sarah, um, we need a style marking on this one. Can you give me a style marking?
Um, legato.
Legato, okay. Everyone understand what legato means? Excellent. Please stand up. Who
wants to conduct? Nobody? Michael? Come on up. You need a stand?
No.
You sure? Ok. Um actually, you guys are now altos. Tenors, basses, sopranos. Find your
first note. Michael, you can set your book down so we can sing our first note. Reading of
the chord. Ok, legato.
11:04 Chorale is read.
Solfege Transcription: 1.10.2018 5

That last chord didn’t sound like a chord. So make sure you’re finding your scale degrees
all the way through. Was that legato? It didn’t sound a whole lot the first time through,
right? So we need to… and Sarah’s very disappointed, right? Sarah’s
confirmation. Horribly disappointed we didn’t do it legato. Any other conductors want to
do this? You look like you want to conduct. Jahir?
Jahir (to correct pronunciation).
Jahir?
Yeah.
Come on up and conduct. We are now, let’s see. We were altos. We're tenors, basses, altos,
sopranos. Legato—what does legato mean?
Slow and connected.
Slow and connected. Well, maybe not slow, but connected. Smoothly. So we want to smooth
everything out as much as possible. Sing your first note. Reading of the chord. Sing smooth.
12:14 Chorale is read.
There you go, alright. Who else wants to conduct?
Me?
Come on up.
Ok. Can I have a stand though?
Yeah, grab one. Take a stand. So um, was that better legato?
I think so, yeah.
Alright, um, style marking. Celeste?
Oh, in conjunction with legato, or?
Ehh, let’s change it up a little bit. Let’s make it completely different.
Spirited.
Spirited? Ok. What does that mean to you? How are we going to make it spirited?
Faster.
We can do it faster. What if we didn’t want to change the tempo, but we wanted to make it
spirited? What are some of the things that go into making it a spirited performance?
Dynamics? Growth?
Yeah, we can add a little bit of growth into it. We want to make sure that when we’re
adding dynamics that when we get louder we don’t get slower. So we’re going to make sure
we’re going to do it through energy. We can do it through a little bit of disconnection
through the notes, a little bit more of an attack on the note, so that we can have a little bit
more clarity on the beginning of each note. And, we should do it. Last part, the one that
Solfege Transcription: 1.10.2018 6

you have not sung yet. You all have sung three parts so far. Ok, what are
you? “Sopranos.” Ok. Sing your first note. Reading of the chord. Now let’s make a spirited
first note. Chord sung again. Now one of the things you can do to make it really spirited,
energize your face, smile. That’s going to make a better sound anyway. Try it. Chord sung
again. Do you hear a difference in the sound already? I do. Ok.
14:16 Chorale is read.
Who are tenors, who were tenors last time? Ahh that’s understandable. Were you singing
tenor last time?
I was singing bass.
You were singing bass. Who was singing tenor? Maybe that’s the problem there. There
were no tenors there. Yeah, that’s a very open chord at the end there. So, who job is it to
jump to the third if, uh, there’s no third in the chord? Tenors, but the tenors didn’t know
who they were, that wasn’t… so anyways. So we have a little bit of reorchestrating to do.
Move to your natural voice parts. And lets come up with an emotion. Ryan, an emotion?
Nervous.
Nervous. Great answer. Nervously. Think about what that means, how are you going to
make it sound nervous? So, what are you going to do, before we do it let’s just think about
it so we’re all on the same page. How can you make this sound nervous?
You could make some of the notes, like, staccato. Or something…just like, clipped.
Okay, so very clipped, kind of uncertain about the lengths…
Tentative?
Tentative, very good. What else can we do?
Maybe, like, even a little bit behind, behind the beat?
Ok, yeah, alright. So we can do that. Kind of lay on the back end of the beat, good. I would
do this very softly but with a lot of energy because ner… nervousness usually projects itself
as energy, so I want to really be tense when I do it but I don’t want to make a mistake. I
don’t want to sound like I’m making a mistake, so I want to make sure I’m going to do it
pianissimo, piano, somewhere in that voice range. Sing your first note. Reading of the
chord. Who’s singing soprano?
I will.
Thank you, MG. Anyone else want to sing soprano with her?
I will.
Good, thank you, Lindsay. Who else? We need one more soprano. Very good, alright. Sing
your first note. Reading of the chord. Here we go.
16:21 Chorale is read.
Was that nervous?
Solfege Transcription: 1.10.2018 7

It felt too confident.


Yeah, it felt confident. Let's back it off a little bit, let's add a little bit more space between
the notes and let's do a little more ping on the beginning, on the attack of each note, and
then back off to much more of a humming type of sound on the back of each note. So let's
see if that does it.
16:56 Chorale is read.
Better? I think we could pass that for nervous. Alright thank you very much. Everyone sit
down. Welcome back. For those of you who I had for 4 it's great to see you again. I missed
you guys over break, I hope you had a good break. I'm wearing a Christmas tie from my
kids. It's out X-wing Fighters, so turn off your nerd detectors whenever you're around.
They're going to be shouting out loud. Um, did ya'll get a good, good, have a good
Christmas, good Christmas, and everything? New people, welcome. You'll catch on what
we're doing pretty quickly. So, um, if you have that panic look on your face, if someone
asked you to do something in the class and you don't know what to do, just give me that
panic look and I'll help you through it. We'll get through this together. Alright, so, um,
second semester Solfege. For those of you who were here before, you can also give me that
panic look. Laughter. Second semester Solfege, this semester, we're going to be focusing on
a couple things. We're going to be expanding our diatonic, um, language a little bit, then
moving into 7th chords especially. We already learned dominant 7th chords but we need to
learn all the other 7th chords all the way. We need to finish up our work on intervals, and
we also need to start working on understanding music as a harmonic entity. We have a
bunch of standard harmonic progressions that we're going to learn, and these are things
that we're going to be using... you'll be using these throughout your whole life because
these are standard progressions that keep coming back again and again. We're going to be
working on lead sheets, those sorts of things. So, we're going to have a lot of fun this
semester. But before we start on the new stuff this semester, I want to know what you guys
learned last semester. What did we learn last semester? Anyone just shout it out. Jahir?
Uh, like, all the, most of the intervals.
Intervals, alright. So we learned a lot of intervals. Um, who can tell me how we sing an
interval?
Through scale degrees?
Through scale degrees, explain.
Um, so we're placed in a key or we're given a tone or we place ourselves into a key and based off
of that we can sing an interval through singing the scale degrees in the chord.
Ok, so we have to find the key because if we know where tonic is... Silence. If you know
where tonic is... Silence. Let's try this again. If you know where tonic is... you can sing
anything. Long break, huh? Ok, so, if you know where tonic is, you can sing anything. So,
Logan what's your favorite interval?
Um, major third.
Solfege Transcription: 1.10.2018 8

A major third. So uh, if you have... we're going to fulfill your dreams today. Who gets to
sing a major third?
Um, Michael.
Alright, so Michael's going to sing a major third, but let's talk him through this so he
doesn't have any problems. So you said the first thing we have to do is know what key
we're in. And how are we going to do that? Because I'm going to give you one pitch. Major
third up or down?
Up.
Up, major third up. So he has to know... what does he have to know in order to sing this?
He has to know where tonic is and then where the three is.
Ok, there's one other thing he needs to know before he does that. Who can help him out
with this? What does Michael need to know?
Major minor?
Well, it's a major third, "oh major" yeah, so we know it is going to be a major third.
What numbers to use?
What numbers he uses. So I'm going to give you a pitch. This is the bottom pitch of the
major third. What scale degrees go into a major third?
1 and 3
1 and 3, so what scale degree am I going to give you?
1
So we need to figure out where tonic is. If this is one plays E3, where's tonic?
1
Very easy. So now, what does he have to do next?
Sing the scale?
Yeah, he can set himself up in the key if he's not comfortable in the key. So let's go ahead
and assume you're not comfortable in the key.
Solo: 1, 2-1, 3-2-1, 4-3-1, 5-3-1, 6-5-3-1, 7-1, 7-1, 7-1, 5-1.
Is he ready?
General yes.
I think he is. Go for it.
1-3, major third.
Excellent. Does everyone understand that process? Good. Um, what else did we learn last
semester? MG.
Solfege Transcription: 1.10.2018 9

Um, dominant 7 chords and their inversions.


Ah, yeah. So how do we do that?
I mean, like, we learned them. But I also think it was the last thing. I just remember it clearly that
we were, like, supposed to know them.
Ok, yeah. We were supposed to know them. So what do we know about them? And you can
yell "help" at any time.
Well, I know it's like, there's different, there's like 1st inversion and 2nd inversion.
So like any chord, we can invert it, right? Yeah. Any multi-pitch structure, we can invert it.
But it's like 7-2-4-5.
Say that again.
7-2-4-5.
So those are the scale degrees that go into all of our dominant 7th chords. So we've got, and
let's put them in order from root position. If it's root position, what is our lowest pitch?
Dominant 7th... 5, yes, 7, thank you very much. 2, 4. Alright, very good. So if you were to
sing a root position dominant 7th chord, and in fact, Angie, who gets to sing your root
position dominant 7th chord?
Tess.
Tess. How does this differ from singing intervals?
It's not very different.
It's not very different at all. I give you a pitch and you know what scale degree it is, and
then you figure out where tonic is because if you know where tonic is... you guys are rusty.
If you know where tonic is, collective: “you can sing anything.” Thank you very much. Ok,
so if you know where tonic is, you can sing anything. And then what do you do, you know
what scale degrees go into the structure, and then you sing those scale degrees. Root
position dominant 7th. Plays A3. What scale degree did I just give you.
5
Very good. So if that's 5, where's 1?
1
Good, and if you feel like it, you can go ahead and do a set up. Yeah, go ahead.
1, 2-1, 3-2-1,
Ok, stop just one second, your 1 shifted just a little bit on you. Plays A [5-1]. You went just
a shade flat on that, so we really want to make sure we're paying attention to that.
1, 2-1, 3-2-1, 4-3-1, 5-3-1, 6-5-3-1, 7-1, 7-1, 7-1, 5-1.
Good.
Solfege Transcription: 1.10.2018 10

5-7-2-4
And then resolve it?
3-2-1.
Yeah. [5-7-2-4, 3-2-1]. And then of course we can invert these, right? What's your favorite
inversion?
Uh, 6/5.
6/5. So that's a first inversion dominant 7th chord, and who gets to sing it?
Kyle.
Kyle. First inversion dominant 7th chord. So what scale degree are you going to start on?
7.
7. So this is seven. Plays D3.
1, good, 2-1, 3-2-1, 4-3-1, 5-3-1, 6-5-3-1, 7-1, 7-1, 7-1, 5-1. 7... 7... 1. 2-1. 2....1. 7-2-4-5, 3-2-1.
That'll work, yeah. Typically [7-2-4-5], and this one we go up and down through the chord,
right? [7-2-4-5-4-2-7, 1-3-5-3-1]. If you gave me what you sang, I'd take it because you're
clearly hearing the dominant 7th and its resolution. But if we want to be, if we want to do
things the way I'm telling you to do it, then we'll go up and down through that chord. Very
good. Um... what else did we learn last semester? Oh, of course we can invert this two
others ways. You have 4/3 which starts on scale degree 2 and 4/2 starts on scale degree 4.
We'll practice those as we go along the next couple of days. What else did we learn last
semester?
Scale degree recognition.
Scale degree recognition. Yeah, basically. Not only recognizing them, but singing them. In
fact, everything so far we've done has been built on being able to sing and recognize scale
degrees. So if we were to get into a key... we'll get into this one here. Plays I-IV-I-V7-I in
Bb. Everyone sing tonic.
1
Sing all your major scale degree patterns.
1, 2-1, 3-2-1, 4-3-1, 5-3-1, 6-5-3-1, 7-1, 7-1, 7-1, 5-1.
So how do you know, if I play a note in this key, plays G3, how do you know what scale
degree it is? Based off what?
1
Ok, based off 1, but specifically how? What's the mechanism that makes me say, "I know
where 1 is and I know where that scale degree is, so I can tell what scale degree it is."
It's how it was to go to 1.
Solfege Transcription: 1.10.2018 11

So you're telling me that every scale degree has a unique energy about it. Laughter. Unique
energy is something that shouts out, "hey, I'm scale degree..." What scale degree did I just
play?
6
Prove it. [sung with class 6-5-3-1]. And the scale degree patterns are just typical ways that
these energies will resolve themselves to get to the more stable 1, yes? So we can do that,
everyone sing tonic.
1
And if I were to play this scale degree, plays D4, hear its unique energy. Who thinks they
know what this one is. Yes?
3-2-1.
Excellent. Everyone sing that one.
3-2-1.
Good. And how about this one? Plays C4.
2
Prove it.
2-1.
Excellent. Everyone understand how that works? What happens if we go to minor instead?
Plays i-iv in Bb. Oh, made it a little too jazzy there. There's no such thing as too jazzy, is
there? Plays i-iv-i-V7-i. Everyone sing tonic.
1
So does it work the same in minor mode? Pretty much. The scale degrees are a little bit
different. So sing all your scale degree patterns. Go for it.
In Bb minor: 1, 2-1, 3-2-1, 4-3-1, 5-3-1, 6-5-3-1
Sing that one again.
6-5-3-1, 7-6-5-3-1, 7-1, 6-7-1, 5-1.
Good, we kept getting slower and slower but we got through that. Why did I have you sing
b6 twice?
Because you love it.
Because it's my favorite scale degree, yeah. Remember we did a whole month recognizing
scale degree b6? You guys get ready for next year's scale degree b6 with chords?
Collective yes
Good, alright. So, minor key. So, if I were to play this... what am I playing... how about
this? Plays A4. Who thinks they got it?
Solfege Transcription: 1.10.2018 12

7-1.
Excellent. He sang it in a different octave. Is that a problem?
No.
Absolutely not because we have octave equivalents throughout the tonal system. How about
this one? Plays Ab2. Who thinks they got that one? Chandler?
Can you play it one more time?
Yeah. Plays Ab2.
7-1.
Which 7 was that?
The lowered seven?
The lowered 7th. So typically the lower 7th we have a slightly different pattern. He did
something perfectly fine. He did it in modal resolution. Um, the sound [7-1] which is a
lovely. [7-6-5-3-1] if we wanted to be completely by the book. But that's okay, you
recognized it correctly. Remember 6 and 7 have those two variable positions. How do we
know when 6 and 7 are raised? What's the rule? Chandler.
When they're ascending, they're raised. But when they're descending, they're lowered.
Yeah, is that right?
Collective Not in this class.
Not in this class, it's not. So the rules different because remember when I did that whole
thing about how your theory teachers have been lying to you that whole time? That is
actually not true. I'm sorry, Chandler. I'm destroying your universe today.
It comes after the dominant function?
Not after the dominant function, but with the dominant function. So we raise scale degrees
6 and 7 on the dominant function chords. 7 always on dominant function chords, 6 if it's a
passing tone between 5 and 7 or 7 and 5 on a dominant function. Any other times, 6 and 7
stay in their lowered position. And that's why we have some things going around like if I
were to play... sing tonic.
1
Sing tonic up high.
1
Now see a scale down over this harmony. Plays a V7 harmony.
1-7-6-5-4-3-2-1. Some people landed on raised 3 during this exercise.
i is played. Which 6 and 7 did you sing?
Raised.
Solfege Transcription: 1.10.2018 13

Raised. Why? You were singing down...


It sounded right.
Because? What harmony did I put underneath it?
Dominant
Dominant harmony, yes. So the dominant harmony makes those scale degrees move up to
their raised position. It has nothing to direction. It has everything to do with harmonic
underpinning. So that's the one thing we really have to pay attention to, using that 6 and 7.
Because that actually governs how we're going to use those things. There's lots of examples
of 6 and 7 raised on a descending line.
When you say "dominant harmony," what exactly do you mean?
Oh, yeah. What does dominant harmony mean?
The V chord.
The V chord or any of the substitutes for V. So in harmony class, you've learned about the
Roman numerals. And so we have harmonic functions. I've actually said this several times
today. I've talked about when we're doing the improvisation, be it in class. I talked about
how we're doing tonic function, then predominant function, dominant function. But one of
the models about how harmonic progression works is tonic, predominant, dominant, tonic.
So our standard model for this is, we start out tonic is a I chord. These are what we call
primary chords. Did you get this in harmony class? Predominant. What's the primary
predominant? Collective IV. Unless you're a jazzer, in which you'd think it's ii. What's the
primary dominant? Collective V. And what's the primary tonic again? I. So this is the basic
progression that gets us through just about everything. In fact, if you've heard jokes about
rock bands that only know three chords, this is what they're playing, okay? And yes, there
are rock bands that only know three chords. And then from this, we can add in
substitutions and all of those other things. We will talk about substitutions a little later on
and how they work. But if we can see the music as always consisting of this tonic,
predominant, dominant, tonic motion, then it starts to make sense as far as putting it
together as a language. It becomes, we can put together sentences in a way. In fact, we're
going to be thinking of this more and more like a language all semester. What else did we
learn last semester?
Scales in thirds and fourths.
Ahh, yeah. So, uh, let's. I'm not going to make one person do this. Let's all sing a major
scale in thirds. 32:55 Plays Bb chord. We'll go back to this key, does anyone know what key
this is?
C?
It's not C. It's close to C, but it's not C.
B.
Solfege Transcription: 1.10.2018 14

B's too hard for me to play in right now. By about week 5 or 6 I'll be doing key B. So this is
key 33:13 Bb.
Collective "oh, right" gestures.
So, if you're listening very carefully, this is something someone told me when I was back in
college to get through Solfege. Fluorescent lights buzz at Bb. The universe pulses at Bb. Bb
is the key of the universe. Interesting. Alright. Sing tonic. Laughter.
1
Alright, scale in thirds. You remember how this goes? Here we go.
1-3-2-4-3-5-4-6-5-7-6-1-7-2-1, 1-6-7-5-6-4-5-3-4-2-3-1-2-7-1.
You feel like you're at one with the universe now?
I'm lost.
That's okay, we'll keep working on that. And, if we were to do this in minor. Plays Bb
minor. How do we know where 6 and 7 go? Chandler.
Is it only when you're, like, resolving it that they're raised?
Um, sort of. Yeah. You're kind of along the right path. So we have to think about what
harmonic function is actually supporting what we're doing. We can think of it in a very
simple way as everything up to the bottom pitch of third is scale degree 5, everything up to
that is tonic function. So 6 and 7 are lowered if we're singing any of those. Once we hit that
scale degree 5, we've gone to dominant function. Everything's going to go raised until we
reach tonic at the top. 34:47 [1-3-2-4-3-5-4-6-5] That's our shift. [5-7-6] Those are both
raised. [1-7-2-1] They go back to the lowered position. [1-6-7-5-6-4-5-3-4-2-3-1-2] This is a
dominant chord. [7-1]. We're going to use our ears to figure and help us now where those
6th and 7ths go. Let's try this and I'll help you out if I need to.
1-3-2-4-3-5-4-6-5-7-6-1-7-2-1, 1-6-7-5-6-4-5-3-4-2-3-1-2-7-1.
Now we could also do scales in fourths but we'll get to that a little bit later on. What else
did we learn last semester? MG, you've got everything here.
Um, improvising with a lead sheet.
Ah. Lead sheets. I was hoping someone would say that. So, lead sheets. What is a lead
sheet?
Chords.
Chords, yeah. They're basically chords written out and it truly will have a melody also, and
then we can take the melody and we can use that to come up with some ideas that we can
use to improvise our, um, thing. So, when we did it, we didn't have a melody. We just had
the chords. So, if we were... and we'll stay in the key of Bb. 4/4 sound good? Alright, so we
have to take a look at this say, "what Roman number does this equate to?"
I
Solfege Transcription: 1.10.2018 15

What scale degrees are safe here?


1, 3, 5
1, 3, 5 are the safe ones. Ok and where do we go after I chord? Think about harmony class.
What did you do?
vi
vi, alright we could that. Which would be what in this key?
Gm
Gm, okay. And we're on a vi chord. Where do we go after a vi chord?
IV chord?
IV chord, I'll take it. What is that in this key?
E?
Eb. Ok, and we're on a IV chord. This is tonic, predominant, predominant. What happens
next?
Collective tonic?
Now, we could go from a IV to a I. There would be nothing wrong with that. But where do
we typically go? Tonic, predominant...
Dominant
Dominant, so what's a good dominant to go to?
V
V, and what is that in this key?
F
And since I'm going to put a 7 on there, when I just have a letter and a 7, that means a
minor 7th. So major chord, minor 7th, dominant 7th. And on the V7, where do we go next?
vi?
vi, deceptive resolution, which would be Gm. You guys told me that before. And what do
we do next? We have a vi chord, where do we go?
ii?
ii? Alright, I'll take it. Cm, can we make this Cm7?
yes..?
Um, yeah. We'll go ahead and do it. Does adding the 7th change the function of the chord?
no...?
Solfege Transcription: 1.10.2018 16

Not at all. Ok. Alright, we're on a ii chord. I'm assuming you guys are going to make this
very jazz-like. What happens next?
V
V, add the 7 again. And can we bring it home now? Ok. So the way that we did this last
semester, if you didn't have me for Solfege last semester, this might be be a little bit so you
guys will catch up. First thing we did was we sang the bass line together. Sing tonic.
I
Sing tonic like you really mean it.
I Checks tuning with piano on B2
You have it. Ok. Here we go. We'll go a little bit quickly on this one. I'll go slower when we
have to do other stuff with it. 1, 2, ready go with snaps.
Sang on whole notes: 1, 6, 4, 5, 6, 2, 5, 1
So, how did I do that? How did I know what to sing? It's the same as reading melodies,
right? It's kind of a similar process here. How did I know what notes to sing?
You know what letters equate to what scale degrees?
Ok, so I take a look at this, I know that this is scale degree 4 and equate that to scale degree
4 and then what did I do? Back to our knowledge of scale degrees and scale degree patterns
and we can pick out any scale degree at any time and by doing that I can create that
melody. Ok, that's the secret to doing any sort of sight reading is being able to recognizing
what scale degree you're supposed to sing and then sing that scale degree. So we're going to
hang onto that skill. Ok. So, that was my part that I just sang there. Next time, I sing that.
You guys arpeggiate, yes? But, to arpeggiate through this thing, we got to figure out a few
things first. I chord, what scale degrees go into this one?
1, 3, 5
1, 3, 5. Part writing, you guys learned about part writing in last semester harmony class,
yeah? If you had to boil down into one sentence, what does part writing actually do? What
do you do in part writing? What does it mean?
You treat the chords in a way that doesn't make them, like, choppy. It makes everything smooth.
So, you're saying that I have two chords with notes in them and I want to find the
smoothest connection between those notes. So, where possible, unless I have another
musical reason to do so, I'm going to keep notes where they are or right next to where they
are. I'm not going to be leaping around doing one of those things that like, like a 5 year old
basic piano student does where they go plays all chords in root position as speaking the
Roman numerals I chord, IV chord, V chord, I chord. Literally just doing this all of the
piano. I want to smooth them out as much as I can, yeah. And if you understand part
writing as that, it makes your life a whole lot easier. So I sang [1-3-5]. Root motion down by
third, I only have to move one note. What's the note and where does it go?
5 goes to 6
Solfege Transcription: 1.10.2018 17

5 goes to 6. [1-3-6] Root motion down by third, bless you, root motion down by third again.
Gm to Eb, we only have to move one note. What is it, and where does it go?
Inaudible student response
[1-4-6] Now, I'm on a V7. How do I get there? V7's have a special rule, remember? I always
have to check what comes after the V7, and if it's a vi, I'm going to sing this as if it were a
V6/5. Is it really a V6/5?
no.
Why not?
Because you're singing bass.
Because I'm the bass line. I have control over inversions, so you don't have to worry about
that. [7-2-4-5, 6-1-3] That's sort of a formulaic thing. When we have a deceptive resolution,
we sing that. [7-2-4-5, 6-1-3]. Root motion by fourth. How do I do this one? [6-2-4] What
did I do with this one? My 6 can just move down to a 5, can't it? [5-7-2-4] because 2 and 4
were in this chord before. [3-2-1]. So if I'm doing this whole thing, uh, let's see here, guys.
All of you guys, sing the bass line while I arpeggiate. While male students sing bass line: [1-3-
5, 1-3-6, 1-4-6, 7-2-4-5, 6-1-3, 6-2-4, 5-7-2-4, 3-2-1]. Does it matter that I didn't put the scale
degree 1 in this one?
No
I can leave things out. It doesn't really matter that much. Alright, are you ready to do that?
If your answer is different than mine, is that a problem?
No
Absolutely not, as long as you come up with something that works in that progression.
Please stand up. I'll hold the bass line plays Bb2. 1, 2, ready go.
Students arpeggiate rather uncomfortably while the bass is sung.
Yeah, it wasn't much confidence behind that, but I will let that pass for the time. So I want
to make sure we do the third time. What would we do the third time?
Melody
Melody, we improvise the melody. What's the difference between improvising a melody
and arpeggiating through it? Yes, Sarah.
Uh, you have, uh, notes that aren't in the chord.
You can put notes that aren't in the chord, very good but you do that and?
You work less.
You work a lot less hard. So if I'm improvising this thing, I'm sorting out what scale do I
want to start at?
Not 1.
Solfege Transcription: 1.10.2018 18

Not 1, generally. 3 or 5 is the better place to start. [3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 5, 6, 6, 6, 6, 5, 5, 4, 3, 2,


3, 3, 3, 3, 4, 3, 2, 5, 5, 5, 1] I got a little bass-y there at the end, didn't I? Shouldn't have
done that, I should've been more melodic. But notice how I was doing a lot of sitting on one
note and then moving to a note in the chord for the next one. I made one mistake in there.
Did anyone hear it? Uh oh. Which is a good thing, because if you do the mistakes
convincing, it is not a mistake. It is a non-chord tone. I sang a 5 in here and I shouldn't
have. I should've sung a 6 there. Alright, are you ready to try it? Your improvisation is not
going to sound like your neighbors, and that's fine. What I should hear are just chords. 1,
2, ready go. 45:13
Goes through progression playing bass notes on beats 2, 3, and 4 while students improvise
melodies over top.
45:34 Very good, everyone understand what we did on that? Collective "yeah." Alright,
good. You can sit down again. Uh, welcome back. Maybe I should've done this first, but
that's okay. I'm going to call attendance now, and when I call attendance what I want you
to do is tell me what instrument you play. Okay? Logan
Voice
Miranda
Saxophone
Saxophone, did you say? Which size?
Bari.
Bari, you're a bari player? I knew I would like you for some reason. Alright, Tess.
Trombone
Trombone, really?
Yes
Why didn't I know that?
I don't know.
I liked you for some other reason. MG, voice, right?
Yeah, guess it's obvious.
Too many jokes there, right? Okay, uhh, Brian.
Violin.
Violin. Michael.
Which one?
Michael.
Oh wait, he's not here. Collective "aww, Michael's not here."
Solfege Transcription: 1.10.2018 19

You are the only Michael now.


Violin
Violin, alright. And Jahir.
Um, voice. And also, there's, like, no "h."
So, Jahir?
Yeah.
I'm going to struggle with that for a while, so be patient with me please.
No, I totally get it.
Okay. Katie, Katie, Katie, Katie...
Bassoon.
Bassoon, excellent.
Yes, I am the bassoon.
One colleague of mine called the demon instrument from hell. Yeah, it's a tough
instrument.
Yeah, oboe's the worst, but... I spend all my time in the reed room.
Yeah, I know. So, if ever she's missing, go to the reed room first. Okay, Emily.
Percussion.
Percussion. Tyler.
Trumpet.
Excellent. And Clarissa.
Clarinet.
Really? Huh. Chandler.
Voice.
Elisabeth. Elisabeth? No Elisabeth's here today? Ok. And no Noah, right? Noah did not
appear, and Celeste. Piano right? And Ryan.
Tuba.
We almost have a brass quintet, don't we? Sarah.
Viola.
We did have a brass quintet.
Solfege Transcription: 1.10.2018 20

Oh Sarah, you're going to be happy this time. See, poor Sarah has been laboring under
treble and bass clef all semester. This semester's all about alto clef. She gets the prize for
this one. And Katie.
Flute.
Flute? Ok. Now the reason I ask about instrument is we're going to be actually um, using
our instrument for a lot more things. Actually, we didn't use them in class at all last
semester. This semester, I'm going to be asking you on some days to bring your instrument
to class if they are portable instruments.
I dabble in other instruments.
Ok, so if you have a small, portable instrument, that would be great for class.
I have an accordion in my room. Laughter.
Too many jokes.
I'm learning.
Really? Excellent.
Yeah, I'm teaching myself.
We don't teach that here, but...
I know, I came here for, for that, and it wasn't available, so I switched to voice.
Second choice, okay.
I picked a voice part.
So, we are going to be doing, we're going to putting a lot of the things that we do on our
instruments after we sing them. So, for example, on all of your appraisals, the lead sheets,
after you sing them for me, you're going to be realizing them on an instrument. If you do
not play a portable instrument, say harp, percussion, something like that, uh, and vocalists,
since your instruments have ultimate portability but you don't have another instrument--
you can't show me what I'm asking you to show me--um, we're going to either have you do
it on a keyboard on piano keyboard or we're going to have you um, sing scale degree
numbers. Do that sort of thing. So, I'll modify what I'm going to ask you to do. For
appraisals, if you're a non-portable instrument and you want to do those parts of the exam
on your real instrument, then I will travel to where you guys are. So, I'll go down to the
harp room or go down to the percussion room. I like to get out of my office every now and
then, so that'll be good. Yes?
I play the guitar, too.
Oh, good. So you can bring that on those days. I will let you know when I want you to bring
your instrument into class because we're going to be doing several things that we are going
to put on our instruments. Alright. Um, any questions about anything we're going to do
this semester? So, today was all about review. Um, those who had me last semester, you'll
know that I've started putting together videos for all of these topics and I'm going to post a
Solfege Transcription: 1.10.2018 21

couple of videos for you to watch for class for Friday. They're not very long, like 10
minutes, 15 minutes at most, and that's where I do most of the introduction of new topics.
So, you'll watch that and we'll come together in class and practice those skills. There's also
a few big things that we're going to learn how to do this semester. Last semester, you
probably didn't do any melodic dictation? You guys who had me didn't do any melodic
dictation.
Not in here.
You did do a melodic dictation?
Melodic dictation?
Melodic dictation. I'm going to assume by the question that you didn't... you did? Ok.
Alright, so we're going to start, my class didn't do that, we are going to start dealing with
both melodic dictation and harmonic dictation. Starting to hear everything together. So we
have a lot of stuff to do this semester. This is going to be fun. Everyone have a great day.
See you Friday.

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