Section 4: Arpeggios, Chords, & Harmony
Although an arpeggio can be defined by any series of successions, for the sake of this lesson, an arpeggio will be defined as the first, third, fifth, and eighth notes of a given scale.
Arpeggio: A chord whose notes are played in rapid succession rather than simultaneously.
Tonic: The tonic is the keytone or the first note of a scale, (the root note). It is show by I.
Dominant: The dominant is the fifth note of a scale. It is shown by V.
Coincidentally, a Chord is an Arpeggio. The difference is, when you play a chord, all the notes of the arpeggio are played at the same time, whereas in an arpeggio, the notes are played one after the other. Let us take a look at the two of them, (Figure 2c).
Figure 2c (C Major Arpeggio and Chord)
We use whole notes for the chord to keep the four-count. Notice that the arpeggio plays each note individually and the chord plays all notes at the same time. A real-world example would be a choir. An individual member can sing only one note at a time, but a group can sing different notes at the same time.
Let us take a closer look at chords. Remember an Arpeggio is the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 8th notes of a scale, and a chord is an arpeggio where all the notes are played simultaneously. One of the most common chords is called a Triad meaning that it is made up of three of the notes from the arpeggio - the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes.
A chord is based on the root note, (first note), of the scale. So if you were to play a C Major Triad chord, you would play at the same time, the C, E, and G, (the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes of the C Major scale).
This applies to other types of scales as well. The C Minor Triad would be the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes of the C Minor scale.
For the sake of the naming convention, when the scale you are playing is a minor, the intervals between the 1st and 3rd interval will be lowered by a half step making that interval a minor third.
One last topic to mention before we close this section is harmony. There are many different definitions musically for the term "harmony" but for this course, the definition we will be using is this:
Harmony: A combination of sounds considered pleasing to the ear, (the opposite being discord).
The fastest technique for writing a harmony, (or creating one), is to use the third of a pitch in line with a melody, (either above or below). This technique, (called harmony in thirds), creates a harmony that matches in every aspect to the melody, however, a contrasting rhythm set against the melody can create a very wonderful harmony.
Exercise:
Most of us have done this as a child, or on a camping trip, or just to past the time. This exercise is for you and a friend, (two friends to experience the full effect). Here's what you do.
- Start singing, "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" aloud. Sing it once through to set the rhythm then repeat the song from the beginning without pausing.
- Have your friend start signing too, but make him or her jump in right when you begin to sing, "Gently down the stream."
- If you have a third friend with you, have them do the same.
- Sing the song three or four times without stopping.
You will soon experience first hand what a harmony in thirds is all about.