Harmonizing a Melody Using the Natural Minor - Music Composition

[@MusicMattersGB]

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[@annelouisemaclellan485]

Big fan of natural minor. Good to borrow chords from too while in a major key. Love the bVII, bIII, and v. Really like that 4-3 suspension 🙏🏼

[@MusicMattersGB]

Absolutely

[@leonideremeev7823]

Always great and comprehensive classic material. It's a pure joy to be a guest on your channel. The example with the mediant leading to the interrupted cadence and then implying the subtonic is excellent. The suspension at the end is a really good practice to preserve the seamless chord flow. I love these elements.

[@MusicMattersGB]

Glad it’s helpful. Much more at www.mmcourses.co.uk

[@carlstenger5893]

great video. Natural minor is just Aeolian Mode writing in disguise. Always fun. Thanks!

[@MusicMattersGB]

😀

[@MusicMattersGB]

Yes. I think that’s what he’s saying.

[@jayducharme]

That was really interesting. The Bb at the end of the second measure is sweet. I'd never much considered the natural minor before. Now I want to play around with it.

[@MusicMattersGB]

Go for it

[@johncenter4858]

It was actually very beautiful music.

[@MusicMattersGB]

😀

[@ramonacosta2647]

C9 to Dm also makes a nice resolution from a "backdoor" dominant chord to the tonic.

[@MusicMattersGB]

😀

[@pathaks1]

Nice progression in natural to harmonic minor using third thru suspension❤

[@MusicMattersGB]

😀

[@ilninfeo]

Very, very interesting! Thank you, dear Maestro!

[@MusicMattersGB]

Glad it’s helpful. Much more at www.mmcourses.co.uk

[@brittenmusic6923]

another excellent example, thank you.

[@MusicMattersGB]

😀

[@scottcutrer223]

lovely

[@MusicMattersGB]

Glad it’s helpful. Much more at www.mmcourses.co.uk

[@philipparker1319]

Is it just me (a learner pianist at the early stages!), or does the natural minor seem to evoke a kind of “medieval strolling minstrel” kind of atmosphere about it compared with the harmonic minor?

[@MusicMattersGB]

It certainly can do because medieval music was based in modes.

[@francescodefendi3201]

Of course; same here. And I like these bars of music.

[@MusicMattersGB]

😀

[@katerinak.2671]

There's one thing about chords that has always baffled me - what is the elemental reason why major chords sound "happy" and "bright" to the human ear and minor chords sound "sad" and "dark"? Even with no context whatsoever, like if you played these two versions of a chord to a child that has had no previous musical education, they would likely feel like the major chord is the happier one and the minor chord is the sadder one. I do know the music theory around chords, and to some extent also the physics of sound, but none of that explains it. I tried to google it a few years ago and there are some theories around this, but I didn't find any of them to be satisfactory enough, they seemed like mere guesses. I was wondering what you sir think about that as a music theory expert - it might be a suggestion for a future video.

[@MusicMattersGB]

To be honest I’ve never bought into the theory that major = happy; minor = sad. There are other factors working alongside eg tempo, dynamics, articulation etc. Major and minor are different from each other in character because of the difference in chord makeup. After that it’s all about context.

[@katerinak.2671]

@@MusicMattersGB Yes there are usually other factors too, and yes there are some pieces that are in a major key but have a sad feeling associated with it and vice versa. For example, I feel like Humoresque by Dvořák or Prelude in D major by Rachmaninov, despite being in major keys, have a rather sad, nostalgic feeling associated with them. But if you recreated these pieces in a minor key, they would likely get much sadder and darker. Harmony and dissonance can be easily explained by physics and even depicted visually in nice graphs with waves, but it does not explain the emotional aspect of how humans perceive certain harmonies and melodies. And this one might be just a personal perception of mine, but I feel like there are differences in colour and brightness even among all individual chords - I feel like C sharp minor is the darkest chord, and E major is the brightest chord (it also has the colour yellow in my synesthesia-affected brain) - at least when I play them on instruments that I can play; I might not be able to recognise it in the same way on other instruments.

[@MusicMattersGB]

@katerinak.2671 Very interesting topic.

[@MooreMusic12]

Great thank you 😊

[@MusicMattersGB]

A pleasure. Much more at www.mmcourses.co.uk

[@jonorgames6596]

It might be interesting to end in D7 and go on?

[@MusicMattersGB]

Absolutely

[@davidwhite2949]

I have an interesting question: In fugue, would modal writing be an instance of free imitation or noncanonical imitation?

[@MusicMattersGB]

You could write a Fugue using natural minor.

[@Theunknownshredder]

Does natural minor have Tonic Predominant and Dominants?

[@MusicMattersGB]

Absolutely

[@paulmitchell2916]

too basic.. Anyone who knows what harmonization is knows what the scale is.

[@jsw0278]

What I like about these videos is they don’t assume everyone has the same starting knowledge and the concepts are gone through clearly and slowly.

[@paulmitchell2916]

@@jsw0278 ok.. but that doesn't really work that well.. instructional vids really need to address a definite knowledge level.. else people won't get past 2 minutes.

[@MusicMattersGB]

Big assumption

[@MusicMattersGB]

@jsw0278 We try to be as inclusive as possible.

[@jsw0278]

@@MusicMattersGB yeah I love all your videos. Even if I already know the concepts myself it’s good to see how they are taught