Harmony for Composers: Functional Harmony and Voice Leading

[@augustt2226]

criminally underrated channel

[@brauliocruz2884]

I just saw the Studio Ghibli videos and little did I know, it was the tip of the iceberg. I know I'll keep coming for reference until I learn this by heart.

[@FlimflammeryMusic]

So true, this channel is amazing.

[@TheSnowLeopard]

I like how most things anyone needs to know about Functional harmony can be explained in about 15 minutes. Looking forward to part 2: beyond functional harmony. ;-)

[@alexc9278]

So useful!! Thank you so much!!

[@wiiu3506]

Incredibly clear explanation. This was very helpful. Thank you!

[@prosper7452]

Please make more of these! This video is a gem. Many thanks!

[@TableTopComposer]

Will do! Glad it's helpful :)

[@segrist223]

You made this video at a time when I'm finally ready to understand what's happening. I just came from Ghibli Part 1. Please keep these midi music theory videos going! We all appreciate you!

[@corsairman1]

The first channel I've found which presents things in a way I can understand. Thank you so much :)

[@kimigarden]

the best music theory channel ever.

[@joshsanchez9793]

Nice video! Its nice to see your video about harmony..

[@mattsolomon2777]

Awesome video. Thank you for explaining voice leading.

[@invadercivic2774]

Thank you so much! These videos are so helpful you have no clue. Thank you so much🥰

[@TableTopComposer]

It's my pleasure! I'm grateful to know that they're being helpful :)

[@franciskizza2001]

Thanks for this incredible wisdom. You are a great teacher!

[@TableTopComposer]

glad to help, Francis :)

[@zl4518]

This is cool! I wonder how many parts are there in the series? I hope chord substitutions and borrowed chords and whatnot are covered as I just started learning and got confused real fast. Anyway still looking forward to the upcoming videos :D

[@TableTopComposer]

Thanks! I've got about 10 topics I want to cover, but don't know just how many videos I'll need to get to them all. Substitutions and borrowed chords are both in the plan :) hopefully they help!

[@anusha8085]

Wow, you're channel is so awesome! I really like your way of explaining the voice leadings... and the demonstration with the daw is so fun to watch and also helps to understand it better. I've always wanted to know how composers design such beautiful chord shapes and changes even with relatively simple progressions. Looking forward to all the videos in the series

[@tommynguyen7718]

Thanks for this video series! Your the goat man

[@TableTopComposer]

Thanks, Tommy!

[@stevenkual5888]

Best teaching..... Thanks

[@dennischauhan_dc2964]

I don't really understand the staff thing which u write notes on but was happy to hear them and see how they work in daw Thanks for doing that Its much more ezier to understand it in daw

[@TableTopComposer]

I'm glad it helped!

[@coldbumby]

Thank you!

[@obravenewpost]

dude wtf, this is amazing

[@davidsteffens3952]

Did you ever do one of these for minor keys?

[@ldmdesign5610]

I found this video helpful, but I didn't understand anything about step 3 voice leading, it would be good to see a demonstration on the piano roll to see what that all meant.

[@TableTopComposer]

No problem! Stop by my live stream this Friday and I'll teach a quick crash-course on voice leading :)

[@keatonvanderlinden59]

the diminished 7th chord is Dominiant. infact it is a rootless dominant 7th

[@TableTopComposer]

Thanks for the feedback :) the tritone in the vii dim has traditionally meant it is treated as a dominant chord, but more contemporary techniques have seen it used increasingly as a subdominant functioning chord as well (auxiliary diminished, and passing diminished in particular) Either way it didn't impact the "strong-weak" strategy I was going for in this video so I just picked one. Probably should have mentioned both, but I'll tackle that in the next series on harmony :)

[@coloaten6682]

This is great, really looking forward to the next videos in this series. Hopefully you'll cover minor keys and modes as well?

[@TableTopComposer]

Thanks, Col! That's the plan! I've actually already covered minor keys though. It's my "ghibli chords Part 2" video, if you're interested :)

[@coloaten6682]

@@TableTopComposer That's great! Thanks, I'll check that video out :) I'd love you to cover ways to do harmony a bit differently, other than just by sticking to the 'rules'.......I want to learn how to create harmonies in different ways so that my harmonies stand out.

[@TableTopComposer]

That's part of the plan :) I want to cover the basics first, but then we'll start exploring non-functional harmony.

[@StevenKual]

Best of the best....thanks

[@curtpiazza1688]

Great lesson!

[@xeralt2914]

11:50 can you tell me why did you move the c from c maj up an octave instead of bringing the c from fmaj down an octave ?

[@birgerwessel]

Great! Needed this🙂

[@TableTopComposer]

I'm glad! Hopefully the rest of the videos will be helpful as well! :)

[@ahknown1992]

hella yea keep on going man you're awesome

[@sedanapo1381]

Yooooooo so good!

[@sphinx1659]

Isn't B diminished a dominant triad? 6:05

[@TableTopComposer]

Fantastic Question! The diminished triad is a bit of a weird chord. There's some argument about whether it's a dominant or subdominant, and it's frequently used interchangeably. For example, in major keys it's often considered a dominant, but in minor keys it's frequently considered a subdominant. I decided not to tackle it in this video, since it doesn't have THAT big of an impact on the "strong-weak" approach we cover together. However if you're interested in learning more, I recommend reading "Reharmonization Techniques" by Randy felts! It's a great book and I learned a lot about harmony from it :)

[@tonythanhan9438]

What software are you using? (I like your software, it looks cool)

[@TableTopComposer]

I use cubase, it's my favorite DAW to work with :)

[@tonythanhan9438]

@@TableTopComposer Thanks!

[@tonythanhan9438]

@@TableTopComposer It is free?

[@TableTopComposer]

@@tonythanhan9438 unfortunately not, it can be quite expensive actually. however, I believe protocols may have a free version bod theirs. At least they did a few years back

[@alirezayousefirad]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge, is this better to have bass line with leaps or create stepwise motion using inversion etc?! Which one is common these days among composers?! And isn't a problem in orchestra if we have a bass line without stepwise motion?!

[@TableTopComposer]

Excellent question! I actually have a video later in this series that tackles bassline in depth. This video just sticks to root notes for simplicity, since the focus is on functional harmony and chords:)

[@alirezayousefirad]

@@TableTopComposer thank you. So should I use inversion as least as possible to maintain Harmonic function and true nature of harmony ?! Is the next link, what you mentioned?! kzbin.info00keo7AyfPE?si=KA5J3F6q7CXFThOr

[@TableTopComposer]

@alirezayousefirad you're more than welcome to use inversions as much as you'd like! I just recommend using roots as your default, if you're not focused on creating more dynamic basslines. And this is the one you want :) kzbin.info/www/bejne/fnvShGVtg7GpbtEsi=nwVS5u__32P1hrmS

[@alirezayousefirad]

​@@TableTopComposerthanks

[@TableTopComposer]

@@alirezayousefirad happy to help :)

[@andrejuniomg]

🔥🔥

[@MusicReadingforAll]

This is a Wonderful Explanatory Video but How Does One learn to truly understand Chordal Harmony Without Notation on a Music Grand Staff? I don't understand using a Synthesizer Grid for illustration what you just discussed so Brilliantly? Please explain, Thanks.

[@anilsondosreis1]

✨✨✨

[@turkmusik]

I could be wrong, but trying to teach functional harmony and voice leading to people who just learned the notes of the C major scale seems a bit of a leap.

[@emirkaanyilgor]

it says this video is for composers u cant be a composer if u only know the major scale

[@franciscoaragao9672]

When I don’t figure out an explanation I say it is a .... hummm ... borrowed chord

[@kconrad5893]

Am I the only one for whom traditional music theory means absolutely nothing? What I mean is, for me, music is exclusively a sensual and emotional experience. Plotting out how chords work together mathematically doesn’t tell me anything about how to write songs. To me it’s like teaching someone how to cook by only explaining the molecular structure of the ingredients. It just doesn’t work for me. I wish there was another way of learning music!!!

[@TableTopComposer]

You're not the only one :) there are plenty of different approaches to writing music. Theory isn't about setting rules but sharing observations and patterns. You may benefit from learning more about "chord relationships" which is a relatively new approach to theory that groups chords based on their commonly perceived emotional characteristics (very popular in film scoring). I've got an older video about it at the link below. The featured video on my channel might also be interesting to you, as it focuses on taking an "emotions first" approach to music. I hope they help! kzbin.info/www/bejne/kHundap4bMaNabc

[@kconrad5893]

Am I the only one for whom traditional music theory means absolutely nothing? What I mean is, for me, music is exclusively a sensual and emotional experience. Plotting out how chords work together mathematically doesn’t tell me anything about how to write songs. To me it’s like teaching someone how to cook by only explaining the molecular structure of the ingredients. It just doesn’t work for me. I wish there was another way of learning music!!!