Lecture 7. Harmony: Chords and How to Build Them

Listening to Music (MUSI 112)
Professor Wright explains the way harmony works in Western music. Throughout the lecture, he discusses the ways in which triads are formed out of scales, the ways that some of the most common harmonic progressions work, and the nature of modulation. Professor Wright focuses particularly on the listening skills involved in hearing whether harmonies are changing at regular or irregular rates in a given musical phrase. His musical examples in this lecture are wide-ranging, including such diverse styles as grand opera, bluegrass, and 1960s American popular music.
00:00 - Chapter 1. Introduction to Harmony
03:36 - Chapter 2. The Formation and Changing of Chords
19:50 - Chapter 3. Harmonic Progressions
35:54 - Chapter 4. Major and Minor Harmonies in Popular Music
42:38 - Chapter 5. Modulation through Harmony
Complete course materials are available at the Yale Online website: online.yale.edu
This course was recorded in Fall 2008.