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Simple Functional Harmony

January 16, 2012 by Jon Brantingham 9 Comments
There are only a few things that you need to learn about harmony before you can really start composing with direction. I
say composing with direction because you could slap on any old harmony, hope that it works, and that is composing. You
could compose by ear, and that is great, but you probably wont understand what you are writing. But composing with
direction is both listening to what you are composing and understanding what is happening on a deeper level.
This requires:
1. Knowing what harmony is and how it is created.
2. Understanding how certain harmonies lead to certain other harmonies.

Harmony Basics
So lets take a real quick look at what harmony is. You can look at harmony with two lenses. The first is the vertical lens. This
lense is the most obvious to people, especially in this chord dominated world. The next is the horizontal lens. This is just as
important, but can be a little confusing.

The Vertical Lens

Harmony is, in its most basic form, the sound created by more than one note or tone being played together. Put three notes
together and you start to have something a little more tangible. In fact, triads, or notes built off of thirds are the building
blocks for western diatonic harmony. You may have seen these before:

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These 4 chords are the basis for most harmonies. Add one more note, and the possibilities start to become exponentially
greater. Add more notes, and phew it gets crazy.

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But harmony doesnt just stop with the vertical lens.

The Horizontal Lense

The next way to look at harmony is horizontally. This can itself be split into more than one category. One way to look at
harmony is the implied harmony in a melody line. Listen to this example:

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If you look at the first two bars, the notes that fall on the strong beats are C, E, G, and C. This strongly implies the
underlying harmony is C major.
The last note in the 2nd bar is a Bb, which implies the harmony changes to C7.
C7 tends to lead to F Maj because C7 is the dominant chord of F Maj.
In the last two bars, there is a common melodic phrase of 3-2-1 or E to D to C.
This also strongly implies there is a Cadential Six Four chord (I havent talked about cadences yet, but you can find
more info about them on this site).
The last two chords are normally a V to a I so in this case a G to a C. Listen to the example below, I think it will be much
clearer.

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The next way to look at harmony horizontally is harmonic function. This has more to do with the momentum of a piece of
music. If you listen to a lot of music, you will start to hear certain patterns repeated. This is because certain harmonies tend
to lead to certain other harmonies. The most common of these is the ii-V-I.

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This is where we get the idea of chord progressions. The chords, are progressing to some defined point. Understanding this
will allow you to listen to music in a whole new way. If the chords didnt have this tendency to progress, we would probably
not be able to make much sense out of the harmony. This is why atonality can be much more difficult to follow.

Harmonic Functions
Harmonic function is a way to group harmonies together so that you can recognize the forces that are driving the music.
Once you understand harmonic function, then a new world of potential chord progressions opens up.

Tonic Function
There are three main harmonic functions. Tonic, Subdominant, and Dominant. Tonic is the home key and is where the
music usually starts and finishes. Listen to how the first and last chords in this are the same.

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Dominant Function
Dominant, is normally the second to last chord and is considered one of the more tense chords. It is what the music leads
up to. Here is the previous example again, listen to the second to last chord. You can really feel how the B wants to move to
the C, and the F wants to move to the E.

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Pre-Dominant Function
Finally, pre-dominant usually leads to the dominant chord.

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Want to Learn More?

If you are interested in learning more about harmony, but you want a structured course, sign up for my FREE beginners
composing course, How to Compose Music 101. The video course takes you through the process of composing a entire
composition and explains melody, harmony, meter, simple musical form, and functional harmony.

Filed Under: Harmony

Tagged With: Diatonic Harmony, Dominant, Functional Harmony, harmony, Pre-Dominant, Tonic

About Jon Brantingham

I have been composing since the age of 12. I am not a theory professor, nor do I have a degree in
music. I just love composing, and teaching composition, and I want channel that into great
resources for anyone learning to compose music.

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Comments
Paulo R says
November 30, 2015 at 1:27 pm
Your best article in the beginner series no fluff and clear examples
thanks
Reply
Jon Brantingham says
December 2, 2015 at 9:35 am
Thanks.
Reply

nicholas (nick) says

October 21, 2013 at 4:55 pm
Dear Jon,
Thanks for your lessons as they are very helpful to me. I would like to ask you a question on the difference between piano
voicing and SATB voicing.
Thanks
nick
Reply
Jon says
October 21, 2013 at 6:45 pm
Nick, there really isnt a difference. Piano voicing or really Keyboard Style voicing is what it should be called, has
the right hand playing the top three voices, Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and then the left hand playing the bass. The right hand is
playing closed voicings, simply because open voicings would be too much of a stretch for the average hand on piano.
Reply
Timothy M says
December 24, 2015 at 5:28 pm
Id say SATB has a few more rules, such as trying to keep S and B moving in opposite directions, trying not to move
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voices in parallel fifths or octaves, etc.

Reply
Jon Brantingham says
December 25, 2015 at 12:08 pm
SATB has many more rules. The problem is, many beginning composers are not at the point where they need to
worry about those. I prefer that beginners get a few basics down first, such as understanding how functional harmony
works, and then worrying about voice-leading and counterpoint later.
Its better to get a few pieces under your belt, because then the rules of voice-leading mean more.
Reply

James says
October 17, 2013 at 11:29 am
Great website and you surf!!! LEGEND
Reply
Jon says
October 17, 2013 at 1:19 pm
Thanks James. Surfing is awesome. But composing is awesomer.
Reply

andrew says
July 17, 2012 at 4:56 pm
i want to learn
Reply

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