Harmony Courses

This course is open only to students who qualify for provisional advanced placement through the ESPA. This course is designed for students entering college in their first semester. The course includes a review of music fundamentals, e.g. clefs, note recognition, key signatures, scale construction, intervals and their inversions, triad and seventh chord construction and inversions, basic voice leading, available tensions, and an introduction to harmonic analysis, as well as melodic construction (motif, phrase, and sequences). Continuation of these basic principles includes secondary dominants and the II-7 V7 relationship and extended dominants, and use of these concepts in progressions, including blues. The course will also cover minor key harmony and introduce modal interchange, form, melody/harmony relationship, motivic manipulation, melodic analysis, and guide tone lines.

Open only to students who qualify for provisional advanced placement through the ESPA. This course is designed for students entering the college in the first semester. The course includes: a brief review of harmony fundamentals, followed by a combination of the content of Harmony 2 and Harmony 3: secondary dominants and the II-7 V7 relationship; extended dominants; voice leading; guide tone lines; melodic analysis; the melody/harmony relationship; blues; modal interchange; minor key harmony; substitute dominant and related II-7 chords; diminished chord patterns; and modulation all through the lense of Berklee chord scale theory.

Open only to students who qualify for provisional advanced placement through the ESPA. This course is designed for students entering the college in the first semester. After a brief review of the content of Harmony 3, the course continues with further discussion of the principles of modern chord progression: deceptive resolutions of secondary dominants; dominant 7th chords without dominant function; contiguous dominant motion; review of melodic construction, form and melody/harmony relationship; modal interchange; pedal point and ostinato; modal harmony and modal composition; compound chords; and hybrid voicings and constant structures.

This course is open to those students who have earned a grade of at least a B in the prerequisite courses HR-112 or HR-114. The course topics are those of Harmony 3, but with a greater emphasis on application through composition. Course topics include: continued analysis and application of major and minor key harmony; continued elaboration of subdominant minor and modal interchange; and chord scale theory. Review of melodic construction and melody/harmony relationship; Individual note analysis of melodies; substitute dominant and related II-7 chords; diminished chord patterns; modulations.

This course is open to those students who have earned a grade of at least a B in the prerequisite courses HR-211, HR-213, or HR-215. The course topics are those of Harmony 4 but with a greater emphasis on application through composition. Course topics include: continuation of principles of modern chord progression: deceptive resolutions of secondary dominants; dominant 7th chords without dominant function; contiguous dominant motion; review of melodic construction, form and melody/harmony relationship; modal interchange; pedal point and ostinato; modal harmony and modal composition; compound chords; constant structures.

This course builds on the foundation of the Berklee core harmony curriculum by examining the musical characteristics found in the principal popular music genres of the 1970s. The primary focus of this course is on modernist compositional techniques such as sequence and transposition (constant structure, dominant chord patterns such as contiguous, special function dominant chords), modal harmony and composition, layered ostinato, pedal point, compound chords, and hybrid voicings. Additional topics include deceptive resolutions of secondary dominants, modal interchange, and modulation.

A study of how harmony interacts with melody, lyric, rhythm, style, and form in Brazilian popular song, accomplished through examining the works of the principal songwriters of three major styles of Brazilian popular music: samba, bossa nova, and MPB (musica popular Brasiliera).

Songs written and recorded by the Beatles, as well as songs written by the Beatles and recorded by other artists, will be analyzed for their harmonic content, melodic construction, modal focus, rhythmic phrasing, and lyrical construction. The course will be structured around the 10-year rule for composers and the three stages they move through in their career, from being engaged in others' music, to development of the current style, to innovation. In addition, an understanding of each member's personal history will be presented as a means of understanding the group's music. Also addressed will be the social environment from which the group emerged and developed and consideration given to its effect on their musical development and progress.

Functional, extended, and bass line reharmonization. Incomplete chord structures and reharmonization of diminished chords. Application of the above techniques for writing turnarounds, introductions, interludes, modulations, and extended endings. Corrections of faulty lead sheets.