From the classical violinist to the hip hop producer, creating music pays homage to principles of harmony. It is not just the sum of the musical parts that makes a song come alive, but how every part interacts with others to create more harmonies, enriched melodies, dynamic rhythms, and more interaction. Composers, engineers, producers and performing musicians constantly use the harmonic principles derived from basic acoustics every time they work through a piece.

This book offers a deep analytical dive into the theories of harmonics. It explores many nontraditional approaches such as extended and hyperextended chords and it includes an explanation for the consonance of the elusive minor triad. The book also covers voicing and arranging from a vertical or harmonic perspective, a system of classifying the sonority of each chord, how extended chords impact the listener, and how the composer applies these principles.

Jack Ballard, Jr., has composed, performed and produced a variety of music, from classical, world and film music to jazz and bluegrass to punk and hip hop.

Jack Ballard, Jr.
Foreword by Warren Pettit
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 278
Bibliographic Info: 237 photos, glossary, appendices, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2022
pISBN: 978-1-4766-7702-6
eISBN: 978-1-4766-4353-3
Imprint: McFarland

List of Figures ix
List of Tables xvi
Acknowledgments xvii
Foreword by Warren Pettit 1
Preface 3
Introduction 5
1. Justifying Thirds as a Basis for Analysis 15
2. Tertian Chord in Harmonic Perspective 20
3. Sub-position 24
4. Acoustic Justification 28
5. Psychoacoustic Considerations 38
6. Continuity as a Function of Context and Consonance 43
7. Tone-Sustaining Issues 56
8. Principles of Separation 67
9. Linear Concepts 79
10. Harmonic Permutations of Chordal Klang 86
11. Complex Chord Systems Using Harmonic Matrices 101
12. Manifesting Inaudible Sound 117
13. Chord Classification 122
14. The Minor Triad 128
15. Shifting Harmonic Imagery 132
16. Hyperextended Chords 137
17. The Approach Tone and Chord 145
18. Jazz Analysis and Context Using Hyperextended Tones 155
19. Approach Chords Applied in Improvisation 160
20. The Blue Tonality and the Augmented Twenty-Third 164
21. The Enigmatic Spanish Phrygian: A Contextual Case Study 172
22. Concert Music Analysis 190
23. Light Correlations: Conjecture 199
Glossary 211
Appendix A: Graphs 215
Appendix B: Additional Musical Figures 216
Appendix C: Methodology and Systems 222
Chapter Notes 241
Sources and Further Reading 249
Index 259