Professional

Composition tools - Harmonic spaces

Subjects covered:

• Basic principle
• Structure of an harmonic space
• Using the real time arranger

Watch also the following videos:

• Intuitive combination of scores and chords (13'17) - Flash - Quicktime
• Using styles to compose music (20'24) - Flash - Quicktime

Basic principle [Professional]

An harmonic space is a set of chord progressions that may be sequenced and that give a specific atmosphere or style to a music. It can be very simple or may contain several chords sequences and types. Its basic purpose is to orient the composer in an intuitive way, by being able to select a final chord progression to use in a music composition. It is used in association with a score group - an object that you can find inside the main area of the conductor view. By using an harmonic space inside a score group, you may select the chords and hear the effects they have with the real time arranger of Pizzicato. The scores placed inside the group will take the sound colour of chords you select in real time. This is an easy and powerful way to create a chord progression, because you hear it and choose it just from you feeling, without any needed knowledge of chord theory. It is an intuitive approach to design a chord progression.

We will first have a look at how an harmonic space is designed and then we will show how you can use it with the real time arranger.

Structure of an harmonic space [Professional]

• Open a new document and open the conductor view. In the bottom left tree, right-click the document icon and select the New harmonic space menu item. The tree becomes:

• Double-click on the Harmonic space node and the following dialog appears:

• You can change the name of this harmonic space in the text box in the right upper corner.

• The first list is a list that will contain the possible chord sequences. Click on the Add button. A new line appears in the list. Then click on the Add a chord... button. The chord selection dialog box appears:

• Click on OK to select the default C major chord. The second list shows the C chord. Add a new chord in that list and select the F chord. This "C + F" sequence is a possible chord sequence in this harmonic space.

• Click again the above Add button and add the sequence of "D min + F". Notice that a colour is automatically associated with the root note of the chord. The colour may be changed if you want to test another colour/chord convention. They will appear in the groups of scores with these selected colours.

• Using the same principle, create the two following chord sequences : "F + G" and "G + C". The left list should now appear as follows:

The number "=0" is in fact a value that you can assign to that specific sequence. It can be assigned by selecting the line in the list and then changing the value with the upper slider in the right part of the dialog. It is presently not used by Pizzicato but this number, if assigned, should represent the relative quality or importance of that specific chord progression in the harmonic space you design.

• The upper Delete button is used to delete one of the selected sequence of chords. The Up and Down buttons at the top of the dialog are used to change the order of the selected chord sequence so you can sort the list as you want.

• The Modify chord... lets you change the chord selected in the second list. The Delete chord removes the selected chord of the second list and the Up and Down buttons may be used to sort the list of chords of the selected chord progression. By clicking on the colour square, you may select the colour associated to that chord.

• If you check the Play the selected chord box, you will hear the selected chord with a string sound and you can adjust the sound volume with the slider just below it.

• Click on the OK button. We will now see how we can use this simple harmonic space.

Using the real time arranger [Professional]

• Drag the Harmonic space node and drop it in the main area of the conductor view. You can then observe the following group that has been automatically created:

• You could also have reached the same result by creating a group of scores (contextual menu inside the conductor view) and by dragging the Harmonic space node into it. Resize the group by clicking and dragging its bottom right corner, so as to display:

You can see the 4 chord progressions "C - F", "D min - F", "F - G" and "G - C" with their assigned colours. The rule of such an harmonic space is that after a C, you may only have an F. After an F, you may only have a G. After a D min, you may only have an F and after a G, you may only have a C. This is of course very limited in this little example.

• As we have not yet selected the chord with which we want to start, Pizzicato shows you all the possible starting sequences. On each chord, you will see a little OK button. It is used to validate the chord to use. Click on the D min chord OK button and the group becomes:

The first chord is now fixed as D min and if we examine the rules as stated above, the only possible chord after D min is F. So Pizzicato suggests the F chord to the right of the first chord.

• Click on the OK button of the F chord and the group becomes:

• Indeed, the G chord is the only possible chord after F, according to this little harmonic space example. Click on the OK button and again on the next suggested chord. The group becomes:

Notice that the group is automatically resized when you add chords to the progression. On each chord of the progression, there are now 4 icons that you can use to:

• "?" : click on this icon to change the chord, by calling the chord selection dialog box.
• "+" : click on this icon to add a new chord after the current chord, with the help of the chord selection dialog box.
• "x" : click on this icon to delete the current chord from the progression. The following chords are shifted to the left accordingly.
• "<=" : click on this icon to remove all chords from the progression, starting with the current chord. The next suggestion of Pizzicato is then displayed on that location so you can re-orient the chord progression from this point on.

You will notice that each chord is now assigned to a duration of one 4/4 measure. You may move the border between two chords by dragging the mouse over the border and click it to move it to the left (shorter duration for that chord) or to the right (longer duration).

Up to now, this is only visual, but here comes the interesting point.

• Locate the following node inside the library, by expanding the nodes of the tree as necessary:

• Drag and drop the above Rhythm (selected in blue) inside the score group and position it as follows:

• Its content is one 4/4 measure of a country style rhythm, written in C Major. Expand the length of it as explained in the conductor view lesson : drag its bottom right corner to the right so as to have:

• Now listen to the group by using the yellow triangle of the conductor toolbar. You will hear the four measures change with the chords present in the group. This is the real time arranger that plays the score and arrange it to fit the chords you have selected.

We will now take a more sophisticated harmonic space from the library and see how we can intuitively design a chord progression.

• First, click on the "<=" icon of the first chord, so as to delete the chord progression. Then go in the library at the following location:

• and drag and drop the C Major - 3 notes chords + dominant 7th node into the group. Click on the first C chord OK button and resize the group and the rhythm so as to have the following presentation:

• Right-click on the blue background and select the Play in loop menu item. Start the playing and the score will now play in loop the same rhythm again and again. Here is how you can in real time select your chord progression.

• Double-click in the middle of the yellow C chord. A little coloured circle appears:

It is the fixed point for the real time arranger. When this circle is not present, the score is played with the chord present in the corresponding measure. But when you set this fixed point, Pizzicato continues playing the score with the chord being located at the fixed point (here C). You may now click in any of the chords suggested by Pizzicato and you will hear the change of tone in the rhythm. Try and click on each one of them. When you find one transition you like, just click on the OK button of that chord and the chord is added to the progression, as explained above. Pizzicato shows you then the next suggestions for possible chords in that harmonic space. This space represents here the 3 notes chords of the C major scale, as well as the dominant 7th chord, quite common in use.

When you click inside the circle, it disappears and the real time arranger continue to play the score with the existing chord progression. You may also disable the real time arranger by clicking inside the little yellow square present at the top of the group.

Warning - do not forget to delete this fixed point after you have used it, because otherwise Pizzicato will play all your score with that fixed point, even from other documents and they may sound strange to you because Pizzicato arranges them all in the fixed point chord.

Once you have found the chord progression you like, you may do two things with that group:

• You can drag the little green square on top of the group and drop it outside the group. Pizzicato will create a full score of the group, including the arranged notes with the chords.

• You can similarly drag and drop the little blue square and the score will only contain the chord progression. You can drag that chord progression in a document inside your My library folder to use it on other occasions. It is then part of your library.