Year 11 - Music
Harmonic devices
Understanding melody and harmony
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Unit Summary
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Lesson Summary
You will learn to identify a range of harmonic devices and how they are used.
Key Notes
- Composers use various common harmonic devices to enhance harmony and create certain musical effects.
- Drones, pedals and ground bass are all determined by the bass parts and how they relate to the chords.
- Modulations are changes in key that can radically alter the mood of a piece of music.
- Suspensions are a specific type of dissonance that is used to create harmonic tension and resolution.
Vocabulary To Learn
- Pedal: a bass note that stays the same while the chords change above it
- Drone: a sustained sound that plays underneath other parts
- Ground bass: a bass pattern that repeats while the upper parts develop above
- Modulation: when the key changes during a piece of music
- Suspension: when a note is held to play over a chord that it doesn't fit with, creating dissonance
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- A modulation is when the chords don't use the tonic.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain the lesson in two key points.
Composers use various common harmonic devices to enhance harmony and create certain musical effects. Drones, pedals and ground bass are all determined by the bass parts and how they relate to the chords.
2. What does this key word mean in this lesson? 'Pedal'
a bass note that stays the same while the chords change above it.
3. Correct this common mistake.
Mistake: A modulation is when the chords don't use the tonic. Correction: A modulation is actually when the tonic changes. Sometimes music can sound like it will modulate, but then it stays in the same key. For a true modulation, it must feel like the tonic itself has changed.
More Lessons In This Unit
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