User:Amadeus Figueiredo/Harmonic Field

Harmonic Field, also called tonal structure, is a set of chords extracted from a structural scale (usually the Ionic or major scale) that forms a harmony. The development of harmony is linked to the concept of tonality.

Major harmonic field

Melodies are generally made within a context based on a Tonal Center (or key), the reference musical note that indicates a scale and harmony. To create the harmonic field of the major scale, it is necessary to know the musical intervals and the notes belonging to it, to create the chords in each interval by overlapping the thirds. The result will be 7 chords, each of which can be classified according to the concepts of functional harmony: 1st Degree (tonic), 2nd Degree (supertonic), 3rd Degree (mediant), 4th Degree (subdominant), 5th Degree (dominant ), 6th Degree (superdominant) and 7th Degree (sensitive). The perfect chords (major or minor, depending on the key in which the melody is inscribed) that are formed on these degrees of the scale (which is the foundation of the tonality) will define the structure of the harmonic accompaniment that underlies the melody.

Major scale intervals

I - 1 tone - II - 1 tone - III - 1/2 tone - IV - 1 tone - V - 1 tone - VI - 1 tone - VII - 1/2 tone - VIII

Notes of the C major (C) scale

C -1 tone- D -1 tone- E -1/2 tone- F -1 tone- G -1 tone- A -1 tone- B -1/2 tone- C

Example of C Major Harmonic Field

The basic musical chord, also called a triad, is a harmonic set formed by three musical notes from the scale in question; the notes are called tonic (I), mediant (III) and dominant (V); characterized by having two intervals of thirds starting on the tonic note, that is, it starts with the note of the desired degree, skips the next degree and adds the next note successively, thus forming 3, 4 or 5 notes:

Where the C major triad (C major chord) is formed by the notes:

• root: (I) C
• third: (III) E
• fifth: (V) G

This follows a pattern of intervals between chord notes

In the case of the tetrad (chord with four notes) CMaj7 is formed by the notes:

• root: (I) C
• third: (III) E
• fifth: (V) G
• seventh: (VII) B

According to the standard, 2 tones from the tonic to the third (from C to E) => 1 and a half tones from the third to the fifth (from E to G) => 2 tones from the fifth to the seventh (from G to A)

The harmonic field can be considered as the set of chords generated by each note of a tonality, that is, all possible chords that can be constructed with the seven notes of the scale are assembled.

In the key of C Major, simply build a chord starting with each note of the scale using only the notes existing in that scale. The first being C, using only the notes of the C Major scale: the C chord, formed by the notes C-E-G; any other C chord, such as: Cm, Cdim or C+ would have notes that do not belong to the C Major scale.

As the scale has seven notes, every harmonic field has seven chords, where C Major will have the following seven chords in the major harmonic field: C - Dm - Em - F - G - Am - Bdim. Chords formed in the major harmonic field will always follow a rule, which is as follows:

I degree: starting with the root, the chord is always major. ex: C

II degree: always minor. ex: Dm/

III degree: always minor. ex: Em/

IV degree: always major. ex: F/

V degree: always major with seventh. ex: G7 or G/

VI degree: always minor.. ex: Am/

VII degree: always half diminished. ex: Bm7(b5) or B^Ø or Bdim

Intervals for a MINOR chord, example: Dm

1 and a half tones from tonic to third (from D to F), 2 tones from third to fifth (from F to A) 1 and a half tones from fifth to seventh (from A to C)

Note: All MINOR chords with a MINOR seventh will have the same intervals.

See the Harmonic Field of C MAJOR:

| C | Dm | Em | F | G | Am | Bm7(b5) ou B^Ø|

Notes of the E major scale

E -1 tone- F# -1 tone- G# -1/2 tone- A -1 tone- B -1 tone- C# -1 tone- D# -1/2 tone- E

Example of E Major Harmonic Field

| E | F#m | G#m | A | B7 or B | C#m | D#m7b5 or D#^Ø |

[[Category:Music theory]]