Chromatic Decoration
Chromatic Passing Notes Chromatic passing notes are passing notes which do not belong to the current key. They normally occur between two notes which are a tone apart, filling in …
Pedals
A “pedal” is a note which is repeated or held for some time, while the chords around it change. Pedals are normally found on either the tonic or dominant notes. …
Changing Notes
The term “changing note” is used to describe a variety of non-chord note patterns. What they have in common is that the non-chord note is unaccented, and the figure employs …
Anticipations
An anticipation is an unaccented non-chord note which is an early sounding of the following chord note, which is then repeated within its own chord. For example, the soprano chord …
Appoggiaturas
Appoggiaturas are accented non-chord notes which move by step (up or down) to a chord note to resolve. In this example, the chord is C major. The note D is …
Auxiliary Notes
Ordinary Auxiliary Notes Auxiliary notes are non-chord notes which are approached and quit in the opposite direction by step. They are usually unaccented. Auxiliary notes occur between two chord notes …
Accented Passing Notes
Accented passing notes fall on the beat, instead of between the beats. Here are some undecorated chords. There are thirds in the soprano part which could be decorated with unaccented …
Unaccented Passing Notes
Passing notes are non-chord notes which are approached and quit by step in the same direction. They can be either accented or more usually, unaccented. Unaccented passing notes are the …
Decoration
Introduction to Decoration Most music that you listen to will sound a little more complicated than just a succession of chords. One way to add extra sparkle is to add …
Interrupted Cadence
Normally at the end of a phrase we find some type of cadence. If chord V (or V7) is used as the penultimate chord, the final chord of the phrase …