Module 20 mini-test

1. What should you usually determine before exact chord names?

2. What three broad harmonic functions are most useful?

3. Why is bass so helpful in chord transcription?

4. Does the bass always equal the root?

5. What are the first three chords to test in a simple major-key song?

6. If a chord sounds strongly dominant in C and resolves to Am, what is a likely chord?

7. If the bass goes C-C♯-D, what chromatic harmony might be occurring?

8. Why should extensions be identified last?

9. What is harmonic rhythm?

10. If you hear F → Fm → C in C major, what is happening?

Answers

1. Key, harmonic rhythm, bass movement, and broad function.
2. Tonic, predominant, dominant.
3. The bass often reveals the chord root or inversion and drastically narrows harmonic possibilities.
4. No. The chord may be inverted or use a pedal bass.
5. I, IV, V/V7
6. E7 = V7/vi
7. C → C♯°7 → Dm is a likely possibility.
8. They are color; the root, quality, and function define the harmonic skeleton first.
9. The rate at which the harmony changes.
10. The major key is borrowing iv from the parallel minor: a minor plagal/modal-interchange move.

The central lesson of Module 20 is:

You usually don't hear a chord by recognizing all of its notes simultaneously. You reconstruct it from clues: key, function, bass, melody, voice leading, and what comes next.

At this point you have crossed an important threshold. You can theoretically take a tune you know, find its melody, infer its chords, voice them, accompany it, and begin improvising over it.

Module 21 starts the dedicated reharmonization section: we'll take one ordinary melody/progression and systematically create alternative harmonies using functional substitution, secondary dominants, ii–V insertion, diminished passing chords, borrowed chords, bass-line design, and melody-driven chord choices—while learning how to tell when reharmonization improves the music and when it merely makes it more complicated.