Workshop 34 mini-test

1. What is the full chromatic minor descent we used in C minor?

2. What are its scale degrees?

3. What does a dominant chord represent perceptually?

4. What is the difference between a temporary tonic and a structural tonic?

5. Why is m7♭5 such a useful signpost?

6. What are three different harmonic approaches to C minor that we practiced?

7. Why can G7 resolve to either C major or C minor?

8. Why should passing chords often receive less improvisational attention than destinations?

9. What are the three levels of harmonic thinking introduced at the end?

10. What is the deepest lesson of Workshop 34?

Answers

1. C → B → B♭ → A → A♭ → G.
2. 1 → 7 → ♭7 → 6 → ♭6 → 5.
3. It is an arrow/promise toward a likely destination, normally a fifth below, whether or not that expectation is immediately fulfilled.
4. A temporary tonic gives local resolution but remains part of a larger phrase; the structural tonic provides the more important long-range arrival.
5. A half-diminished chord frequently serves as iiø of an upcoming minor ii–V–i, so it can reveal the likely destination.
6. G7♭9→Cm, B°7→Cm, and D♭7→Cm.
7. Its B natural provides the leading tone to C in either case; the destination's E or E♭ establishes whether the tonic is major or minor.
8. Because they frequently exist mainly to connect important structural harmonies; outlining every one equally destroys long-line phrasing.
9. Micro: chord contents; meso: harmonic packets; macro: long-range phrase destination.
10. Complex harmony becomes intelligible when you stop giving every chord equal importance and hear the bass, the destinations, and the long sentence they create.

The central lesson of Workshop 34 is:

The advanced ear does not merely know what chord is happening now. It hears what the current chord is doing to the future.