Workshop 54 mini-test

1. What notes make B♭6/9 in the voicing used here?

2. What is the difference between B♭maj7 and B♭6 color?

3. What is the key motion in F7sus→F7?

4. What is the defining inner line of E♭→E♭m→B♭?

5. Why can simple IV–V–I sound sophisticated without substitutions?

6. What is the role of D♭→D over B♭ major?

7. Why can a repeated hook remain unchanged while the arrangement develops?

8. What four things should you try before replacing a plain-sounding chord?

9. Why is minor IV especially useful in soul/gospel/pop arranging?

10. What is the deepest lesson of Workshop 54?

Answers

1. With B♭ in the bass, RH D-G-C supplies 3, 6, 9, producing B♭6/9.
2. B♭maj7 uses A, while B♭6 uses G; maj7 tends to produce a more floating/jazz-polished tension, while 6 can sound warmer and more settled in this context.
3. B♭→A, scale degrees 4→3 over F, while other tones can remain common.
4. G→G♭→F.
5. Good voicing, smooth inner motion, strong groove, articulation, and controlled color tones can make very simple functional harmony sound rich.
6. D♭ is the blues ♭3 against B♭ major; resolving to D creates the expressive ♭3→3 blues gesture.
7. Repetition establishes identity; changing bass, harmony, texture, register, responses, and density underneath lets the listener hear development clearly.
8. Improve the voicing, improve voice leading, improve rhythmic placement, and add/remove one color tone.
9. It gives a strong chromatic emotional pull toward tonic through the borrowed ♭6-related color and smooth semitone voice leading without requiring a dominant cadence.
10. Harmonic richness is often the art of making a simple chord reveal more of what it already contains, rather than immediately replacing it with a more complicated chord.

The central lesson of Workshop 54 is:

Before you reharmonize the progression, learn to make the progression you already have sound beautiful.