Workshop 67 mini-test

1. What does bass-first reharmonization mean?

2. Why is C→C♯→D naturally associated with C→C♯°7→Dm?

3. What does the line D→D♭→C suggest as a common cadence?

4. Why are pedal basses also a form of reharmonization?

5. What is the difference between a structural bass root and a passing bass note?

6. Why is melody + bass often a good starting point before choosing middle voices?

7. How can the same RH voicing create several different chords?

8. Why should chromatic bass notes usually have clear destinations?

9. What is the relationship between bass-line design and walking-bass thinking?

10. What is the deepest lesson of Workshop 67?

Answers

1. Designing a musically convincing bass contour first, then choosing harmony and inner voices that support both the bass and melody, rather than beginning from a list of substitute chords.
2. The chromatic bass motion C-C♯-D naturally supports a passing diminished sonority on C♯, smoothly connecting tonic to ii.
3. A common realization is Dm7→D♭7→C, where the semitone bass descent drives the tritone-sub cadence.
4. Keeping one bass note while upper chords change reinterprets those chords as colors over a stable center, potentially changing a functional progression into a suspended/modal field.
5. A structural root represents a true harmonic event or destination; a passing bass note may simply connect important notes melodically within the same larger harmony.
6. The outer voices define contour, counterpoint, register, and much of the harmonic possibility; once they work, the middle harmony can be chosen to enhance rather than fight those lines.
7. Every bass note changes the intervallic meaning of the unchanged upper notes, so one RH shape can become major, minor, suspended, extended, altered, or an inversion depending on bass.
8. A semitone such as C♯ feels purposeful when heard as C→C♯→D; without destination, chromatic movement can sound arbitrary.
9. Both are destination-first: decide where the next structural bass note must land, then construct a singable line that connects the current location to that destination.
10. The bass is not merely the root-labeling department of the piano. It is an independent melodic voice whose contour can generate, transform, simplify, and dramatically strengthen the harmony above it.

The central lesson of Workshop 67 is:

When reharmonization feels like choosing chords from a catalog, stop choosing chords. Write a bass line you actually want to hear—and let the harmony grow around it.