Workshop 70 mini-test

1. Why does this workflow delay chord symbols until relatively late?

2. What should be established before middle harmony is filled in?

3. Why is melody + bass alone such an important test?

4. What role does the first inner voice usually play?

5. Why should reharmonization come after a convincing baseline arrangement?

6. What is the difference between changing harmony, changing color, and changing texture?

7. Why can a tune be arranged in multiple styles while preserving the same structural skeleton?

8. What are the four core layers of the arrangement model in this workshop?

9. What is the purpose of recording a full run without stopping?

10. What is the deepest lesson of Workshop 70?

Answers

1. Because chord symbols are descriptions of vertical results, while an arrangement is fundamentally created by melody, bass direction, voice leading, harmonic timing, and texture unfolding horizontally.
2. At minimum: melody, structural phrase points, and a convincing bass line; ideally one or two guide-tone/inner lines as well.
3. The two outer voices define much of the phrase's contour and harmonic direction. If they do not already sound convincing, adding dense middle harmony usually hides rather than solves the structural weakness.
4. It usually provides a guide-tone or counter-melodic line that clarifies chord quality/function while connecting harmonies smoothly.
5. Because substitutions should improve an existing musical structure—bass, voice leading, phrase tension, style, or form—rather than substitute for the absence of one.
6. A harmonic change alters root/function; a color change modifies extensions/upper structure within the same broader function; a texture change alters how the same harmony is distributed and articulated on the piano.
7. Because melody, structural bass destinations, and guide-tone logic can remain while groove, articulation, voicing density, register, accompaniment pattern, and harmonic rhythm change.
8. Melody, bass, guide/inner voices, and texture—with rhythm/timing controlling how those layers interact.
9. To hear the macro form: whether the arrangement builds, breathes, projects melody, reaches a convincing climax, and ends intentionally. Stopping for every local error prevents you from evaluating the arrangement as a whole.
10. A complete arrangement is best understood as interacting musical lines shaped through time; chord symbols are useful shorthand, but they are not the source of the music.

The central lesson of Workshop 70 is:

Do not begin by asking what chord belongs under the melody. Begin by asking where the melody is going, where the bass should go with it, and what voices can travel beautifully between them. The chords will reveal themselves.