Workshop 83 mini-test

1. What is the main weakness of substitution-list reharmonization?

2. Why should melody+bass often be tested before adding middle harmony?

3. What underlying line makes F→Fm→C feel so natural?

4. What underlying bass motion explains C→C♯°7→Dm?

5. What is resolution-first reharmonization?

6. Why can Bmaj7→Cmaj7 work even though it is not a conventional dominant-tonic progression?

7. What is the difference between a bass note and a harmonic root?

8. Why should not every chromatic bass note receive a new chord symbol?

9. What is the practical advantage of reharmonizing phrase endings rather than every note?

10. What is the deepest lesson of Workshop 83?

Answers

1. It can produce theoretically valid but disconnected harmony because chords are chosen as isolated replacements rather than as consequences of coherent melodic/bass motion.
2. If the two outer voices already create a convincing direction, middle harmony can reinforce that structure; if melody+bass are weak, sophisticated middle chords rarely fix the fundamental problem.
3. A→A♭→G, usually heard as 3rd of F dropping to minor 3rd of Fm and then resolving toward G in C harmony.
4. C→C♯→D in the bass. The diminished chord harmonizes the chromatic passing bass between C and Dm.
5. Choose the destination voicing first, determine how each voice should approach it—often by semitone or common tone—and derive the preceding harmony from those desired motions.
6. Every voice can move upward by semitone into Cmaj7, so the progression has extremely clear linear/parallel voice-leading logic even though it lacks ordinary V-I functional grammar.
7. The bass is simply the lowest sounding voice. It may be the root, but it can also be a chord inversion, pedal, passing tone, or chromatic approach note.
8. Some chromatic bass tones are merely linear connectors beneath a sustained upper harmony. Labeling every fleeting verticality as a structural chord can obscure the larger harmonic rhythm.
9. Phrase endings naturally tolerate stronger tension and directional harmony; selective reharmonization preserves melodic identity and makes the new colors more perceptually significant.
10. Reharmonization becomes most convincing when chords are treated as the vertical consequence of good horizontal lines rather than as replacements chosen from a vocabulary list.

The central lesson of Workshop 83 is:

Do not search for a more sophisticated chord. Write a more beautiful line—and allow the chord to be whatever that line requires.