Workshop 111 mini-test

1. What is harmonic rhythm?

2. Why can several chord symbols represent one harmonic event?

3. What is the difference between functional rhythm and color rhythm?

4. Why can harmonic acceleration create a cadence or climax?

5. Why can harmonic stasis also create tension?

6. How can melody and harmonic rhythm compensate for one another?

7. Why is an offbeat chord change different from merely syncopated comping?

8. How can duration change a chord from a color into a tonal region?

9. What does “reharmonization by subtraction” mean?

10. What is the deepest lesson of Workshop 111?

Answers

1. The rate at which the listener perceives meaningful harmonic change. It includes not only chord symbols but the timing and duration of roots, functions, bass events, and harmonic colors.
2. Because sonorities such as G7sus, G13, G7♭9, and G7alt may all prolong the same dominant function. The chord color changes while the deeper functional state remains unchanged.
3. Functional rhythm tracks changes among deeper harmonic roles or tonal regions; color rhythm tracks changes in extensions, suspensions, alterations, or voicing within an otherwise stable function.
4. Shortening harmonic durations increases the rate of new information and can create a sense that musical time is compressing toward a destination. The listener feels increasing directional pressure even if the chords themselves are simple.
5. If the static harmony is unstable—especially a dominant or suspended field—prolonging it delays the expected resolution. The absence of harmonic change can therefore intensify expectation.
6. When melody is busy, slower harmony often provides orientation; when melody is sustained or sparse, harmony can become more active underneath. The two layers share a perceptual complexity budget.
7. Syncopated comping may attack the same chord offbeat while the underlying harmony has not changed. A syncopated harmonic arrival means the actual harmonic function/root/region changes earlier or later than the expected metric position.
8. A foreign chord heard for one beat may function as passing color. If it is prolonged, cadenced into, melodically confirmed, or developed for several bars, the listener may reinterpret it as a temporary or full tonal region.
9. Deliberately removing passing chords, secondary dominants, substitutions, or color events so that underlying functional structure moves more slowly. A simpler harmonic rhythm can sometimes strengthen melody and form more than added sophistication.
10. Harmony is composed not only by choosing sonorities but by allocating time to them. The duration and timing of an event determine whether the listener experiences it as home, motion, hesitation, tension, color, or arrival.

The central lesson of Workshop 111 is:

Do not let chord symbols dictate the clock. Let musical purpose determine how long a harmony deserves to exist. Give home enough time to become home, let preparation begin moving when direction is needed, compress time when the destination should feel inevitable, and remember that sometimes the strongest harmonic event is the chord you refuse to change yet.