In this episode, I talk about harmonic skill development at the Aural/Oral and Verbal Association levels of learning.
Mentioned in this episode…
- E01.34 Tonal Aural/Oral Skills (https://everydaymusicality.com/2021/10/05/e01-34-tonal-aural-oral-skills/)
- E01.35 Rhythm Aural/Oral Skills (https://everydaymusicality.com/2021/10/19/e01-35-rhythm-aural-oral-skills/)
- E01.43 Tonal Verbal Association Skills (https://everydaymusicality.com/2022/04/12/e01-43-tonal-verbal-association-skills/)
- E01.45 Rhythm Verbal Association Skills (https://everydaymusicality.com/2022/05/31/e01-45-rhythm-verbal-association-skills/)
- Harmonic Index (https://everydaymusicality.files.wordpress.com/2022/10/harmonic-index-from-book.pdf)
- Video of chord root duets (https://youtu.be/yq5t2CmPABA)
- Guilbault blog post (https://everydaymusicality.com/2019/01/22/the-effects-of-harmonic-accompaniment-on-the-tonal-improvisations-of-students-in-first-through-sixth-grade-guilbault-2009/)
- E01.20 Musicianship-Building Pt 1 (https://everydaymusicality.com/2021/01/26/e01-20-musicianship-building-pt-1/)
- E01.21 Musicianship-Building Pt 2 (https://everydaymusicality.com/2021/02/09/e01-21-musicianship-building-pt-2/)
- E01.48 Bridging to Creativity/Improvisation from Verbal Association (https://everydaymusicality.com/2022/10/04/e01-48-bridging-to-creativity-improvisation-from-verbal-association/)
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Host: Heather Nelson Shouldice
Sponsors: GIA Publications, Inc., Gordon Institute for Music Learning
Podcast Cover Art: Tyler Nordstrom
Intro/Outro Music: Heather Nelson Shouldice
If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, email them to everydaymusicality@gmail.com!
Everyday Musicality 
Tonya McKenna
Hello Heather. I hope you are well. Why do we show 1 finger for tonic and five fingers for dominant chord roots when singing in minor? Why not six and three for tonic and dominant respectively? I am in my first year after taking the elementary course and want to make sure I am doing things correctly. Thank you so much.
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Heather Shouldice
Hi Tonya! We use 1 and 5 for tonic/dominant in minor because we focus on functional harmony in the tonality. It’s the same reason why most MLT teachers don’t use Curwen hand signs for chord roots–because those change based on the tonality. BUT tonic is always home, so we always use 1 finger for tonic regardless of the tonality. It’s essentially the same as using Roman numerals for chords in music theory. 🙂
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Heather Shouldice
Hi Tonya! We tend to use 1 and 5 for tonic/dominant in minor because we focus on functional harmony, which revolves around tonal center. So 1 always represents the tonic (or “home” chord) no matter what tonality. It’s sort of like using Roman numerals for chord analysis in theory class. 🙂 Also, it’s similar to the reason why most MLT practitioners don’t use Curwen hand signs when showing chord root signs–because those change based on tonality, whereas tonic is always 1 no matter what tonality. Another benefit of showing the number rather than Curwen hand sign is that eventually you can use 1 to mean the whole chord–so you might have students harmonizing the chords in 3 parts, and you can just use the number to show the chord WITHOUT having to use a different Curwen hand sign for each chord tone/pitch.
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