Chord Analysis

How Do I Fit In?
No chord is an island.  Neither is any note meaningful in isolation.  Playing
even a single note immediately sets up a movement and begins the process we
call music.

Chord Analysis is intended to show you how your chords and progressions
work in terms of roles and tendencies.  Since music is constantly in motion it
can be tricky to catch on to what's happening.  FretPet attempts to point out
visually what your ear can miss in moments of low attention.

Modes of Each Key
Every chord can play multiple roles.  Any simple Major triad has three roles
as an Ionian chord, the I, IV, and V.  Multiply this by eight modes and each
chord becomes even more flexible.  This analysis shows you all the modes and
scales that fit the Current Chord.

Keys of Each Mode
This is the same analysis as above except that the modes are shown on the
left and the keys are shown across the columns.

Intervals
This analysis shows the intervals of your chord starting from each note.

[ Since the following are not yet implemented this should be taken as hypothetical. ]

Movement and Anticipation
Progressions are built on movement, they say, but what is it that moves?
Earlier I said it was the mind, which is somewhat true.  Even so, it moves as a
mode of response.  It is following lines of anticipation which are induced by
the sounds of musical tones.

This is not a simple matter of seeing what came immediately beforehand and
determing the most probable outcome.  The rhythm of a song induces points of
emphasis so that the mind compares them beat-for-beat and measure-for- 
measure against what it anticipates.  In other words, the previous measure 
factors in as much as the previous note.

Not only that, but the whole general movement also comes into play.  
Individual notes are just the letters of the alphabet.  Themes, melodies, and 
phrases form the basic vocabulary.  Together they tell a story about leaving 
home and returning.  In-between there is tension and release, anticipation 
that sets up satisfaction and disappointment.

This element of tension and release is the one FretPet attempts to capture
graphically through the Movement analysis.

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Try Some Tritones

There are 12 different intervals within the scope of an octave:

Minor 2nd           Major 2nd
Minor 3rd           Major 3rd
                            Perfect 4th
Diminished 5th   Perfect 5th
Minor 6th            Major 6th
Minor 7th            Major 7th
                             Octave

Of these 12 different intervals only one is its own reciprocal: the Diminished 5th, also called the
Augmented 4th.  Moving up or down by this interval brings us to the same place.  This property isn't
just a neat mathematical trick but has some wonderful effects when introduced into a harmony.

Another way to look at the Diminished 5th is as the "farthest poles" available for two notes to lie
upon.  The Diminished 5th interval extends to exact opposite sides of the Circle of Fifths, and it also
extends diametrically across the Circle of Semitones (C-C#-D-Eb-E-F-F#-G-Ab-A-Bb-B-C).

When two notes a Diminished 5th apart are rung together it sets up a tension which is called a
tritone.  "If there is a bright center to the Universe you are on the planet that it is farthest from."
The tritone is the place where everything culminates - there is no place to go but back.

The most familiar example of a tritone shows up in the V7 chord.  In the key of C this is G7.  Playing
the G7 chord sets up a tritone which wants to immediately resolve to C, down a 5th.  In fact, the
movement to the 5th below is the strongest leading tendency of the tritone.

The G Dominant 7 chord has the most power to lead because it contains not just the tritone but three
other tones with tendencies to resolve: the Dominant 7 or "leading tone" (B), the Fourth (F), and the
Fifth (G).

The Leading Note
The 7th note of the C major scale, the leading note B, tends to resolve naturally to C (the tonic).  B is
the 3rd of G7, and the movement from B to C can be heard in the V-I resolution, when the 3rd of the
dominant chord of G major (B) resolves to the root note of the tonic, C major.

Fourth Note (F)
The 4th (F) has a strong tendency to resolve harmonically.  When included as a 7th in the dominant
chord, G7, it moves to E, the 3rd of the scale and the tonic chord.  Try playing C major with F (Csus)
and move F down to E to hear how this movement works with the note C.

Fifth Note (G)
The movement B to C can be heard using a two note V chord.  With G this resolves C major.  The bass
(G) moves naturally up a fourth (down a 5th) - G to C.

Tritone
The combination of F and B sets up a strong tension that needs to resolve.  The tritone interval is the
same when F is placed above B.  Each note must still move by a semitone for resolution.

Every Tritone Is Really Two Tritones
Depending on how you play the notes of a tritone it can have two different ways of resolving.  F below
B is an Augmented 4th tritone, the kind that likes to resolve to C.  F above B has a tritone interval of
a Diminished 5th, and this kind prefers to resolve to Gb/F#.  In this case the two tones simply
resolve in opposite directions.  Instead of F-E and B-C the movement is F-F# and B-Bb.

The resolution to Gb/F# can be used with F below B, and likewise the movement to C can be used with
F over B.  It all depends on the context - and your ear.

[sl]

Some material from The Complete Guitarist by Richard Chapman has been borrowed under fair-use.