Len's Music Blog

      Leaving the Wedge (entry for 1/17/2025) Last post we covered the fact that there are six different chords you can use in any major key, without leaving that key. For example, if you are in the key of B-flat major, you can visit the IV chord (E-flat major), the V chord (F major), the ii chord (c minor), the vi chord (g minor), or the iii chord (d minor). You can do all this without leaving the key you are in, and you can visit any of the six in any order without violating any rules. Ordinarily, you will end on the I chord, and just as ordinarily you will usually precede that I chord with either a IV or a V chord (usually the V), but there are exceptions. Some popular folk songs end on the V chord for example. We also mentioned that most simple songs are either two-chord or three-chord, and when the song falls into that category, the two chords in a two-chord song are almost always the V and the I. In most three-chord songs, the three chords are the IV, and V, and the...

How to Use the Circle (entry for 1/10/2025) Last post we talked about the Circle of 5ths and how to construct one. This time we’re going to talk about how to use it and why it’s important to the study of harmony. We’ve already mentioned that keys arranged a fifth apart have either one more sharp or one more flat than the key before, depending on which way we go around the circle. (Remembering that adding a sharp is the same as subtracting a flat, and vice versa.) The next thing to notice is that keys which are only one signature element away from each other are more closely related than other pairs of keys. For example: The key of D major (two sharps) is more closely related to G major (one sharp) than it is to E major (four sharps). Another example: The key of D-flat Major (five flats) is more closely related to A-flat Major (four flats) than it is to B-flat major (two flats). Etc. In fact, you can go temporarily to a chord from a key that is only one sharp or one flat away from the k...

Circular Reasoning (entry for 1/3/2025) If you’ve been around music much, particularly if it’s music theory rather than mere performance, I’m sure you have by now run into the idea of the  Circle of 5ths . If you’re a typical musician, you’ve also been bewildered, confused, and perhaps even angered, by the concept. The reason for this is that a lot of theory teachers think that the Circle is the answer to everything, and it simply isn’t. But their promotion of that notion is what sets off the negative reactions. The Circle is important, but not for the reason the typical theory teacher thinks it is. The mistaken idea is that the Circle somehow  drives  harmony. It doesn’t. It’s the other way around.   Harmony drives the circle.  By that I mean that the way harmony works is most easily explained by using concepts from the circle. But the way harmony works would be true, whether there was such a thing as the circle or not. The circle just helps explain and ...