Dominant7 and Tritone Substitution

Dominant7 and Tritone Substitution The reason why dominant7 chords create the feeling of wanting to resolve results from the inherent structure of the chord, specifically the tritone that exists between the third and the seventh of the chord. As an example, let’s look...

Music Theory vs. Your Ear

Music Theory vs. Your Ear The mass of rules, possibilities and concepts in music theory can be overwhelming or even intimidating for your own writing. However don’t give music theory a higher value than being a tool. Changing your music for the reason that it is...

Tolerance of Dissonance

Tolerance of Dissonance One of the strongest factors in music is the duality between tension and resolution, which can be found in the smallest musical units (e.g. V-I cadence) to the largest extents (big structure of symphonies etc.). However the ear of the 21st...

Breaking the Rules

Breaking the Rules Breaking musical rules can be great to create musical structures that sound fresh and interesting and basically every rule in music can be broken. The essential part is to be confident and consequent when you break them. For instance if you use a...

Diminished Chord Function

Diminished Chord Function Diminished chords usually serve the function of a dominant seventh chord, usually targeting to a chord a with a root a semitone higher. For instance the chord C#dim (C#-E-G) wants to resolve to a D or Dm. The reason for that is that the...