Group 3

ENHANCE YOUR INTERPRETATIONS THROUGH HARMONIC ANALYSIS WITH BEN LAUDE

Led by tonebase Head of Piano Ben Laude, you’ll also be receiving direct feedback from two special guests: Curtis/Juilliard music theory professor and new tonebase artist Eric Wen and pianist/composer/Indiana University music faculty member and tonebase blogger Nicole DiPaolo!

This Intensive is meant for pianists of different skill levels and music theory backgrounds. If you’re new to music analysis, you’ll find all the prerequisite knowledge you’ll need and more in Ben Laude’s “Music Theory Basics” course.

Whether you’re just getting your feet wet with Roman numeral analysis, want a better grasp of figured bass, or you’re ready to ascend to the high art of Schenkerian analysis, you WILL improve your skills in music theory and analysis.

Assignments

Follow these steps:

  • Submit a piece/passage for approval! Choose a piece of tonal music whose harmony you’d like to understand better. It can be a piece you’re working on, or just one you’d enjoy. For longer works, choose a section that you’d like to focus on. 
  • Attempt a roman numeral analysis! Begin identifying harmonies and labeling them with roman numerals, either directly to your printed score or digitally using a PDF annotation app. See below for more details (1a, 1b)
  • Post your analyses to the thread for feedback! Either take a picture of your handwritten analyses or save a digitally-annotated analyses and upload into the thread below, along with any questions you might have for me, Eric, or Nicole.
  • Recommended: Let's hear how your interpretation evolves with your analysis! Post videos to show how your harmonic understanding is influencing your performance.
  • Optional: Try out formal analysis, chordal reduction, and more! If you've completed a harmonic analysis and are satisfied with it, move on to analyzing the form of your piece, attempt a chordal reduction, or explore other analytic techniques. See below for more details (2, 3, 4)

For printable staff paper, click here!

More instructions:

  • Depending on your music theory background, consider starting at either 1a or 1b and consider how far you'd like to progress beyond harmonic analysis. There's not shame in staying at 1a the whole time!! It can take a while to get the hang of this:

1a. Roman numeral analysis - Diatonic. If you’re new to music analysis, this is a good place to start. Pick a work from the classical period (Mozart, Haydn, Clementi, or Beethoven), identify the key, determine the chord scale, and begin labeling your score with Roman numerals under each distinct harmony. Look out for “non-chord tones,” notes that don’t belong to the given triad or extended chord, but live in between or next door to chord members. When you see accidentals, look for clues in the harmonic progression to help you determine if it's a passing tone/embellishment or if you're entering chromatic harmonic terrain (see 1b). Your piece might modulate, but still remain diatonic to the new key (as in simpler classical works).

1b. Roman numeral analysis - Chromatic. If you’re comfortable analyzing mostly diatonic works from the classical era, consider choosing a romantic piece that features more chromatic progressions (late Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Grieg, Tchaikovsky). Label your score with Roman numerals, indicating modal mixture, applied chords (secondary dominants/leading tone chords), and modulations. Identify what keys you visit and keep track of how you get there.

2. (Optional) Formal analysis. If you've grasped the harmonic content of your piece/passage, you can then move on to analyzing its larger form – how phrases connect to larger sections, what key areas you visit along the way, and how the composer journeys from the tonic to the dominant and back to tonic over the course of the work. Most 18th-19th century music is in one of the following forms: binary form (A/B), ternary form (A/B/A), and sonata form (exposition/development/recapitulation). Romantic works might have more varied forms.

3. (Optional) Chordal reduction. Using voice leading principles, try constructing a chordal reduction of your piece/passage and be able to play it musically.

4. (Optional) Explore other analytic techniques. If you feel confident in your harmonic and formal analysis, consider strengthening your understanding of figured bass (thoroughbass), species counterpoint, schemas (voice leading patterns), and Schenkerian analysis.

 

RECOMMENDED TONEBASE COURSES

Primary resource

Further resources for more advanced analysis

Recommended reading

Fellow Participants in Group 3:

 

 

Group 3

priscillayam

Cheryl

Chi Tong

StacyA

Taylor Ma

Don Allen

Chris Griffin

Harriet Kaplan

karin

Amy Reichel

John Mowry

Robert

Randi

Lily Li

Midori

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  • I just started learning the piece of mozart's sonata in C major K545 and you mentioned it is a good piece to start. I am a beginner and theory is my weakest part. I am watching your music theory basic now and totally new to music analysis. Thank you for doing this.

    Like
    • Ben Laude thanks so much for taking so much time to teach me. This has been very much appreciated. I hope I marked the inversion correctly. I don’t know how to do bar 10.  

      Like
  • Hello Ben,

     

    I would like to work on Rameau’s Les Tendres Plaintes. I am currently learning this piece and believe the analysis would be helpful. 

    Like
      • Ben Laude
      • Head of Piano @ tonebase
      • Ben_Laude
      • 2 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Chris Griffin  Fantastic. You know that Rameau was the one who basically invented the kind of music theory that led to this kind of harmonic analysis, which defines harmonies by their root (rather than by intervals above the bass). Very appropriate that we'll look at some of his music, then.

      Want to analyze up to the double bar and we'll take a look? (Or try the whole thing, up to you.)

      Like
    • Ben Laude 

      HI Ben,

       

      I have attached my first attempt at analysis. Not sure how to handle the a

      A major chord. 

      • Ben Laude
      • Head of Piano @ tonebase
      • Ben_Laude
      • 2 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Chris Griffin Sorry for the delay. Crazy week for me. Here's some feedback:

      • First, I recommend using the convention of labeling minor or diminished roman numerals lowercase, and major roman numerals uppercase. So, for a D minor piece like this one, your chord scale (using harmonic minor, raised 7) would look like this:  i iiÂș III IV V VI viiÂș
      • Bar 3 / Beat 1: While the E and G of the chord could belong to a V7, functionally this sounds like a pre-dominant chord, not a dominant chord. It's better to label it as iiÂș6, which means the diminished triad built on scale degree 2, but in first inversion. It's missing the B-flat, but if you at a B-flat in during that harmony I think you'll find that it sounds correct.
      • Bar 3 / Beat 3: I mentioned the "harmonic minor" scale above. You must understand that in minor we raise the 7th scale degree in order to create a leading tone to help resolve the music back to the tonic. Watch my lesson on the minor scale and other modes in my Music Theory Basics Course, because I go into this in depth. That A major harmony is very simply: V. The C is raised to a C-sharp in harmonic minor, creating a major harmony built on the 5th scale degree. This is a crucial harmony in D minor, so it's absolutely essential that you understand this.
      • Bar 6: Similarly, if you raise the 7th to C#, you'll also get a diminished triad built on C#, known as viiÂș. That's the harmony on beat 2.
      • Bar 7: Again, that's either V or viiÂș (label it either way, because C#-E is found in both harmonies).
      • Bar 8: There are passing tones, but not over the tonic harmony. The A and E on the strong downbeat in this bar signal a dominant (A major) harmony. You'll notice that if you add a C# to the mix in the right hand of that bar, it will sound good.
      • For the rest of the phrase until the double bar, the same feedback above applies. See if you can re-analyze it especially with the knowledge of the harmonic minor chord scale in mind.
      • Looking ahead to the next section, can you tell what key Rameau modulates to? Look at the cadence points, and look for a new V-I.

      Good work, and again my apologies for the late reply!

      Like
    • Randi
    • Randi
    • 2 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    I want to start easy and do a Czerny exercise: Op 599, number 85, attached. Next, I'd like to do Chopin's Waltz in E minor, also attached. I have only dabbled in theory (despite the years playing clarinet in school - don't know why they didn't teach it!) so these things are relatively new to me. Thanks!

      • Ben Laude
      • Head of Piano @ tonebase
      • Ben_Laude
      • 2 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Randi That Czerny is a good place to get familiar with analyzing harmony. It lays out the harmonies very clearly with regular arpeggiation.

      The Chopin is in A minor - I'm assuming this is the one you want to do? Thee is an E minor waltz that is bigger.

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      • Randi
      • Randi
      • 2 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Ben Laude Oh, of course. My mistake. Yes, A minor. đŸ€Šâ€â™€ïž Thanks.

      Like
    • Robert
    • Robert.3
    • 2 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Hi Ben- I'd like to work on Chopin's Op 9 No 2 Nocturne. I'm playing the accompaniment of Sarasate's violin/piano transcription (i.e. I'm essentially just responsible for the harmony) so I think a harmonic analysis of this piece would be very beneficial to my performance. Never tried a formal harmonic analysis before, but I'm excited to give this a try!

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      • Ben Laude
      • Head of Piano @ tonebase
      • Ben_Laude
      • 2 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Robert The Chopin will be great to look at. There's so much nuance going on "under the hood" of that piece. I'd love to hear Eric Wen's take on it as well.

      Maybe just start with the first couple phrases? Or, if you're quick, do the whole thing and we'll work through it bit by bit.

      Happy to help with the Sarasate as well. Is it Zigeunerweisen?

      Like
      • Robert
      • Robert.3
      • 2 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Ben Laude Oh to clarify, it's Sarasate's violin/piano transcription of this Chopin Nocturne. The piano accompaniment is pretty simple technically (basically just the left hand), so thought it'd be a good opportunity to give myself a challenge with the music theory.

       

      Here's my attempt at marking up the first phrase, want to see if I'm on the right track before I go further. I added the roman numerals and highlighted notes outside the key in blue. My main questions would relate to modal mixture. I identified some spots in orange where I think that's what going on, but please let me know if I've misidentified those bars or any of the chords throughout. Thank you so much!

      • Ben Laude
      • Head of Piano @ tonebase
      • Ben_Laude
      • 2 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Robert Sorry for the delay! It's been a crazy week for me.

      Eric Wen and I broke down the first four bars of this Chopin in detail in the video below. Please watch (it's towards the end). I'll drop a couple of points of feedback here as well:

      • Bar 1: I know why you chose "ivÂș", but you're not accounting for a crucial tone: D. Furthermore, you're counting the bass Eb in the harmony, when in fact this is just a pedal tone that on this beat is clashing against the harmony above it (it clashes with the D, which is a chord tone). The harmony is viiÂș7 over the tonic pedal tone. This is actually a borrowed chord from the parallel minor (Eb minor), hence the C-flat.
      • Bar 1: The bass note in the last beat is actually just functioning as a passing tone to the next chord. So it's a bit misleading to call this I7. I don't hear a major 7th sonority so much as I hear a tonic chord with a bass note falling down from 1 to 7 and finally to 6 on the new harmony in bar 2.
      • Bar 2: Indeed, you're tonicizing F minor and using the F harmonic minor chord scale to get there. But we don't call this modal borrowing. Rather, it's a straightforward secondary dominant chord: V7 / ii. Then on beat 3, the bass resolves early to F, but you still have an applied chord above it, in this case a viiÂș7 leading tone chord in F minor (hence the D-flat).
      • Bar 3: Same thing, it's not modal mixture but a momentary tonicization of a diatonic triad in your Eb chord scale. Instead of ii, this time you get V7 / vi.
      • Bar 3: Stack up the chord in 3rds on the final beat and what do you get? A-natural in the bass, with C, Eb, and Gb above it. Do you see that? That means we have an A fully diminished 7th chord, which functions as yet another applied secondary leading tone chord, this one moving us to our dominant, so you'd label it: viiÂș7 / V.
      • Bar 4: Yes, it's V7 with some incredible non chord tones - passing tones and upper neighbors. And you can hear the Eb as suspended from the previous harmony.

      I hope this helps! It's such an amazing four bars, it's not wonder the piece is so famous. See if this analysis can help your voicing and sense of direction when you're playing it now.

      Like
  • Ben Laude This is my attempt on the first section of the mazurka. I really would like help in how to pin down and label the chromaticism. Sorry it's so hard to read - I hope you can make sense of it.

      • Ben Laude
      • Head of Piano @ tonebase
      • Ben_Laude
      • 2 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Harriet Kaplan Sorry for the delay! It's been a crazy week. I owe you this feedback:

      • Your analysis is a little bit blurry, but I'll do my best in responding to what you've written.
      • First of all, please write your roman numerals below the staff. Harmony grows from the bass up, so it's better to label harmonies near the bass line.
      • The opening 4 bars are wild! But, they don't actually need a wild analysis. It's simply functioning as a prolonged dominant, with an octave built on scale degree 5 with its walls closing in chromatically on itself. So, I'd actually call the first 5 bars "V7" with lots of chromatic passing tones.
      • Bars 6-8: Nice work recognizing all the secondary dominants! I try to say away from "five of five of..." Instead, I would just label it a "circle of 5ths" progression. Chopin jumps on the C5 train and rides it all the way to F minor. It's a bit of a fake out, because he of course wants reach the dominant of B-flat minor, which he finally does at the FF climax in bar 11. But the circle of 5ths progression uses the diatonic chord scale of F minor (yet, it's not a modulation, so I'd say he's tonicizing minor-v through the circle of 5ths).
      • The next phrase repeats itself, with more non chord tones that can be understood contrapuntally. This is Chopin as his most ingenious.
      • Note that after the double bar, Chopin is modulating to D-flat, the III in B-flat minor.

      Nice work, again. You seem to have a good grasp of labeling harmonies, so the next level is to always be aware of function. What is Chopin actually doing/where is he going? Keeping these questions in mind will help you avoid zooming in too far and over-labeling notes and harmonies that are actually just embellishments of the primary functioning harmony (like the prolonged V in the opening bars).

      Like
    • Ben Laude thank you. It's been so long since I've had to do a full analysis that I'm very rusty. I appreciate your taking the time to look at what I did.

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    • Ben Laude
    • Head of Piano @ tonebase
    • Ben_Laude
    • 2 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Harmonic Analysis Group 3

    Dear all! Just a reminder about the Zoom check-in with Nicole and Eric today. Here's the meeting info:

    Topic: Two Week Intensive Check-In with Ben, Nicole, and Eric!
    Time: Aug 5, 2022 11:00 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
    Join Zoom Meeting
    https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88205704167

    I will kick things off, then turn it over to Eric and Nicole who will each discuss some topics that bear directly on all of your work, before opening up questions to the whole group!

    See you there!

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    • Don Allen
    • Don_Allen
    • 2 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Apologies for missing the meeting. Our Internet service was down all morning; just got revived.

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      • Ben Laude
      • Head of Piano @ tonebase
      • Ben_Laude
      • 2 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Don Allen you haven't missed it. It's in 10 minutes!

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  • Hi Ben, thank you for today's Zoom It is very informative having 3 experts on the subject. Harmony is the most difficult topic for m I doubt I can ever read it fast in my lifetime.  I had a message that you responded to my Chopin op 27 Db submission for approval, but I cannot locate it for the moment. Here is my rough analysis when I first started learning this (in earnest for the first time)! Sorry if I did not keep it to the way you required. may not submit my playing- too shy to play in front of everyone.  I am sure we all appreciate your effort.  Priscilla

    • priscillayam 

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    • priscillayam here is my recording , I still shoot through ba from Db to D natural to the major ! ananlsis also helps me when to change pedal.  Thank You.

      • Ben Laude
      • Head of Piano @ tonebase
      • Ben_Laude
      • 2 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      priscillayam Hi Priscilla. My apologies for the delay! I had a crazy week. Here's some feedback:

      • I can't read all of your analysis, but I listened to your spoken recording. Thank you for making that! You're thinking about the music in the right way, listening for cadence points and determining what notes have more significance than what other notes.
      • In the first 9 bars, I just wanted to point out what luscious harmonies Chopin chooses above the tonic pedal tone in the bass. Of course there's the D-flat harmony, with the chromatic neighbor tones in the RH melody, but then in bar 5 you get what could be labeled as a viiÂș7 / V, which then doesn't resolve to V. Instead, Chopin slides the A-naturals up to B-flat, proving that it was just a ii chord all along, with a heavily accented chromatic passing tone, A-natural in both hands, connecting the A-flat to B-flat.
      • This melts into a dominant 7th at the beginning of bars 7 and 8, with two delicious harmonies in between that help to prolong the dominant. You basically get a iiÂș7 - V7 - I, but with an extra embellished ii chord (the one with the B-double-flat), which I would call iiĂž7 (borrowed from D-flat minor!!!).
      • Good observation that the F in the soprano of bar 9 needs to be pronounced enough to last into the B-flat minor chord. This is called a common-tone modulation, and Chopin makes that common tone between D-flat and B-flat minor really sing.
      • Bar 13: You're exactly right, the D-natural transforms our Bbm chord into a B-flat dominant 7th chord. But you said it "goes back to major." But, if you're thinking longer term, you modulateIt's actually V7/Ebm.
      • What Chopin is really doing here when he first modulates to Bbm is setting up an extended circle of 5ths progression. You could even hear it long-range as never leaving D-flat, but just tonicizing Bbm (the vi chord), which then turns into the dominant of ii (Ebm), which then turns into the dominant of Ab, and after a lot of chromatic noodling on a prolonged dominant, we return to D-flat.

      Regarding your performance. It's really lovely! You're being very sensitive to your harmonies. The next step is to start being even more conscious of your longer phrases. For example, you emphasize the bass notes on every half bar in bars 7-8, which feels a little sluggish to me - it takes some of the magic away from the arrival in bar 9. I know those harmonies are really juicy, but remember that it's just a prolonged dominant in 7-8, so I would actually try to keep it flowing (don't hesitate as much before/after every bass notes... choose one, maybe the downbeat of bar 8, to help emphasize the color and shifting bass, but keep your eyes on the prize, which is the return to D-flat).

      Similarly in the circle of 5ths sequence beginning in bar 9, pay attention to Chopin's long phrases. This is his hint to you that these are just prolonged harmonies on the way back to the tonic. So, right now, you're leaning on every half bar. The Bbm harmony, its dominant, then the Bbm harmony again, then its dominant again, etc, then the same on Ebm. This makes it hard to hear where Chopin is going, because it's giving too much significance to local harmonic changes that are not structural. I know that every harmony is juicy, and that technically it's hard not to pause a bit on those bass notes, but practice in a way that controls your sound and keeps the flow so it feels like you're sending us on a much longer line through the circle of 5ths.

      By the way, this is a VERY high level suggestion. I learned this piece last year and struggled with exactly what I'm telling you right now. But, I discovered that you have to be really restrained in a piece like this that has slowly unfolding harmonies!

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    • Ben Laude hello Ben, thank you so much . This is more than what I have hoped for. I did noticed I was stopping at every base note so much until I recorded myself. Now your analysis has given me so much to work for, it is exciting for me. I can’t wait to improve it. It is the long line I don’t know how to do it and you have helped me so much. I played this piece when I came to the the USA for grad school , and have not looked at it till now.

      Thank you for all your time.  As Piano head, I want you to know that all the workshops such as Dominic’s yesterday for how to play chords,  they are invaluable, gave us so much tips despite I have not play those pieces before and am not going to play Beethoven’s 4th anytime soon! All of the master classes , workshops are a great resources for those of us who wants to improve. What a great job!  Have a great summer. Priscilla

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    • Randi
    • Randi
    • 2 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Here is my first attempt at the Czerny Op 599 No 85. I have noted the questions I have. (Excuse the low-tech picture. I'm having some tech issues.)

    • Chi Tong
    • Chi_Tong
    • 2 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    I'm learning Janacek's In the Mists movement 3 and 4 and here's my attempt at analyzing the piece.

    There are several points in the score where I was confused about whether I should interpret a chord as a key change or try to stick with the original key.

     

    I would love to learn how you think the Schenkerian Analysis applies to this piece! 

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