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Listen from 0'34" to 1'30".

A two note melody functions as a series of common tones over 4 chords: G minor, Gb Major/Bb, Eb Major, and B Major 7. Others will hear it differently, but I hear this as an unresolved progression in the key of Bb Major. In this context, the progression starts on the relative minor (vi), followed by a bVI (borrowed from Bb minor), a IV chord, and finally ending on a flat-two chord (borrowed) from Bb Phrygian). While there are no Bb chords to be found, the melody helps to imply the key of Bb by pulsing on that note five times every bar.

Music Morsels are musical fragments, collected and analyzed.

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Listen from 0'07" to 0'33".

In the spirit of the season, let’s take a look at a bit of one of my all-time favorite Christmas songs. We’ll say this section is 8 bars of ¾ time in the key of C, played twice, but with some chord variation in the second half. The first 4 bars use a common three-chord progression, I IV V IV (in this case, C, F, G, F), with a melody made up of 3 consecutive turns with passing tones in between, moving downward. The melody is also harmonized by a second line that sounds up a diatonic third from it. In the key of C, a diatonic third is always the note two white keys to the right of the original note.

The turnaround starts on the root (bar 5), while bars 6-8 are borrowed chords, which add a lot of interesting color to the song. The first time through, these chords move up in minor thirds: C, Eb, Gb, A. The second time through, they start to move up the same way, but the last two chords move up in perfect fourths instead, and you get: C, Eb, Ab, Db. Db Major resolves resolves nicely back to C at the beginning of the section, partially because Db to C is a root motion of only a half-step. More importantly though, in the key of C Major, Db Major is a tritone substitution, meaning it performs the same harmonic function as a more common G chord would in this situation.

Music Morsels are musical fragments, collected and analyzed.

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Listen from 1'59" out.

This is an awesome track, and I love this outro bit; those two chords and the uneven rhythms in the melody. I hear this as a BMaj6 to A#7/B. I find examples like these useful because I tend to under use inverted chords, and because it’s another great sounding pedal point. Try playing the non-inverted versions of the chords with the same melody (in this case, G#Min7 to A#7), so you can hear how drastic of a difference there is without the pedal point bassline.

My intention with this blog is to showcase bits of music I like and attempt to explain why in a way that can be understood by anyone with a basic musical background. Let me know if anything confuses and I’ll do my best to make things clearer.

Music Morsels are musical fragments, collected and analyzed.