How Harmony In Music Works

An epitome of the meaning of the word 'harmony' will be 'accord'. We hear it all the time; a harmonious existence, a harmonious life, or a harmonious meeting. However, the musical aspect of harmony has a somewhat different connotation, although the essence is perhaps the same.

In music, harmony is the 'mixture of various notes of varied musical pitch to create a wonderful arrangement of sounds'. Everyone has heard it, no doubt; and many have even pondered over how is it done. I first heard a harmony in a song by Alisha Chinai. It was a Hindi song; marvellously effecting the music as a whole. Later on, I heard it in many other songs, and soon learnt how to make it as well. It's easy, while some knowledge of music theory is required.

The first thing to know about is a 'scale'. A scale is a series of notes usually spamming an octave. There are different kind of scales; where importance is concerned, major scale, minor scale and the pentatonic scale take the lead. Of course, other scales are equally important, but these will give a basic idea about harmony.

                  A C Major Scale


To make a harmony, take the C major scale as an example. The notes on the scale are: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C.  Now suppose that one person is singing/playing the note C. (It is advisable to have a real/virtual musical instrument while learning this to incorporate harmony in singing). The person  harmonising will, generally, sing/play the note E. You can try it with your instrument. This is called the 'third harmony' (since E is the third note on the C Major Scale) which is the most common one. However, it's not restricted; you can try other notes as well.

Try with a F instead of an E. That will give you the fourth harmony. Likewise, G will give the fifth harmony, A the sixth harmony and B the seventh harmony. And on a minor scale (C minor scale has notes C, D, Eb, F, G, Ab, Bb, C), for the third harmony, you'll have to go to the note Eb instead of an E. That is why it is important to know, first, the theory of the scales; second, the applicability in the song.

Choirs use different notes synchronously to create a mixture of harmonies. They have their separate group for bass, soprano, alto and tenor. Each group sings a different note; say, if bass is singing C, soprano will sing E, alto G and tenor an octave C. Of course, it is not exact; they can go for any note they want. The combination depends, but the theory is the same. In songs, however, mostly two harmonies are used. I think that much is enough to give a sufficient depth to the song.

Now we see how to make harmonies in a song. Here, we first identify the note from which the song starts (or the starting note from where you want to create the harmony). Say, it is, once again, C. Then, let's say, the note moves to D. The distance between C and D, on a C major scale, is one. So, if suppose we are doing the third harmony, the starting note will be E  Since D is a second note and comes immediately after C, the note corresponding D should also be the note immediately succeeding E, i.e. F. So if the song is going in a combination of C,D,C,D; the harmony will go in E,F,E,F. Or if you want the fourth harmony, it will go in F,G,F,G.

Let's see how it will work in this combination on a C Major scale:
C,D,F,A,B,C.
We take the third harmony, the most common one. It starts with F, and goes to G, as we saw above. Now, the third note is F, which is at a distance (or a quantitative interval) of four. So, the harmonic note corresponding F will be the fourth note from E, that is, A. Similarly, the next note is A, at a distance of six notes from C. So the harmony will be the sixth quantitative interval of E on the C Major scale, that is, C (an octave C is generally used, but is not necessary). The whole combination would look something like this:
E,F,A,C,D,E.

If you get the concepts right, it isn't that difficult. And the effect that the harmony gives to the overall music is totally magical. So, just get your instrument (real or virtual) and get on with it!

Why Musicians Ponder

Pondering is an act of sitting in silence and thinking of something deeply. A beautiful quote with an air of depth often makes us think how much the author had pondered over it. Everyone ponders at something at some moment in their lives, but often we see musicians, writers and artists doing the act along with the companionship of silence and solitude.

Of course, it seems natural for musicians to ponder; after all, they have to write or make something that touches their hearts, hoping it would touch the hearts of others as well. But it's not always what it seems. The simple act of just thinking about something awakens certain things, like memories or dreams. The very act of hitting a note or scratching on a piece of paper can denote the maker's feeling, intention, or sometimes even rationale.

Pondering asks for silence, for it means 'hearing' yourself. It's, certainly not impossible, but not very plausible to think over something in a noisy environment. That is why we don't see the 'ponderers' often - they're too busy finding answers within themselves.

Musicians particularly Ponder over a sad song, I've seen. There is a certain melancholy associated with silence, a congenial sadness. Perhaps it's because it is the sadness that teaches us where to go, and the teaching comes when we think over it. Songs often reflect what the musician was taught by her sadness, and people feel the lesson as they listen to it.

That's why some songs, particularly sad songs, are so soothing that we completely delve into it, and then cannot express what we feel. We feel the pain, but there is a beauty in that feeling. I've personally been a very big fan of Steven Wilson, because he apparently shares this view and makes beautiful sad music. There is a pleasure in the pain, an ecstasy in the way the maker has presented his melancholy that can't really be expressed.

The answer to 'Why Musicians Ponder' can be subjectively concluded that, it is because they want to integrate themselves in the process of learning. Everyone has their own way of learning things, and making music is one of them. And music is made by thinking over things and attaching anything you come up with inside to the 'outsides' of it.

A sincere thanks to all those musicians who have pondered enough to make beautiful songs where the sadness in it lead a lot of us to bliss, making us realise that sadness isn't really an opposite of happiness. Perhaps apathy is.

How To Keep Yourself Motivated While Playing An Instrument

'Motivation' - We hear this word quite often. And when he hear it, the first image that comes to our mind is a hidden force that helps us to achieve our objective. And it is. It is providing an incentive to ourselves or to others so that an outcome is achieved.

Like any other thing, music requires a lot of motivation as well. Music sounds fun, but people start getting bored after a while. Because aside from the fun factor, you need to improve as well. Many give up because they are not able to go further from a certain intermediate level. Sometimes there comes a time when you even start losing passion from what you're playing. This is the time to motivate yourself. And how do you do that? By giving yourself some incentives, so that a desire is play and improve is escalated.

But motivate yourself to do what? To just go and play? That doesn't require any motivation. You just take out your instrument, play some notes, and then keep it once you get bored. So the incentive is required for you to not get bored, or play and practice even you're getting bored. The objective is to improve. Improvement brings the passion anyway, if it's lost.

Enough with the talk. Let's get down to business. Here are some things that you can do in order to keep yourself motivated.

1. Keep the instrument at your sight. When you see your instrument again and again, you feel an urge to play. This is just a way to make you play your instrument constantly. What you do inside your "playing time" will actually determine how much you'll improve. One way to organise your practice time is to dichotomously divide your time into "technique building" and "fun time".

2. Watch videos of your idols constantly. Your idols are who motivated you to play your instrument in the first place, so frequently watch videos of your idols so that your dream to someday play at their level is not diminished or obscured. You can make new idols too if your music taste has deviated.
Many might think that this will further demotivate them as they'll think "He/she is so good while I am at a mere beginner level. I won't be able to reach that level." The thinking is justified, because you could not master some technique/riff/beat/lick that your idol was playing. However, you need to realise that once you've failed, you're one failure less to achieve your objective. Try and try and try, then look at your idol, then try again. You'll surely achieve it someday.

3. Before practice, think for a while about what you'll do or what you'll make out of that practice session. Will you focus on a specific technique, or will you focus on scales and arpeggios? Or will you just simply play anything and compose something? Although sometimes on the spur of the moment compositions are the best ones, but they come at infrequent times. And you could always make an improvisational plan to your composition during practice. Just like a day can be more satisfactory if it goes according to the way you've visualised it in the morning, a session can be much more productive if you earlier decide what you're going to do. This also helps in keeping you on track, and provides a platform to figure out where you're weak, and then gives an incentive to work on it.

4. End on an interesting point. Don't end a practice session when you've had too much of playing. Instead, end it when it is going very interesting, in an abrupt manner. This makes you keep on thinking about what you were doing, and eventually you'll land up with  your instrument very soon. But keep in mind not to leave when you're just about to master a technique - you might as well have to work all over it again which can be frustrating.

5. Look for lessons to master new things. Sometimes you might feel that you're not going anywhere, and just simply playing what you already know. However, you need to understand that a musician is like a cosmonaut - a cosmonaut is a 'sailor among the universe' and a musician is a 'sailor among music'. The universe is infinite, and so is music. There will always be something new to learn. YouTube and music related articles have made things easier. You can just search and you'll find an endless amount of new things that you didn't know. And the more you know and learn, the more you realise that you know nothing. So go over there, search some new lessons and get on with the music.

6. Cover every once in a while. Covering is another great way to learn new things that can be there in music. You get to know about varied positioning and also ways to use the notes. Don't aim for hard songs - cover simply what you love to hear. That will make playing more interesting. And since we're discussing on incentives, covering is a very good incentive to play as it challenges you in a frolicsome manner. Although hard songs can be covered for technique or timing improvement, but don't do it just for the sake of it. You need to feel a connection with the song that you're covering to make your cover worth it. However, don't cover too much of the same artist. Your music style might go very similar to that artist's, and you will end up as a copycat.

There is a well seen gap between pros and amateurs. It is because of the effort that each group puts into music. So let's try our best to build a bridge and move, steadily and with merriment, from the valley of the amateurs to the hills of the professionals.

5 Reasons Why You Should Attend A Music Concert

Loud music, a shouting crowd, a lucent stage and most importantly, amazing musicians - that's what a music concert is. It can be interpreted by different people in different ways. For some, it might be a stress releaser, while for some others, it might be a yet another place to party hard and have fun. But everyone will agree on one thing - if you like the musician/artist/band that is performing, you will have a good, or sometimes the best, time of your life.

Here are five reasons why you should attend a music concert:

1. It gives you a platform to scream your heart out. Unlike other places, a music concert is a place where shouting, making noise and screaming is encouraged. You can scream your heart out, especially remembering all the negativity or anything else that is bugging you inside, and you'll actually be asked to shout more. How cool is that!

2. It is a place where you don't become self conscious. In this world where people are judged by what they wear and what colour their skin is, a music concert offers an exception. It is one place where people are totally impervious and don't give a shit to how you are from the outside. And that is one of the most wonderful feeling you can have - to realise that no one gives a shit as to what you're wearing. And slowly you realise that even you yourself have become less judgemental, as you do not see people's clothing or colour or race or whatever. And when the time actually comes to dance or bang your heads to the groove, it doesn't even matter if you are a man or a woman. Everyone is equal, and everyone has a right to listen to what they love.

3. It offers you a chance to feel as a human, not separated by anything. In continuation with the second point, a concert is a place where everyone is treated equally, so you don't have to feel bad for being neglected because you're of a particular skin colour or you are a woman (or in some cases, man) or you belong to a particular caste, simply because you'll never experience it. You can feel totally as a citizen of the earth, where nothing separates us because we all are fellow human beings. You get to see what you rarely see these days - humanity. True, in metal concerts mosh pits are formed and people sometimes get injured, but it will be the fellow guys who unintentionally hurt him, help the person hurt later. I've even seen a concert where Trivium vocalist/guitarist Matt Heafy tells the crowd to make a circle pit, but also adds, "If anyone falls, you'll pick them up. No one will get hurt". I found this statement very warm and touching, coming from a metal band, who people usually regard as heartless or demonic.
And, one statement that touched the heart of every Indian was the one made by Dave Mustaine at Megadeth live in Kolkata - "I see no race or nation. Only metal".

4. It helps you to dream. When you're in a concert, you see the musicians playing, and dream to do the things you always wanted to do. I've never heard of any musician being one although he didn't want to. All musicians on the stage have worked a lot to reach there, and you can see that in the way the sing or play. This inspires us to dream like they did, and work hard to achieve those dreams. And especially if your dreams are aligned towards music, it gives you a sort of bonus point, because you actually imagine yourself playing on the stage, or managing the sounds, or whatever your dream is.

5. You get to know what is it like to be pulled.There are many things in life, in which we have to push ourselves. Pushing is good, but it's drawback is that you can push yourselves only up to a point. However, while attending a concert, you get pulled to shout and dance and bang your heads, by the musicians on the stage and the people alongside you. You get to know what is it like to be pulled by a certain force. We need to understand then when we find our true passion, we don't have to push ourselves towards achieving it, because it will pull you. And we get to understand what it feels like to be pulled in a concert.

A Musical Dichotomy

Music is extraneous to what you think and depends solely on what you feel - many believe this. However, this might be just a distortion of truth.

Afterall, what are feelings? I believe it is a specific kind of thought that has more impact on our mind. Something which, in a sense, is an intensified version of a certain thought. And what is based on what we sense.

So, is thinking necessary in music? Because, if you think, and by thinking I am attributing to "rationalism", then you won't be able to feel, which I am attributing to "emotions generated due to chemical reactions that occur due to a certain thought".

We all will agree that music lies in feeling, because that is when each note makes your heart thump with a certain emotion. If you just rationalise, you won't get music, because music isn't something like Mathematics (no offence to Maths, in face I really like math but all I mean to say here is that music and math are two different things).

However, music might lie in thinking as well. Say suppose you're learning to play an instrument, guitar (the most common one). You don't really feel each and every note when you are learning. Instead, you try to analyse how to move the finger, how to make your right and left hand go in sync, how to alternate upstrokes and downstrokes, and many more. This all requires rational thinking. And especially when you're dealing with sheet music, that also with varied time signatures, you're doomed if you are not paying attention to the counts and the notes.

So the conclusion might seem evident now. Music is also, like any other art, dichotomously divided into its "feeling" side and it's "technical" side. There must, therefore be an optimum combination of these two contrasting forces for your music to be in equilibrium (Oh, how I love economics).

Recently my English teacher was teaching us about two artificial divisions of speech - form and content. I didn't really get what he was trying to say, but the basic thing was that content has what you're trying to say and form shows how. In music, we could analogise this form and content with the technical  and the feeling side. Our feeling, the main reason why we're making a certain song (I'm talking from the viewpoint of composers) is the "content", while the techniques that we use for making that particular song, so that people can hear (sense) and feel it (like I said before, feeling arises out of a sense), is the " form". Both are distinct, yet both are required. And most importantly, both must be in balance.

Almost everyone, at the first levels of their composing, focus more on the technical side, to make their song more difficult. This invariably leads to an increased technique oriented but a very little flow oriented song. Because the song is expressing far too much than what you intended, if you had any intention at all.

However, after a certain level, we all tend to realise an important lesson, penned down most spectacularly by Leonardo da Vinci as "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication". True, when a song is simple, it becomes very easy to connect to. And it furthermore adds to what you're trying to say, or in other words the "content" becomes very much evident.

But what about the techniques then, that we've worked so hard to learn? True, a simple song is better, but simplicity should not reach an extreme level that it is in total excess of complexity. Like I said before, the forces must be in equilibrium. Combination of a good flow with simplistic articulations along with a few technical and complex hinges can make a song really soulful and interesting at the same time.

The ultimate conclusion is that, not only in music, but in every facet of life, the best results are achieved when two contrasting forces are in balance. So let us all lead our lives in the best possible ways we can, by balancing our cconrasting sides. And most of all, let's listen and make music having these totally different forces in balance.