A loop that refuses to flow
Imagine: you have picked four chords that fit neatly in your key. Yet the loop sounds stiff. Every chord change feels like a block being set down, and the whole does not move. You try different chords, and different ones again, but the problem stays. That is no coincidence: the problem is probably not in which chords you play, but in how you stack them and when they change. Those are exactly the two levers this chapter teaches you to operate.
What you learn in this chapter
- You build and name triads and seventh chords on every root, in major and minor.
- You use inversions and voice leading to make progressions flow without replacing a single chord.
- You use harmonic rhythm to steer the energy of a section.
- You recognize tension, resolution and the four basic cadences by ear.
- You add non-diatonic color with borrowed chords and secondary dominants.
Prior knowledge
Chapter 10 (scales, intervals and tonal centers) is recommended but not required. The concepts you need, such as semitones and thirds, are briefly reviewed at the moment you use them. If you are missing something, look it up in the free intro lessons of the earlier modules.
The core idea up front
Harmony has three dimensions. The first is selection: which chords you choose. The second is voicing: how you stack and distribute the notes of those chords. The third is harmonic rhythm: when and how often the chords change. Beginning producers spend almost all their attention on the first dimension, while most of the audible gains sit in the second and third. The same four chords can sound jumpy or fluid, static or driving, depending on choices that have nothing to do with the chord names. In the next lessons you build this up from building blocks to motion: first you learn to build chords, then you learn to connect them, after that you learn to place them in time, and finally you give them color from outside the key.