Episode 02 Summary

00:00 - Intro   01:00 - Defining Harmony (and Hominy)

• If a melody is a series of single notes, harmony refers to stacking simultaneous, different pitches.
• Different cultures have different approaches to harmony
• One example would be music that uses microtones - notes in between the keys of your piano
• Music exists that doesn’t use harmony

  5:05 - Origins of Harmony

• The earliest music we have a written record of is usually religious music
• Church music was regarded as pretty important and worth saving
• Clergy members were literate and able to write down and thus preserve their music
• Religious music had the function of conveying important text to churchgoers since singing is louder than speaking (especially when a choir is involved)
• The earliest music we have a record of is usually just one melody
• Note: “The Church” usually refers to the Catholic church in the middle ages
• The church did not necessarily invent musical techniques; they just wrote them down
• People began to add a second melodic line to create musical interest, and they had rules about how to do it in a way that sounded beautiful
• The rules evolve over time, and patterns emerge for what sounds pleasing: these combinations eventually become chords
• This takes centuries
• JS Bach’s music is kind of the “how to” manual of modern harmony

  13:02 - Modern Harmony

• a stack of different notes that support the melody
• Harmonic trends can change over time
• Individual cultures, composers, and listeners have preferences about harmony
• Different chords are thought to have different funcitons/tendencies
• One chord might pull towards another chord, and the ear won’t be satisfied until that next chord is reached
• Garrett uses the Simpsons Theme example and attempts to scare you with numbers
• Amanda uses a baseball diamond example
• Moving form chord to chord is called a chord progression

  15:36 - Triads

• A triad is three notes stacked on top of each other
• Any three notes can be a triad, but we’re mostly used to three notes located a “third” apart from each other.
• Most of the music people know is built in triads
• A genre that decorates the triads is Jazz.  Even your most basic chords have at least one “chord extension” - added notes that give extra flavor
• Genres known for: harmonic complexity include classical music (especially Romantic music and 20th century classical music).
• Pop and Rock have a reputation for being very harmonically simple, but it should really be treated on a case by case basis.

  18:41 - “Simple” Is Not an Insult!

• If the harmony serves its function, then that’s all it needs to do.
• Complex is not always good.
• Complicated things Garrett and/or Amanda like: Cars and engines, D&D
• Simple things Garrett and/or Amanda like: … a hot shower… and kayaking
• Don’t attach value to statements about complexity and simplicity
• Simple music can be every bit as great as complicated music
• "Horse With No Name" by America example
• When music is simple in one way, it tends to be complicated in another way
• Spaceship controls example

  22:40 - Games and Sports: A Harmonic Metaphor

• In terms of harmonic complexity, Classical music might be chess, whereas top 40 might be more like checkers
• The duration of each game differs, and one is thought to require more strategy than the other to play.
• In terms of complexity, maybe Romantic music is like basketball, whereas 12-tone music is like billiards.
• Basketball has strategies that anyone can become familiar with, and fans who have studied the sport can make fairly accurate predictions about where the game is heading.
• Similarly, Romantic music has recognizable themes and action because the pieces are often based on recognizable stories, mythology, paintings, etc.  Listeners can begin to predict where the piece is going to go.
• Billiards seems much more subtle, and most every day people don’t find it nearly as intuitive a game.
• Twelve tone music is similarly much more difficult for most listeners to process and feels very unfamiliar.  The enjoyment (or lack of it) comes from being surprised and recognizing that you don’t know what’s going to happen.
• What is the musical equivalent of curling?
• Garrett says it’s free jazz because he knows what the main objectives are, but he has no idea what role individual team members have or how their responsibilities really work.
• Amanda says free jazz is like racquetball because it looks very chaotic from the outside and the objective is less clear, especially if you’ve never played it before.
• Garrett defends racquetball to the death

  30:55 - Harmony: The Photoshop Effect

• Amanda recommends a YouTube video on harmony called “A Thing About Chords” by Louie Zong
• The video is two minutes long
• The creator of the video uses a photoshop metaphor: changing the chords under a melody is sort of like using effects in photoshop.  The composition of the image might stay the same, but the style of it and its mood can change a lot.
• The creator of the video demonstrates with a simple melody and many different chord progressions.

  32:12 - A Brief Interlude (without ads)   32:18 - Listening Recommendations… Almost!   33:13 - Two Common Usages of “Harmony"

• Garrett primarily thinks of harmony as vocalists harmonizing lines together
• Amanda primarily thinks of harmony as the overall chord progression
• These are each common usages of the word Harmony.
• The chord progression is kind of the noun form of harmony.  It’s the thing.
• “Harmonizing” is kind of the verb form of harmony.  It’s the act of doing it.

  Listening Recommendations:

• 35:09 - Amanda’s 1st rec: “What A Piece of Work is Man” from Hair, the American tribal love rock musical. (1967, but I’m gonna post the 2009 revival soundtrack)
• 39:15 - Garrett’s 1st rec: Symphony no. 3, movement 4 (The Organ Symphony) by Camille Saint-Saens (1886)
• 42:03 - Amanda’s 2nd rec: “Dirty Computer” by Janelle Monae (2018)
• 43:42 - Garrett’s 2nd rec: “Saturday in the Park” by Chicago (1972)
• 44:24 - Amanda’s 3rd rec: The 2nd movement of "Pines of Rome" by Ottorino Respighi (1924)
• 48:25 - Garrett’s 3rd rec: The entire band Fleet Foxes (cheating, obviously) but he recommends the song “Lorelai" (2011)

  50:02 - Some Back to School Advice!

• Our next episode will be on rhythm and meter.  If you have questions for us about either of those topics or anything else, please reach out to us about them on:
  • Instagram: @uptoyourearspodcast
  • Twitter: @uptoyourears
  • via email: uptoyourearspodcast@gmail.com
• Since many of our listeners are headed back to school, here’s some back to school advice for you.
• 51:05 - Garrett tries to convince us that writing research papers is fun and outlines a great method for making your papers better, faster, stronger, (not harder).  (Hint: it’s all about the annotated bibliography)
• 53:53 - Part 1 of Amanda’s advice: stop fighting your teacher’s suggestions!  Take them, and if you think you’re already taking them, try taking them again.  Your teacher isn’t necessarily the leading expert on everything, but they’re knowledgeable enough to give helpful suggestions.
• 56:12 - Part 2 of Amanda’s advice: try to go an entire semester without making excuses when you’re given constructive criticism or even called out by someone.  This has been really helpful for Amanda as a musician.

  57:49 - Sign Off

• Thanks for listening!  Please tune in for episode 3
• If you liked this podcast, please like, share, review, tell your friends, etc.
• Remember that there is a playlist associated with this episode of the podcast, so you can access all of our listening recommendations in one place.

  Episode 02 Spotify Playlist    Special thanks to OpenMusicRevolution.com for our intro and outro music and to the guys at Better Podcasting for being such great guides to us.  Special thanks to you, our listeners, too!   Visit our Website!   Follow us on social media! Instagram: @uptoyourearspodcast    Twitter @uptoyourears    Email us! uptoyourearspodcast@gmail.com