Day Six: Internalizing Chords

Build beautiful chord progressions, and then sing them.

This post is part of 14 Days of Harmony, a free course for musicians who want to deepen their understanding of harmony, and learn how to develop their connection with sound as a result. You can view the entire course here.

Some Perspective on the Tradition of Harmony

We've experienced that a single tone is only useful in a musical context when it forms an interval with another tone. Similarly, a chord is only useful musically when it forms a chord-connection with another group of tones. We see yet again that musical tension is created by juxtaposing two units. During a chord connection, three forces are brought to life within us: the rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic.

Rhythmic. Rhythm, this "all-pervading" element of music, is active each time you sing an interval or play a series of chords. It is impossible to ignore harmonic rhythm. The first sound, and the movement that it creates within us, is connected to each consequent sound as they unfold in time. This fact is part of the life of e…