Chromatic Harmony: Advanced Chord Progressions

Chromatic Harmony: Add Some Flava to Your Music

Chromatic harmony is how you can take your music to the next level.

If you are a music creator (producer, artist, composer, songwriter), and you already know how to craft melodies and build chord progressions in a key, but you want to add more flava, color, interest, just something more to your harmonies, then chromatic harmony is the next skill for you to explore.

What is Chromatic Harmony?

Chromatic harmony refers to chords that come from outside the key a passage of music is in. These come in different varieties: modal mixture, borrowed chords, secondary chords, pivot chords, and many more. Maybe you’ve even heard these terms and want to know what they mean.

Changing keys also falls under the umbrella of chromatic harmony, and there’s more than one way to change keys, all with different expressive effects!

You’ll Take Your Music to the Next Level

In the Chromatic Harmony: Advanced Chord Progressions ebook, you’ll not only learn advanced music theory concepts, you’ll also learn the emotional impact these concepts have on your listeners.

For instance:

What is the Difference in Emotional Impact Between a Common-Tone Modulation and a Pivot Chord Modulation?

Pivot chord modulations tend to be subtler, smoother ways to change keys, whereas common-tone modulations are dramatic and abrupt. They’re meant to signal a clear break in the music.

Often, they occur where a new section of the music is about to begin like a bridge or a B section.

Chromatic Harmony Can Be Confusing to Learn Without Context

That’s why I’ve put it all together for you in this ebook.

You’ll be able to compare four different ways of changing keys and explore the different effects of each, so you can pick the best one for your music.

You’ll see how making some chords stronger (tonicization) can give your music a sense of forward momentum.

You’ll have prompts to explore each concept in practice.

Chromatic Harmony is for You If You:

• Are a music lover who knows how to build chords and create basic chord progressions (Tonic, Pre-Dominant, Dominant, Tonic). If not, catch up with Chord Progressions: Cadences to Key Changes
• Can read sheet music or piano rolls easily
• Are an explorer. You’re up for a challenge, especially if it means you can connect with more people musically!

What's Inside?

Table of Contents:

Introduction 1

What, Exactly, is Chromaticism? 1

Roman Numeral and Figured Bass Review 2

Section 1: Secondary Chords 10

Section 2: Modulation I 30

Section 3: Modal Mixture 42

Section 4: Modulation II 56

Section 5: Other Important Chromatic Chords 71

Where to Go from Here 86

Acknowledgments 87

Examples of Possible Answers for Practice Exercises 88