Mister A.J.

I saw the term 'Chromatic Harmony' a few days ago, and it got me thinking; what exactly is chromatic harmony, and how does it differ from diatonic harmony? Is it just chords played chromatically, or does it have it's own system?

Also, any examples of it played would be great. Thanks you all.

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Carvin CT7
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griffRG7321

Chromatic harmony at a basic level refers to use of diminished 7ths, neapolitan 6ths and augmented 6ths.

As a whole it refers to any use of chromaticism, secondary dominants, altered chords, borrowed chords etc etc

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Xiaoxi

Chromatic harmony is just harmony that contain notes outside of the 7 diatonic tones. So for example, D7 (as a V/V) in the key of C major is considered chromatic harmony because it has an F# as a leading tone to G (root of V).

So in practice, a lot of music has chromatic harmony, ranging from simple secondary dominants or a minor iv in a major key in pop music...to this:

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Nelsean attempting to pronounce my name lol

I got Last.fm. Don't know why...

primusfan

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Mister A.J.

Oh, okay. That makes a lot more sense now. Thank you much kind sir!



Oooh, that sounds really cool. Makes the spine tingle a lot bit.

So, going from that definition, parts of this piece would be chromatic harmony because a lot of the chords are not diatonic, yah?

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macashmack

I like using the II or a bvii in an major key because then i can hit the augmented fourth and the minor seventh which are my favorite when mixed into a major key

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Xiaoxi

Most classical music have very high degree of chromatic harmony. But it's not like a thing where a composer goes "ooh now I'm gonna break out the chromatic harmony w0oo0o0o000ooo0o0oo0o." It's just inherent in the voiceleading and counterpoint language.

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Modes and scales are dumb and useless. Stop learning them. No, seriously.

Analyzing Brahms: Insights to Help Us Improve Our Music

Nelsean attempting to pronounce my name lol

I got Last.fm. Don't know why...

Mister A.J.

Sounds pretty tasty. By 'pretty tasty,' I of course mean delicious. :P



Just for safety reasons, I'm going to make the assumption at least one person has broken out the 'w0oo0o0o000ooo0o0oo0o, chromatic harmony! ' card at some point or another in history.

Thanks for your help once again!

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Carvin CT7
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AeolianWolf

here i am!

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