Appoggiaturas In Music: What Are They?

Listen to my podcast on appoggiaturas here:

Here is the transcript if you would like to follow along:

Good morning, this is Duane and this is more good stuff you really ought to know. There’s so many things in music that you really need to know because it’ll add to the enjoyment, and the excitement of playing. Appoggiaturas are one of those thousands, there’s thousands of things we need to know, and appoggiaturas in music are just one of many. Appoggiatura by the way is one of the non-harmonic tones.

Maybe we ought to start by defining what a harmonic tone is. A harmonic tone is a member of a chord. Whatever chord’s in force at a given moment in a song, that’s the harmony, isn’t it? In other words, let’s say that the chord you’re playing in the song is F minor 7, well if somebody sings this [Piano playing] or that, they’re out of tune, aren’t they? We say, “Man he’s off, he’s flat, he’s sharp; she’s out of tune, she’s not with the harmony,” right? She’s non-harmonic, okay? So any note that’s not in that chord is a non-harmonic tone.

There’s several kinds of non-harmonic tones as you know, there’s passing tones [Piano playing] which are the most frequent I think, and there’s neighboring tones where you go next door to a neighbor then come back, and there’s suspensions where the fourth takes the place of the third. There’s anticipations, and then there’s appoggiaturas, okay?

Appoggiatura is a non-harmonic tone which happens on a strong beat of a measure. The classic appoggiatura is Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story Maria. [Piano playing] Maria, that’s a strong beat isn’t it? You know what note that is? That’s F-sharp. You know what chord it is? C. Does F-sharp go in the C chord? Hardly, it’s about the worst [Piano playing] note to go on the C chord, but of course Leonard Bernstein wove it in very skillfully, okay? Why would he do that? Why would he play a non-harmonic tone like that, and then resolve it? Because it builds up tension. You see, a non-harmonic tone like appoggiatura builds up tension, and then that tension is relaxed.

If you think about it, all of music is a battle between tension and relaxation. Have you ever thought of it that way? Next time you listen to a piece of music, think about that. The music may start calm, and then it builds up to climax, and then it relaxes. Or phrases do that, [Sings and laughs]. You get the idea, right? All of music in terms of dynamics, in terms of tempo, whatever, is a battle between tension and relaxation.

If we have all of relaxation, if it’s all super relaxed, what do we have? Boredom, I mean it’s good music to sleep by, right? But it’s boring. If we have all tension, what do we have? Craziness, I mean it’s like overthrowing society, I mean it’s too much, right? But we need a balance of tension and relaxation; and appoggiatura is a good way to do it.

There’s two reasons you should know that, one: when you see written music, you should know what that’s doing there and why it might be there. But secondly, in your own creations you’re arranging your improvisation; you can use appoggiaturas on purpose. You can go to a non-harmonic tone, and then resolve it, okay?

Let me give you an example. [Piano playing] You heard a lot of appoggiaturas there. When I went like this, [Piano playing] See? That’s an appoggiatura because it relaxes into a harmonic tone, it resolves into a harmonic tone. [Piano playing] I don’t think those are very good examples, but you can hear non-harmonic terms and then they dissolve into harmonic tones.

Okay, well that’s just one of thousands of good stuff you really ought to know. So file it away, you might be able to use it some time. We’ll see you next month, bye-bye for now.

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