Non-Harmonic Tones Add Color And Interest To a Song

Grace notes and passing tones are non-harmonic tones – not part of the chords.

Here is the video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUS0oZG6V44&feature=youtu.be

Good morning. This is Duane, and we’ve been doing a series called, “Good Stuff You Really Ought to Know About Music” that has to do with music theory. One thing you really need to know about music is that there are passing tones, and there are grace notes. They’re called non-harmonic tones because they’re not a member of the chord that’s in force at the moment. So we have two subjects today, passing tones and grace notes. A passing tone is a tone that passes through an non-harmonic tone from one harmonic tone to the other. For example, if I go like this, that D is a passing tone. I could also do this. You’ve heard that sort of thing. Also you could do this. You can pass through more than one note. You can play a whole series like that. They’re usually undernotes, they’re usually under the melody, and you can do them both hands, of course. A passing tone is a note that passes between two chord notes. A grace note is simply a note that’s played very shortly before the main note. If I go like this. Hear that, that’s a grace note. I graced off that note. That’s the main note, but I’m sliding off that to get to there. I might do a half step.

Now when you use grace notes you got to be careful to not use too many. I used too many in there, but I’m just illustrating what a grace note is. You glance either a whole step above the note or below the note or a half step. It can be either one, so those are grace notes, whereas, passing tones are what? They’re tones that pass through the melody, usually as an undertone, not as part of the melody. Just two non-harmonic tones you ought to know about, grace notes and passing tones. That’s it for today. If you enjoy this kind of thing, come on over to playpiano.com and sign up for a whole series of free piano tips. I hope to see you there. Bye-bye for now.

***For lots more good stuff on piano playing come on over to my website at https://www.playpiano.com and sign up for our free piano tips – “Exciting Piano Chords & Sizzling Chord Progressions!”

Here’s a great little book on chords and chord progressions on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Piano-Chords-Chord-Progressions-Exciting-ebook/dp/B0076OUGDE/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404158669&sr=1-1&keywords=piano+chords+duane+shinn

Here is the video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUS0oZG6V44&feature=youtu.be

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