Lesson video

Hello and welcome to today's music lesson.

I'm Miss Mansell and I'm gonna be your teacher for today.

Let's get started.

Today's lesson outcome is I can develop a film theme using pedals and dissonance.

Let's look at some keywords for today's lesson, pedal, a bass note that stays the same while the chords change above it.

Tonic, the home note of a key, which a key is named after.

For example, the note C in C major.

Dissonance, when notes clash with each other.

Consonance or consonant, when notes create pleasant harmony with each other.

Today's lesson on using harmonic devices in film music is in two parts.

Part one is on developing a motif with pedals, and part two is on developing a motif with dissonance.

Let's get started with part one, developing a motif with pedals.

Bass lines typically follow the root notes of each chord, changing when the chords change.

A pedal is a type of harmonic device in which the bass note stays the same while the chords change above it.

Can you identify which one of these clips uses a pedal? Have a listen to both clips.

(bright upbeat music) (bright upbeat music continues) Which did you think? It was the second clip that uses a pedal.

A pedal often repeats the tonic note of the key.

Note, it doesn't always have to be the tonic, it's just often the tonic.

It could also be a fifth, for example.

In this example, the key is C major, so the bass note stays on the note C while the chords change above.

Have a listen.

(bright upbeat music) This example also uses a tonic pedal, this time in the key of G minor.

Have a listen to this one.

(bright upbeat music) A pedal is useful for creating tension or changing the mood.

This is because pedals create dissonance when notes clash with each other.

Dissonance feels tense and like it needs to resolve.

This pedal example helps to create tension.

Here you need to find a piece of music by Bernard Hermann.

Did you hear the tension? That's from "Vertigo." We are going to add a pedal to our leitmotif.

Remember that we re-harmonize this leitmotif either in C major or A minor.

So have a listen again to our leitmotif.

(bright ethereal music) Start by identifying the tonic note.

In this minor key example, the tonic is A, in the major key example, the tonic is C.

Watch this video about how to add a pedal in the bass.

<v Instructor>Adding a pedal is a really simple process.

</v> I've got my four-note leitmotif, and I've also got my chords here.

In this case, I've re-harmonized it into A minor from the original in C major.

Let's just have a quick listen and see what these sound like.

(bright piano music) (metronome ticking) So that's an A minor, and that means that our tonic note is the note A.

If you've kept it in a major key, in C major, then your tonic note is gonna be the note C.

So bear that in mind when you're doing this task.

I've now added a third track, and for this I'm gonna want to use something that can play low pitched bass notes.

I'm gonna use a piano to match with my other parts, but you could use a different bass instrument if you want.

I'm gonna find that tonic note, in this case, A, I'm gonna play it nice and low.

I could play it in octave lower if I wanted.

Either of those is fine, and I'm gonna record it underneath those other parts, repeating that A, even when the codes change, here we go.

(metronome ticking) (bright piano music) So I played that same tonic note, that A throughout, even though the chords change, and that creates some real dissonance between the bass notes and the chords.

Now there I've played the exact same rhythm in the bass notes that I have in the chords.

However, I could use a different rhythm if I wanted.

The key is that I'm not changing pitch.

Instead I'm staying on that same note.

So I'm gonna show you at this time with a different rhythm recorded in the pedal.

(metronome ticking) (bright piano music) So there I've had a more interesting rhythm, mostly based on quavers, and that adds a little bit of interest, but still stays on that tonic pitch, and that's how we create a little bit of tension and dissonance by using a tonic pedal.

<v ->Remember, a pedal does not have to be one,</v> long sustained note, it can have an interesting rhythm that keeps the same pitch.

Let's do a check for understanding, what is the name for the home note in a key.

Is it A, tonal, B, tonic, C, topic, or D, tidal? Which word is it? Well done if you said B.

The tonic is the name for the home note in a key.

What is a pedal? Is it A, when the chords stay the same but the bass notes change, B, when the bass notes stay the same, but the chords change, C, when both the bass notes and chords change, or D, when both the bass notes and chords stay the same, which of those is a pedal? I hope you said B.

A pedal is when the bass notes stay the same, but the chords change.

Let's have a look at task A.

We want you to develop your re-harmonized leitmotif by adding a tonic pedal.

The success criteria for this is add a bass track and record in the tonic note underneath the chord sequence.

So you re-harmonized it in A minor, you need to use the note, A, and if you re-harmonized it in C major, you need to use the note, C, pause the video and have a go at adding a tonic pedal to your leitmotif.

Which of these examples correctly uses a pedal? Justify your answer.

Have a listen to A.

(ethereal synthesizer music) B.

(ethereal synthesizer music) And C.

(ethereal synthesizer music) What did you think? The answer was C.

We know the example C uses a pedal because the lowest, the bass note, stays the same throughout the whole clip.

Let's move on to part two of our lesson, developing a motif with dissonance.

Dissonance is another powerful tool for creating tension in film music.

Compare these two versions of the same melody.

The first is consonant, the notes of the chord sound pleasant together, have a listen to that version.

(ethereal synthesizer music) And the second is dissonant.

The notes clash and create tension.

So have a listen to that version.

(ethereal synthesizer music) We can re-harmonize a consonant melody with dissonant harmony to add tension and drama to it.

To add dissonance, we can use chords that have adjacent notes.

That means notes next to each other on the instrument.

You can watch the video to see how to do that.

<v Instructor>Adjacent notes is a really effective way</v> to create tension through dissonance.

Adjacent notes are just notes that are next to each other on an instrument.

So if we take C and D, those two are adjacent we can see they're next to each other touching each other.

In most of the chords that we've learned so far, the more basic chords, such as a triad chord, we don't use adjacent notes we can see there are gaps in between those three notes we don't use either of those there.

However, if we add one of those notes so that the notes are adjacent it creates a bit of dissonance and a bit of tension.

So we can see there I've added that note there and that creates that classy dissonant tension.

And I can do the same with any chord so I can just make up a chord that uses some notes that are next to each other that touch each other on the instrument so if I take for example E and F and I could add a couple notes to that, (dissonant piano music) that's quite a dissonant chord.

I could even use more than four notes.

I could also add that one.

(dissonant piano music) It's a very dissonant, very classy chord with lots of adjacent notes that are touching each other there.

So using those kind of chords we can really add lots of dissonance and tension to our harmony.

Let's look at how we could use that for this leitmotif.

So I've deleted my cords and my pedal, and I'm left with just the four-note leitmotif.

(bright piano music) Let's take each note in turn, and I'm gonna add a dissonant cord underneath it.

So the first note is C, and I'm gonna make up a chord that goes underneath that with some adjacent notes.

So I might use, for example, D and E, and I can add G as well.

That's my first chord.

My second melody note, I've got D, and I'm gonna do the same thing.

So it's create a cord underneath that clashes, I can maybe use E and F and B.

(dissonant piano music) So so far I've got, (dissonant piano music) there's lots of dissonance and lots of tension there.

(dissonant piano music) My third melody note, I'm gonna use the note F so I can use the same process, clash some notes underneath it by using adjacent notes.

(dissonant piano music) You can see that I've used five notes.

That works quite well.

And then for my final melody note E, I can do the same thing as well.

(dissonant piano music) So by doing that for each note, I can then record in a chord sequence that uses those dissonant chords.

And I'm gonna record those in in my chord track in my second track.

So I'm gonna record those now.

(metronome ticking) (dissonant piano music) That's got some great dissonance and tension in my harmony by using adjacent notes.

<v ->We can use some chromatic notes,</v> so watch the video to see the example of that.

<v Instructor>We can also follow the same process,</v> but this time use chromatic notes, which in this case are gonna be black notes.

That's the notes that come from outside of our key.

And these chords are gonna really start sounding really dissonant and tense now because of the addition of the chromatic notes as well.

So we follow the same process.

My first melody note is C, and this time I'm gonna build a chord that has some adjacent notes next to each other, but also a mixture of white and black notes.

So I could do something like this, (dissonant piano music) got that F sharp in there.

It's a very tense, dissonant chord.

I could do the same with my next melody note, D.

(dissonant piano music) Again, adjacent notes and black notes.

Third chord, F is my melody note, (dissonant piano music) two black notes and an adjacent note there.

And then my final melody note is E, same thing, (dissonant piano music) mixture of white and black notes.

So I'm gonna record now in those cords in my cord track.

(metronome ticking) (dissonant piano music) And we can hear there that really starts sounding dissonant, really tense, really quite unusual.

And for certain film scenes or certain film settings, that'll be exactly the kind of harmony I'd want to use with this leitmotif.

<v ->And we can combine those with a tonic pedal.

</v> So watch the video to see how to do that.

<v Instructor>Now that I've recorded in</v> those really dissonant chords, the use of chromatic black notes and adjacent notes, I can add even more tension if I want by adding a pedal underneath.

For this, I'm gonna try using A as a pedal, but experiment with using either A or C and see which one works most effectively for your chords it will vary depending on the chords you've used.

Remember, a pedal needs to be low-pitched and it's gonna go well underneath your chords and your melody.

So I found my A right down here.

I'm gonna record that in underneath these dissonant chords.

Here we go.

(metronome ticking) (dissonant piano music) So we can hear there, that adds even more clashing and even more tension and dissonance to that leitmotif.

So by following those steps, by using adjacent notes, chromatic notes, and also considering using a pedal, I've turned that quite simple, what was originally quite pleasant-sounding leitmotif into something really tense and quite dark.

<v ->Let's do a check for understanding,</v> which of these chords is dissonant? Have a listen to A, (ethereal synthesizer music) B, (ethereal synthesizer music) and C, (ethereal synthesizer music) which do you think, you should have said B.

And which of these chord is dissonant? Have a look at the chords on the screen.

Is it chord A, B, or C? Hope you got chord C.

A is obviously a C major chord, B, an E major chord, and C has a lot of notes in it.

So I hope you realize that that was the dissonant chord.

Let's do task B.

We want to develop your leitmotif with dissonance.

So the steps for that are going to be: create a different chord sequence for the melody using the melody notes in each chord, you should use adjacent notes in those chords to create clashes.

You should consider using some chromatic notes, in this case, that's gonna be the black notes, and also consider using a tonic pedal.

Here's a reminder of the leitmotif.

So pause the video and have a go at task B.

Hope you got on well with that.

How has this composer re-harmonized the leitmotif? What features have they used? Have a listen.

(ethereal synthesizer music) You could have said something like, they've started with a minor chord, then added lots of dissonance by using extended chords and chromatic notes, there is no pedal.

Let's summarize today's lesson on using harmonic devices in film music.

Harmonic devices such as pedals and dissonance are very useful tools for film composers.

Pedals, usually on the tonic note, create tension by creating clashes between the bass notes and chords.

Dissonant chords, which often feature adjacent notes or chromatic notes also create tension and excitement.

We can re-harmonize a consonant melody with dissonant harmony to develop it and add tension.

I hope you've enjoyed today's lesson.