Arrangement help...

I'm arranging a song where I only have the melody. I'm at a loss as to what to do, or how to arrange something. Three questions (please excuse my newbishness to arrangement)

 

1- The sheet music calls for Fmaj7, which I believe is FACE, no? The melody is playing a G... how do I work a G into an FMaj7 chord? I'm, of course, doing SATB voicings.

 

2- I'm trying to figure out what the difference is between, say, a FMaj7, and an F7. Anyone?

 

3- What exactly is a 7b9 chord? The ninth is flattened?

 

Thanks SO much in advance,

 

Biff

Arranging, so writing the chord progression? FMaj7.. is that the first chord?

 

1

so G is the 9th, what do you mean how do you work it into the chord? FMaj7 9? Sounds brazillianish to me, but kinda cool.

 

2

FMaj7 is FACE, F7 is FACEb. F7 is the dominant chord (the V) in the key of Bb.

 

3

yes, as in a minor 9th or minor 2nd. so for example in C7b9 the b9 is Db.

 

Does that help at all?

To go deeper into the 1st question:

 

If you're writing for SATB, and you want to retain the full character of the Major 9th chord, I would suggest omitting the 5th (the C). But there are so many ways to voice it and it would even depend what comes before and after it for you to choose the best notes to use.

Arranging, so writing the chord progression? FMaj7.. is that the first chord?

 

1

so G is the 9th, what do you mean how do you work it into the chord? FMaj7 9? Sounds brazillianish to me, but kinda cool.

 

2

FMaj7 is FACE, F7 is FACEb. F7 is the dominant chord (the V) in the key of Bb.

 

3

yes, as in a minor 9th or minor 2nd. so for example in C7b9 the b9 is Db.

 

Does that help at all?

 

1- Yeah, it's the first chord. Right above the first note (which is a G), it has 'FMaj 7' written. Thoughts?

 

Very much appreciated, David!

 

(P.S.- I'll be buying your book soon, and I don't even have Logic Studio yet)

I'm cheating a little - I had to pull a music theory book off my shelf.

 

1. If you're writing a 4-part arrangement and your Soprano line has to have the melody then you've got a FMaj9 chord. Which also means that you've still got to cover the harmonic functions 1 3 5 and 7. Try dropping the 3rd or the 5th and see how good it sounds to you.

 

If your melody is a separate part then you'd treat the G as a non-chord tone. Voice your SATB part as the FMaj7.

 

2. There are different 7th chords. I understand them as the following:

 

M7 - Major Seventh. A major chord with a Major 3rd between the 5th and the 7th. CEGB is a Major 7th chord.

 

Mm7 - Major Minor Seventh. A Major chord with a Minor 3rd between the 5th and 7th. GBDF is a Major Minor 7th chord.

 

m7 - Minor Seventh. A Minor chord with a minor 3rd between the 5th and the 7th. ACEG is a minor 7th chord.

 

ø7 - Half Diminished 7th. A diminished chord with a minor 3rd between the 5th and the 7th. BDFA is a Half Diminished 7th chord.

 

º7 - Fully Diminished 7th. A diminished chord with a diminished 3rd between the 5th and the 7th. BDFAb would be a fully diminished 7th chord.

 

I believe that F7 would be a dominant 7th chord - FACEb, which would make a dominant 7th another name for the Major Minor 7th.

Biff,

 

Just for the fun of it, why don't you post the first few chords and the beginning of the melody. It might give us more context for your questions -- and perhaps the good folks here would volunteer some alternate voice-leading ideas.

1- The sheet music calls for Fmaj7, which I believe is FACE, no? The melody is playing a G... how do I work a G into an FMaj7 chord? I'm, of course, doing SATB voicings.

 

The most used voicing is 1,3,7,9 for this so called Fmaj 9 chord.

It's very common to exclude the fifth tone in the chord while building 9-chords. There are several reasons for this:

1. The chord will hava a more "open" sound.
   
2. The fifth will not add that much characteristic to the chord (exception when using augmented or diminished fifth!!!) The 1 is the root. The 3 determines major or minor chord. The 7 determines a dominant chord or a maj 7 chord. Both of those are very important!
   
3. The second overtone is a fifth so you will often "hear" the fifth anyway in the overtone scale.

 

2- I'm trying to figure out what the difference is between, say, a FMaj7, and an F7. Anyone?

 

Maj7 is a major 7. the usual 7 is a really a flat 7.

 

3- What exactly is a 7b9 chord? The ninth is flattened?

 

That's right! Flat 7 and flat 9, IE the tones in let's say C would be C E Bb and Db (I excluded the Fifth).

Biff,

 

Just for the fun of it, why don't you post the first few chords and the beginning of the melody. It might give us more context for your questions -- and perhaps the good folks here would volunteer some alternate voice-leading ideas.

 

Will do, sir, when I can. I'm not on my regular computer right now, so I don't have access to any of it. What I will do is post an actual picture of the melody, as it's written out, and then my LSO file for how I've tried to arrange it.

 

As for the FMaj7 chord, I don't understand how, if it says FMaj7, the first note in the bar is a G (9th). What I tried doing is putting the chord in at another time (like the second or third beat in). Doesn't sound right.

The melody doesn't have to be the root note of the chord.

A tune can start on any degree of the scale,or indeed,any note not in the scale.

The F maj7 chord implies a particular tonality at that point,in this case F or C,since it can be constructed using exclusively notes in those keys.

The whole piece could be in any key,however,but we need more info!

 

An F7 is in Bb.The tritone between the 3rd and the 7th is found only in the scale which is subdominant to it : the 7th degree of Bb=A,and the 4th degree =Eb,ergo the key is Bb.

 

You don't have to use SATB,that's just a learning tool,or a specifically choral method.

There is no reason not to cluster the notes,or blow them apart.

A,C,E,F,G or F,A,E,C,G for ex. or parts thereof.

 

You've got me curious now...

The melody doesn't have to be the root note of the chord.

A tune can start on any degree of the scale,or indeed,any note not in the scale.

The F maj7 chord implies a particular tonality at that point,in this case F or C,since it can be constructed using exclusively notes in those keys.

The whole piece could be in any key,however,but we need more info!

 

An F7 is in Bb.The tritone between the 3rd and the 7th is found only in the scale which is subdominant to it : the 7th degree of Bb=A,and the 4th degree =Eb,ergo the key is Bb.

 

You don't have to use SATB,that's just a learning tool,or a specifically choral method.

There is no reason not to cluster the notes,or blow them apart.

A,C,E,F,G or F,A,E,C,G for ex. or parts thereof.

 

You've got me curious now...

 

 

I *do* have to use SATB for this project, however.

 

I'll get more info to everyone later tonight.

FMaj7 9? Sounds brazillianish to me, but kinda cool.

 

I guess you're thinking in "Girl from Ipanema"

FMaj7 9? Sounds brazillianish to me, but kinda cool.

 

I guess you're thinking in "Girl from Ipanema"

 

That is what the song is. I posted a question about how to do triplets in the score editor. Figured it out now.

8)

 

Is it for a choir then?

8)

 

Is it for a choir then?

 

No, not really. Our instructor just wants us to use the 4 SATB voices when arranging. He said we could put it under whatever instrument(s) we prefer.

Ah!

I was gonna offer to run off a quick version for ya,but that would be cheating!

Ah!

I was gonna offer to run off a quick version for ya,but that would be cheating!

 

Ah, no, I'm honestly not interested in cheating or anything, I'm just so totally baffled at this chord. I've worked through some more of it, and have only run into a few problems. I just really don't understand this one.

 

I must say, thought, that I really, truly appreciate any and all help. You guys are seriously awesome.

Middle 8 might make you scratch your head here and there.

Good luck!

http://www.robotcousin.com/images/Photo%20388.jpg

 

That's a picture (taken with the lovely iSight!) of the first bar. The rules are, I obviously have to go with that melody.

 

And below is my LSO file, so far. I haven't put that much in it, as I've been trying to write down my chords on staff paper first.

 

Ipanema.lso (control/right-click to save as, of course).

 

Again, I'm obviously not asking anyone to do this project for me, and I'd never expect that. Just looking for some guidance, because I can't for the life of me figure this out.

Depends on how you want to voice this, but here are a few ideas for the first 2 melody notes with the soprano singing melody...

 

1. Root on bottom - kind of a still sound (A,T,B could even sustain their notes)

S - G E

A - C C

T - A A

B - F F

 

2. Jazzy close voicing

S - G E

A - E C

T - C A

B - A F

 

3. Jazzy drop 2

S - G E

A - C A

T - A F

B - E C

 

4. Jazzy drop 2&4

S - G E

A - C A

T - E C

B - A F

 

Note that in #2,3,4 I'm leaving out the root when the 9th (G) is present. That's acceptable in jazz, but not always in classical. Though some classical theorists argue there is no such thing as a true Maj7 chord either.

 

Also note that some of the soprano and alto notes get a little low in their range in this key. If I was doing this for true SATB singers, I might put it in another key. But for a harmony assignment these should work fine.

Thanks a ton for the help, everyone! I've trudged through it and have finally finished it. I had to learn that the first note of a bar didn't always need to be accompanied by 3 more voices; they can come in later (like FMaj7 below an E, rather than the G). It sounds much better now and I'll try and post the results tomorrow. This whole experience got me quite used to both arranging, as well as using the Score editor.

I'm a little late for this I know. But if you aren't aware of it, voice leading is an easy and time honored way to move SATB voices around a melody or chord sequence.

 

If you are interested, I'll add more information than this.

 

Either way, here's a wikipedia entry for the concept you may find interesting:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_leading

 

It would be helpful for say, when you have the 7th in the bass (which I seem to recall you had at one point) for an easy and ear pleasing way to move that voice, with clear lines of resolution.