It is also important to note that the character of a chord is strongly depen-
dent upon its surroundings. For example, a dark and dissonant chord like a
minor 7, flat 5 sounds dark and dissonant when out there on its own, but if
used to pass from one chord to another, it doesn’t have the same feeling
(Figures 10-14 and 10-15).Putting Chords Together .............................................................................
Once you have decided on a chord progression for a section of your piece,
you might find it useful to experiment with different chord voicings, or all the
different ways the same chord can be put together. A simple triad(a chord
with three different pitches in it) has three different arrangements of its notes
within an octave.A chord’s voicing can be arranged in the following ways:Root voicing has the root as the lowest note: C (root), E, G
First inversion: E, C, GSecond inversion, G, C, E&
b
b
4
4
̇
̇
̇
̇
b ̇ ̇
̇
Cm7/b F
w
w
w
Figure 10-15: Bb
A dissonant
chord
moving into
a major
chord.&4
4
w
w
w
w
b
b
b
Cm7/b 5
Figure 10-14:
A dissonant
chord all on
its own.110 Part III: Harmony and Structure