Implied harmony, polyphony vs homophony, no chordal parts, etc

[CyberGene]

I've recently had to transcribe a Depeche Mode song for my amateur band. It's this song:

 

 

I'm new to playing this type of music and I might be discovering something pretty obvious but I was surprised to realize that despite hearing a pretty simple harmony (Bm Dm Gm Bb), there's actually no part that plays chords, e.g. no piano/synth/strings/pad. It's all determined by the bass and the separate synth parts that outline the harmony but it's mainly two-voice: a bass and the main synth part.

 

What is more, on a rehearsal I tried to play chords and it sounded cheesy 😀 Seems like there's more mystery when the harmony is not directly stated but left to the particular two-part arrangement. Besides, that synth part ends on the E note over the Gm and the Bb chords which introduces interesting color (I won't call these extensions since I believe it doesn't work in a functional way, it doesn't make it a Gm6 chord, or a Bb#4). Throughout the arrangement there are additional synth lines, for instance one that has some scale-like movements.

 

There are interesting consequences:

 

- Harmony is implicit (there are "missing" notes)

- Harmony is not stated instantly but rather "takes its time" due to the polyphonic nature of the various motives/arpeggios/sequences

- Harmony is vague since there are additional notes that can be thought of as either extension notes, or color notes

- Because of the horizontal movement, one can also feel that there is a progression within the main progression

 

In a way, it's a revelation for me, as a keyboard player (with a slight jazz background) I'm used to homophonic chords played on my keyboard, sometimes going into heavy two-hand voicing, with a lot of extensions but I am suddenly left to reconsider my entire keyboard approach. Apparently, the above song is not exactly a keyboardist song, nor is Depeche Mode the typical virtuoso keyboardist band (although Alan Wilder is a very fine keyboard player) but I started wondering:

 

Are we keyboardist blessed but also cursed with the ability to play chords? 😀

[Coker]

I think I read somewhere that chords (and symbols) were an invention after the fact to try to characterize the harmonies created by the melodies and harmonies played.  The composer here apparently had a sound in mind, but not necessarily chords that define the sound.  I hope this makes sense to someone.

[Tusker]

We could view it as a time travel back to the baroque era, when lines were so much more important than harmonic clothing.

 

Or we could use a food metaphor, and wonder if eliminating a favorite spice from our recipe will help enlarge other ideas. I am reminded of when Peter Gabriel and Robert Fripp said to their drummers (at roughly the same time?) "no cymbals or hi-hats on this album please". Ha!

 

In this song, I particularly love the single-note comping pattern which appears at about 1.25 with the voice. It's so simple, yet it changes everything.

 

 

[Stokely]

I've been working on doing this with both synths and orchestral stuff (using realistic libraries).   My "rock hack" habit is to grab a big two-fisted block chord using say a poly synth or string ensemble patch.  That's fine sometimes but I'm having fun doing the "chords" as single lines, it definitely is more work but it also can add a lot of movement and interest.  Plus you can have different sounds that also can add interest. 

 

Hilariously, it reminds me of 1981 when I first started playing in a band (not one of us could actually play, or read music).  This "band" started as a lip sync fake band for my friend's super 8 film project.  Anyway...  We were learning 60s stuff mostly (??? our "leader" was into the Beatles and Doors) and I didn't know what a chord was.  Here I am trying to play Light my Fire, 20th Century Fox etc and trying to pick out the keyboard parts with single notes, not realizing that often what I was hearing was *gasp* multiple notes playing at once.  No wonder it didn't sound quite right!

[CEB]

I think this is something that comes more natural to band and orchestra players.  I believe it helps a lot when the horn and string player have some piano background because I often find many fine players don’t even think of harmony without a semester of college music theory ( my oldest child).  They just concentrate on their own monophonic world.  
 

But a good big picture band/orchestral musician is all over this. 

[CyberGene]

10 minutes ago, CEB said:

I think this is something that comes more natural to band and orchestra players.

Now that you say that, I realize for the most of my life I've played solo piano and am too used to be my own band and doing everything, playing all notes. With jazz I started learning to play "rootless" and that was a huge issue for me for a while. I once had to play a synth solo without left hand backing and I failed miserably, I just can't solo without having the chord in my left hand!

 

And I guess with modern genres the notion of "keyboard player" changes even further. There's one video of Alan Wilder of Depeche Mode in the late 1980-s where he demonstrates how he plays multiple parts on a sampling keyboard, some of which are not even tuned, he would trigger FX and stuff.

[Old No7]

Interesting observation and discussions that followed.

 

I started on organ at age 8, but then played trumpet from 12 on through college, so I got all the "orchestral" experiences playing "one note" on trumpet in the concert, marching and jazz bands.  I think that's been helpful to my keyboard playing and compositions over the years.  And as I think it's relevant, regarding chords, I'll repeat a comment I recently made in the "Chord Structure..." posting from last week:

 

 

"How it actually sounds is far more important to me than how it should sound when viewed on a score/chart."

 

Old No7

[Theo Verelst]

"DM sound very cool, I don't, and I don't have the skillset to understand it myself. "

 

OK.

 

Most of this music is produced, and contains a lot of chords in the synth stabs, vocal arrangements, and drums (they're actually tuned). There's a lot of acoustics control in this music, which is hard, and they are not for nothing one of the worlds top bands, what they make is classically and blues-wise advanced harmonic structures.

 

TV

[AROIOS]

On 6/12/2024 at 3:01 AM, CyberGene said:

...I was surprised to realize that despite hearing a pretty simple harmony (Bm Dm Gm Bb), there's actually no part that plays chords...

😃 There's actually a prominent part that plays chords starting from 0:21, they are just arpeggiated.

 

On 6/12/2024 at 3:01 AM, CyberGene said:

...Are we keyboardist blessed but also cursed with the ability to play chords? 😀

Our harmonic senses as keyboard players are usually a harder skill/talent to acquire than sequencing some simple lines in the vid your posted.

To question that talent because of some harmonically anemic tunes from DM, is akin to being inspired by special Olympics athletes, and wondering if we should chop our legs off.

[CyberGene]

3 minutes ago, AROIOS said:

To question that talent because of some harmonically anemic tunes from DM, is akin to being inspired by special Olympics athletes, and wondering if we should chop our legs off.

 

I know where that comment comes from since I used to think the same way 😀 I was into different music back then. But I love everything about this DM song now, it's really clever in many ways.

 

But it's just one example I gave about something else I'm learning/discovering.

Here's another one that works in a similar way.

 

 

[AROIOS]

3 hours ago, CyberGene said:

...But I love everything about this DM song now, it's really clever in many ways.

Good for you, DM tunes bore the crap out of me. 😃
 

3 hours ago, CyberGene said:

Here's another one that works in a similar way.

 

I don't hear much similarity. The Massive Attack tune is slightly more harmonically interesting than the DM one, but still based on a run-of-the-mill Mixolydian pop/rock formula abused to death in the 80's/90's.

Btw, I might seem to fixate on "harmony" since that's what your title suggests. It's perfectly possible that you're touched by the "melody", "timbre", "articulation", lyrics" or even "visuals" of these tunes.

[Theo Verelst]

Talking about DM as generally harmonically easy begs the question: cover (a part of) their song to a believable degree of similarity, and I'll believe you.

[CyberGene]

4 hours ago, AROIOS said:

Btw, I might seem to fixate on "harmony" since that's what your title suggests. It's perfectly possible that you're touched by the "melody", "timbre", "articulation", lyrics" or even "visuals" of these tunes.

Yes, you are confused by my usual fascination with rich harmony (that we both share). 
 

Here it’s the opposite. The harmony is super simple, yet it’s difficult to make a convincing cover of the songs, as Theo points out too. Well, at least for me, as a keyboardist who’s too used to throwing complex chords on a piano/Rhodes patch and calling it a day 😀 Playing chords doesn’t work.

[AROIOS]

12 hours ago, CyberGene said:

...The harmony is super simple, yet it’s difficult to make a convincing cover of the songs, as Theo points out too.

You and Theo are conflating sound design and mixing techniques with "harmony".

Sound design and mixing techniques are of course important , but they are covered under the "timbre" element I mentioned above.

The confusion you both have is akin to loving the taste of a steak, and then marveling at the fine porcelain plate for creating that flavor. 😃

Also, I don't see why the band needs your talent/skills for a robotic tune like this. The bass player or the drummer could have sequenced all the chords themselves on an MPC and called it a day. Actually, the singer could have sequenced the bass and drum parts on an MPC too, and called it a day.

[cassdad]

Well, my take is that oftentimes the “chord” is “implied”, though not explicitly played.  Doing so provides much open “space” in the recording, so parts are not overlapping or doubling in the same sonic space.  Put another way:  Something I’ve always disliked in many bands that have both a guitar and keys is that, if they are both playing “chords”, they are stepping on each other, both trying to occupy the same sonic space.  Sometimes it enriches, but often, just drives the volume wars.  In my opinion - YMMV.

[analogika]

On 6/14/2024 at 3:45 AM, AROIOS said:

I don't hear much similarity. The Massive Attack tune is slightly more harmonically interesting than the DM one, but still based on a run-of-the-mill Mixolydian pop/rock formula abused to death in the 80's/90's.

 

There's a major 7 in there, and a minor 3. 

 

The melody constantly shifts between mixo and melodic minor. 

 

It feels a little weird to someone who loved Massive Attack to death throughout the 90s, to hear them called "formulaic pop/rock" — when the main reason we loved them was that they were anything but formulaic pop/rock… I do suppose Trip-Hop was more about the vibe than the song structure, though. 

[CyberGene]

1 hour ago, analogika said:

someone who loved Massive Attack to death throughout the 90s

I’m in that club too! They are the only band that I traveled abroad to be at their concert (outside of classical music). 
 

Apparently I don’t love them for chord progressions since on some of their songs there’s none 😀

[stoken6]

Did anyone say I-bVII-IV? I reckon if you speed/pitch that Massive Attack tune up by about 260% you could fit Sweet Home Alabama to it.

 

Cheers, Mike.

 

 

[AROIOS]

3 hours ago, stoken6 said:

Did anyone say I-bVII-IV? I reckon if you speed/pitch that Massive Attack tune up by about 260% you could fit Sweet Home Alabama to it.

 

Cheers, Mike.

 

 

Yup, that's the Mixolydian trope I mentioned, there's also "Sweet Child O'Mine" among dozens of others.

[AROIOS]

14 hours ago, analogika said:

There's a major 7 in there, and a minor 3. 

 

The melody constantly shifts between mixo and melodic minor...

The major 7 looks like an accidental to me. We can also simply see it as Ionian, before shifting to Mixolydian on bar 2.

The minor 3 is simply from A Ionian's parallel minor, A Aeolian. That bVI - bVII - I progression in chorus is another Rock/Pop trope played to death, which can be seen as VI from A Aeolian, VII from A Mixolydian, and Amaj from their parallel major (A Ionian).

This trick of mixing chords from parallel major, minor and mixolydian was quite common in old school Pop music, some might even view it as modal interchange. It's Interesting that you heard it as Melodic Minor, when A Melo. Minor's characteristic notes F# and G# aren't prominent in there.