Unit 5 · 4 lessons
Four-Part Writing
Ranges, spacing and doubling, forbidden parallels, chord connection, and realising a figured bass.
Goal of this unit
Harmonise a given bass in four parts and find the errors in your own writing.
Prerequisites
Lessons
- 1
Four-Part Writing - Ranges, Spacing, and Doubling
about 16 minHow a chord gets distributed across four voices. How high and low each part may go, how far apart adjacent voices may sit, and which note of a three-note triad gets played twice. Those three questions are the foundation of part-writing.
Tools used in this lesson: SATB Part-Writing Checker
- 2
Forbidden Parallels - Fifths and Octaves
about 16 minThe most strictly avoided motion in classical harmony is parallel perfect fifths and octaves. Rather than memorizing the rule, this lesson plays the examples first so you can hear a voice disappearing.
Tools used in this lesson: SATB Part-Writing Checker
- 3
A Procedure for Connecting Chords
about 16 minRather than hunting for forbidden parallels after the fact, learn to write so they never arise. Simply deciding the bass, then the soprano, then the inner voices, in that order, avoids most errors automatically.
Tools used in this lesson: SATB Part-Writing Checker
- 4
Realizing a Figured Bass
about 17 minAn exercise in which only the bass line and its figures are given, and the four-part texture is built from them. It reconstructs, step by step, what a Baroque continuo player did on the spot.
Tools used in this lesson: SATB Part-Writing Checker / Inversion & Figured Bass Trainer