Compendium of Chords for the Viola

By Benjamin Whitcomb

There are many resources for practicing scales and arpeggios on the viola, but extremely few for practicing chords. Understanding chords on the viola can be a very useful skill for violists for a variety of reasons; the most obvious of which is that chords appear a significant number of times in the viola repertoire. In addition, understanding chords:

helps you to think harmonically,
helps you to better analyze music,
improves your ability to sight read and to play arpeggios and double stops,
helps the fingers of your left hand to work better together as a team, and
facilitates composition and improvisation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Mar 29, 2018
• ISBN: 9781546230700

Benjamin Whitcomb

Benjamin Whitcomb, cellist Benjamin Whitcomb is a Professor of Cello and Music Theory at the University of Wisconsin- Whitewater, where he has received awards for his teaching, research, and service. An active recitalist and chamber musician, he performs more than thirty concerts a year around the country and overseas. He is a member of the Ancora String Quartet and the UW-Whitewater Piano Trio. Dr. Whitcomb is a frequent guest clinician and performer at universities and conferences throughout the country and abroad. His books, The Advancing Cellists Handbook series, Cello Fingerings, and Bass Fingerings, have received rave reviews from Strings magazine plus the journals of ASTA and AUSTA. He is a contributing author to Strings magazine, Sharpen Your String Technique and Teaching Music through Performance in Orchestra. He has published numerous articles on cello and on music theory, and has presented many papers at national and international conferences as well. He is also a reviewer for the American String Teacher journal, and has served as Secretary of ASTA. At UW-Whitewater, Whitcomb initiated and continues to coordinate the Theory/History Colloquium speaker series, the Musical Mosaics Faculty Concert Series, the Chancellors Quartet program, and the Summer String Camp. He is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and Oklahoma State University, and he has studied with Phyllis Young, George Neikrug, and Evan Tonsing.

Book preview

Contents

Introduction

Preliminaries

Double-, triple-, or quadruple-stop chords?

Triads and their inversions

Ways to play chords on the viola

Part 1: Types of Chords

Major triads

Inverted chords

Minor triads

Diminished chords

Augmented triads

Dominant seventh chords

Introduction to chord progressions

Pattern of chord qualities

The rule of the octave

The circle of fifths

The circle of thirds

Chord progressions with suspensions

Part 2: The basic chord progressions in all keys

C major and minor

Db major

C# major and minor

D major and minor

Eb major and minor

D# minor

E major and minor

F major and minor

Gb major

F# major and minor

G major and minor

Ab major and minor

G# minor

A major and minor

Bb major and minor

A# minor

Cb major

B major and minor

Part 3: Further Applications

Double stops as chord progressions

High registers

Modulation

Quiz

Bibliography

Biography

Acknowledgments

There are many people who helped me write this book, whether they realize it or not. First of all, I would never have been able to have written a book such as this without my primary cello teachers, Monty Lawson, Evan Tonsing, George Neikrug, and Phyllis Young.

I am extremely grateful for the useful suggestions and advice from the people who helped review this work, including Anne Witt, Tess Remy-Schumacher, Linda Jennings, Leanne League, Rebecca MacLeod, and Laurie Scott. I would also like to thank my parents, Carl and LaJean Whitcomb, my sons, Spencer and Preston, and my wife Pamela, for everything.

Introduction

There are many resources for practicing scales and arpeggios on the viola, but extremely few for practicing chords. Understanding chords on the viola can be a very useful skill for a variety of reasons, the most obvious of which is that chords appear a significant number of times in the viola repertoire. In addition, understanding chords:

• helps you to think harmonically

• helps you to better analyze music

• improves your ability to sight read and to play arpeggios and double stops

• helps the fingers of your left hand to work better together as a team

• facilitates composition and improvisation

Let us look at each of these reasons in turn.

Understanding chords helps you to think harmonically.

The harmonic component of music follows various rules (i.e.,