The final installment in our series of tips on how to get your band ready to make a television appearance.
In the ninth TV performance tech tip, we discussed the type of music that is appropriate for playing behind entrances and exits (host and guests). To reiterate, short, up-tempo phrases, or turnarounds are the most effective for maintaining the energy of the show as well as providing a means of quick, natural-sounding endings. But let's say you're playing a longer chord progression and the host wants to cue an abrupt end synchronized with a physical gesture (like Conan O'Brien does). How do you end the phrase in the middle without sounding like you just unplugged your gear? The answer lies in music theory; the tonic/dominant relationship. This relationship defines a key or tonal center. To explain, in diatonic music, each scale degree can be categorized as either active or resting. Scale degrees are called active when they imply a sense of movement. For example, the fourth scale degree (active) tends to resolve down to the third scale degree, a resting tone. The seventh scale degree (active), also called the leading tone, always wants to resolve to scale degree one. Interestingly enough, the fifth scale degree can move upward or downward by step, but its strongest impulse is to move to scale degree one. In harmony, the triad built on scale degree five is called the dominant triad, which always wants to resolve to the tonic triad built on scale degree one. The reason for this is that the dominant triad has three active tones, two of which want to resolve to the tonic. For example, in the key of C major, the dominant triad G major is comprised of scale degrees V, VII, and II (notes G, B, and D). As we established, scale degree five (G) tends to resolve to one (C), while scale degree seven (B), the leading tone, also impels us to scale degree one, or the tonic. Scale degree two (D) is active and can either resolve downward to one (C) or upward to scale degree three (E), which is the third of the C major triad. Therefore, the resolution from five (G major) to one (C major) is defined by the natural characteristics of motion inherent in each of its scale degrees. We can make that motion from V to I even more compelling. By adding the seventh to the G major chord, which is F, or scale degree four (in C), we have what is called the dominant seventh. The added motion of scale degree four (F) wanting to resolve to three, gives us what we call a dominant seventh chord. Play a G7 chord on the piano and see if you can walk away without playing C major to resolve it. (Mozart used to do this to drive his father crazy.) Because of this natural movement of V to I, the tonic/dominant relationship establishes a key or tonal center in our ear.
As we stated in a previous WFTD, (turnaround) this relationship is used to form a cadence. A cadence is a short phrase that returns us to the opening chord or ends a piece of music. By understanding this relationship, you can create a cadence on any chord in any key at any time. For example, if you're playing in the key of F# and the chord you happen to be playing when the host starts his cue is B major, by thinking of B major as the V-chord of E major, you can hold the chord and add a seventh. By doing so, you've just established the key of E major in our ear, since B7 is the dominant of the key of E major. Thus, when you end on the E major chord it will sound satisfying and complete. Let's say you were riffing on the I-chord in the key of C. Even though it is the tonal center, the longer we hold it, the more ambiguous it becomes. Once again, by adding a seventh, you've just turned C into the dominant of the key of F. By learning the tonic dominant relationship of every scale degree, you can create a cadence at any time on any chord. You can also use this technique in your songwriting to make your chord changes more interesting. In music theory, this technique is called tonicization.
