[Harp-L] 6 draw flatted

[Vern]

You can ignore or “disdain" any rules when composing.  Write anything that sounds good to you.  If others agree, so much the better.

However, if you constrain your writing to the western tonal-harmony genres, there are rules for how to use non-chordal tones. In your example, F is a non-chordal tone to an E chord (E, G#, B).  A prolonged half-tone interval is perceived by many as unpleasant. Play E & F on your piano and see if you like the sound. The tritone or “devil’s interval” (e.g. F - B) is also generally regarded as unpleasant.  Play that on your piano also and see how you like it.  

In general, non-chordal tones are used on short, unaccented notes as transitions between chordal tones.  There is a huge amount of information on the internet on the subject.  See: 
http://www.davesmey.com/brooklynconservatory/wednesday/h04nonchordtones.pdf <http://www.davesmey.com/brooklynconservatory/wednesday/h04nonchordtones.pdf>

Vern

> On Jul 8, 2016, at 4:28 PM, jim.alciere at xxxxx wrote:
> 
> Hi
> Music theory question. I wrote the chords to this song on the piano--that's
> the logical, music theory part of my brain. I then wrote a melody on the
> harmonica, which knows nothing about music theory. Disdains it, really.
> So the chorus, in the key of E, starts on an F, then F#, then F, then F#.
> For some reason the harmonica thought this was perfectly fine to play over
> an E chord. Is there any logic to this? Then I alternate between a D and a
> B and I'm doing that over a D chord. It sounds okay, but why?
> 
> Thanks
> 
> -- 
> Jim
> ​my​
> 
> 
> https://soundcloud.com/subbourbon
> 
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