Name of a SX tecnhique help?

[MrQuinkle]

Hey all, been around the forums for a while but just registered. I'm hoping someone can help me with this question, it's been bugging me forever..

I know a lot of SX's song borrow from classical compositions, and I also know that Romeo composes a lot of the orchestration himself. What I wanted to know is the technical term for a certain technique that is used quite a lot in SX songs. The technique is usually a harmony on guitar or vocals, where two notes are held and one of them is lowered by a half step. I'm not sure if we have too many musicians or theorists around here, but it would be much appreciated if anyone could point me in the right direction. Examples of this are:

A Fool's Paradise: 4:22 - 4:25
Set the World on Fire: Chorus part, like at 2:59
Communion and the Oracle: 4:05 - 4:09

I know there are a lot more examples, but that should give the general idea.

 

[Meedleyx10]

I can't listen to the tunes you mentioned right now, but it's called "oblique motion", which is any time you have one voice staying on a single pitch while the other moves. It's something you learn about if/when you study voice leading or counterpoint. It's an important element in several other techniques (one or several of which might be what you are actually referring to) but at it's most basic level, that's what it is called.

 

[OfSinsAndShred]

Yeah, Meedley's right.

You could also just look at it as moving from a sus chord to a major or minor chord. It's common in classical and baroque music.

Say you're moving from G major to C major. You could make it Gsus(which has the notes G, C, and D) - Gmaj(G, B, D) - Cmaj(C, E, G)... The part you're talking about is the C in the Gsus moving to the B in G major.

I just woke up...why the hell did I try and reply to this? Sorry if it makes no sense (or is completely wrong), haha.

 

[MrQuinkle]

No, that makes sense. When I asked I wasn't sure how many people around here would know what a sus chord is, so I decided to try to make it understandable to anyone, haha. Thank you both, helped a lot.

 

[razoredge]

Yeah, Meedley's right.

You could also just look at it as moving from a sus chord to a major or minor chord. It's common in classical and baroque music.

Say you're moving from G major to C major. You could make it Gsus(which has the notes G, C, and D) - Gmaj(G, B, D) - Cmaj(C, E, G)... The part you're talking about is the C in the Gsus moving to the B in G major.

I just woke up...why the hell did I try and reply to this? Sorry if it makes no sense (or is completely wrong), haha.

thanks, grabed the archtop and gave it a try with full six note "open" chords of some sort, not feeling the Cmaj though, progression wise I'm hearing something that makes me want to move toward a Gflat minor of some sort. Would your scenerio be the key of G or C ?
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I realize this is abit off track from the application origionally questioned... sorry. Im just a guitar hack that sucks up ideas and pilfers them

 

[razoredge]

I can't listen to the tunes you mentioned right now, but it's called "oblique motion", which is any time you have one voice staying on a single pitch while the other moves. It's something you learn about if/when you study voice leading or counterpoint. It's an important element in several other techniques (one or several of which might be what you are actually referring to) but at it's most basic level, that's what it is called.

So this is a more advanced harmonization theory ?

Would this term "oblique motion" also apply to harmonies when one voice stays on the same note while others do not simply because the next chosen chord has the same note even in major keys using basic chord structures ? If that makes sense, I just know its common for many vocal harmonies in all kinds of music to do this, with some harmony lines being very non melodic or near mono tone.

 

[Meedleyx10]

thanks, grabed the archtop and gave it a try with full six note "open" chords of some sort, not feeling the Cmaj though, progression wise I'm hearing something that makes me want to move toward a Gflat minor of some sort. Would your scenerio be the key of G or C ?
--------------------------------------------------
I realize this is abit off track from the application origionally questioned... sorry. Im just a guitar hack that sucks up ideas and pilfers them

That would most likely be in the key of C....the suspension on the G chord is usually just color more than anything else, then being the V chord, it resolves to C.

So this is a more advanced harmonization theory ?

Would this term "oblique motion" also apply to harmonies when one voice stays on the same note while others do not simply because the next chosen chord has the same note even in major keys using basic chord structures ? If that makes sense, I just know its common for many vocal harmonies in all kinds of music to do this, with some harmony lines being very non melodic or near mono tone.

Yep, the term applies to any situation where one voice stays the same and the other(s) move. It's more of a fundamental thing that is present in everything from very simple to very complex part-writing. It's use in situations as you describe, where a voice maintains a common tone between multiple chords, is probably the most common use of the technique. We, as guitarists, probably get the most use out of it when doing chord melody stuff...because especially in dense harmonic situations or on tunes with a busy melody, you're usually going to want as few things changing as possible in order to make it more playable.

 

[razoredge]

That would most likely be in the key of C....the suspension on the G chord is usually just color more than anything else, then being the V chord, it resolves to C.

I'll need to work on it more but Im hearing Gflat which would imply G major and not hearing a Cmaj or F at all (at the time I wrote that post)

Yep, the term applies to any situation where one voice stays the same and the other(s) move. It's more of a fundamental thing that is present in everything from very simple to very complex part-writing. It's use in situations as you describe, where a voice maintains a common tone between multiple chords, is probably the most common use of the technique. We, as guitarists, probably get the most use out of it when doing chord melody stuff...because especially in dense harmonic situations or on tunes with a busy melody,

On guitar it seems this applies most for open chord voicing and may be why they still have their ear charm as opposed to barring up

you're usually going to want as few things changing as possible in order to make it more playable.

Obviously not a theory subscribed too by Joe Pass

 

[OfSinsAndShred]

thanks, grabed the archtop and gave it a try with full six note "open" chords of some sort, not feeling the Cmaj though, progression wise I'm hearing something that makes me want to move toward a Gflat minor of some sort. Would your scenerio be the key of G or C ?

It's in C. I was just using a V-I in C major for an example because it's simple and pretty common. Not something you'd be likely to see in a prog setting or anything, but it gets the point across.