My advice would be to try composing/improvising some short melodies and then experiment with repeating them at different transpositions. I hope you have found this lesson on sequences helpful. Have a look/listen to this example below: You will find lots of examples of sequences in the music you listen to.Ī famous example of a descending melodic sequence can be found in the well known Christmas carol “Ding Dong Merrily on High”. The piece shows clear examples of melodic and harmonic sequences (I have annotated the sheet music to show the sequences). Have a look/listen to this piano piece I wrote called “A Time To Mourn”. Sequences are an excellent tool for composing music – I use them in a lot of the pieces I write. In an ascending circle-of-fifths sequence each chord’s root is a 5th higher than the previous chord in the sequence.Īscending Circle of Fifths Harmonic Sequence In a descending thirds sequence the chords move down a third for each repetition, hence the name. This sequence gets its name from the fact that each successive chord has a root note that is a fifth lower than the previous chord.ĭescending circle of 5ths Harmonic Sequence Descending Thirds Sequence In the example above you can see that the sequence between the 1st two bars is a real sequence, whilst the remaining bars are tonal sequences. The full sequence would look and sound like this:Ĭan you hear how the music sounds like it is changing key (modulating) as the sequence progresses? Mixed SequenceĪ sequence that has several repetitions, some of which are tonal and some of which are real is called a Mixed Sequence. You can see how we have converted the 2 “F” notes to “F sharp” notes so that the interval qualities remain the same. If we convert our example of a sequence into a real sequence it would look as follows: In a real sequence there is no change in either the size or quality of the intervals (this will usually mean that the composer has to change the key as the sequence progresses). These changes in quality continue through all 4 bars of the sequence and so our sequence example is a Tonal Sequence. However, the interval qualities change ( major 3rd, minor 3rd, major 2nd, minor 2nd in the first melody become minor 3rd, major 3rd, major 2nd, major 2nd in the repeated melody): In our example of a sequence you can see that the interval sizes remain the same across the 2 melodies (3rd, 3rd, 2nd, 2nd in the 1st melody stay as 3rd, 3rd, 2nd, 2nd in the repeated melody): a minor interval may become a major interval) This change in quality is inevitable if the composer wants the key to remain unchanged. However, the interval quality changes (e.g. The interval size usually stays the same (i.e. In a tonal sequence the intervals between the notes are altered to some extent. When the word “sequence” is used it generally implies that both melodic and harmonic material is being used. Harmonic Sequence – This is a repetition of a series of chords (I will explain this later).Melodic Sequence – This is the repetition of a melody (like in the above example).There are 2 main types of sequence you will come across in music: The same pattern is then repeated again at a higher pitch, etc. You can see how the short melodic phrase is played and then repeated at a higher level of pitch. Have a look/listen to the following example of a sequence: I am going to explain sequences in music by showing/playing you various examples. The Oxford Dictionary of Music defines a sequence as the “more or less exact repetition of a passage at a higher or lower level of pitch”. The repeat can be an exact transposition – a real sequence or the intervals can be changed – a tonal sequence. A sequence is where a passage of music is repeated at a higher or lower level of pitch.
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