Stage 13 milestone
Milestone: The Harmony Observatory
Review, practical challenge and self-assessment to close the stage with everything you learned.
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Stage 13 milestone
Review, practical challenge and self-assessment to close the stage with everything you learned.
You arrived at the observatory with seven chords per key and a ii–V–I under your arm. Now you can see the whole sky: every chord can have its own dominant, the major key can borrow the shadows of the minor, chords shimmer with tensions, dominants disguise themselves a tritone away, some scales repeat like kaleidoscopes, and a melody can be dressed a thousand ways or travel to another key. In this milestone you bring it all together in an original piece.
| Stop | Core idea | Example in C major | What you hear |
|---|---|---|---|
| Secondary dominants | V/x tonicises any chord | A7 → Dm | a new leading tone that rises |
| Modal interchange | borrowing from the parallel minor | F → Fm → C | light dimming for a moment |
| Extensions and tensions | 9, 11, 13 and alterations | G13, G7♭9 | colour and bite in the top voice |
| Substitutions | tritone, diatonic, diminished, backdoor | Dm7 – D♭7 – Cmaj7 | a bass falling by half steps |
| Symmetric and altered scales | diminished, whole-tone, altered | G altered over G7alt | maximum tension that resolves |
| Reharmonisation and modulation | same melody, other chords; a new home | Am as a pivot towards G | a new note that stays |
"Constellation" is an original sixteen-bar piece in C major. Its melody is built on the guide tones and tensions of each chord, and its harmony uses every tool from this stage at least once. Listen to the whole thing first.
Before playing, analyse. Here is the bar-by-bar reading; try it yourself first and compare afterwards.
| Bar | Chord | Function | Tool | Melody |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cmaj7 | I | — | 3, 5, 7 |
| 2 | A7♭9 | V7/ii | secondary dominant with b9 | ♭9, 1, ♭7 |
| 3–4 | Dm9 – G13 | ii – V | extensions | 9 and 13 in the melody |
| 5–6 | Em7 – A7 | iii – V7/ii | ii–V towards ii | C♯, the leading tone of D |
| 7–8 | Dm7 – D♭7 | ii – subV7 | tritone substitution | C♭ (b7) falls to C |
| 9–10 | Cmaj7 – C7 | I – V7/IV | secondary dominant | B♭, the changed note |
| 11–12 | Fmaj7 – Fm6 | IV – iv6 | modal interchange | A → A♭ |
| 13–14 | Em7 – E♭dim7 | iii – °7 | descending passing diminished | bass E – E♭ – D |
| 15 | Dm7 – G7alt | ii – V7alt | altered dominant | A♭ (b9) |
| 16 | Cmaj7 | I | resolution | E, the third |
Play the melody alone over this simplified backing (no tensions, no tritone substitution). If you'd rather accompany, strum the chords in open or barre shapes.
Accompany the full piece with these voicings for the new chords (for the rest, use the ones you learned in this stage's stops). Then play the melody over the challenge backing.
Goal: Play Constellation from start to finish at 84 BPM at the level of your choice, without stopping, and record yourself.
Two weeks, 20 to 30 minutes a day. Alternate the blocks so that your ear, hands and analysis grow together (interleaved practice). Each day pick two or three blocks; by the end of the week, each one should have come up at least twice.
| Day | Blocks |
|---|---|
| 1, 4, 8, 11 | Ear + voicings |
| 2, 5, 9, 12 | Scales + reharmonisation |
| 3, 6, 10, 13 | Voicings + challenge |
| 7, 14 | Full challenge recorded + self-assessment |
Play the backings from this stage's stops without looking at the chord symbols (cover the screen or close your eyes) and say out loud which tool you hear. Then check. Finish by singing the note that changes in each case.
Goal: Identify at first hearing, in five progressions in a row, whether there's a secondary dominant, a borrowed chord or a tritone substitution.
Play Dm9 – G13 – Cmaj9 and move the same shapes to F (Gm9 – C13 – Fmaj9) and to B♭. Then swap the V for its 7b9 version and for its tritone substitute.
Goal: Play a ii–V–I with tensions in three different keys without stopping between chords.
One minute per scale over the backing: altered, half-whole diminished, whole-tone. Start each phrase on a tension and end it on a note of Cmaj7.
Goal: Play one-bar phrases over G7alt → Cmaj7 with the altered, diminished and whole-tone scales, always resolving by half step.
Make up (or pick from earlier stops) a four-bar melody. Harmonise it first with diatonic chords, then change at least two chords. Play the melody over each new chord before accepting it.
Goal: Reharmonise four bars of a simple melody with at least two different tools, checking every note.
Practice blocks ticked: 0 · Self-assessments taken: 0