Harmony practice 3

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Harmony Practice 3 ^{_{(CURRENT
UPDATE: 18th of May 2008)}} - released as a freeware program - is designed to allow music-students to learn and practice (write, listen to) four-parts harmony (a three-parts option is provided), according to classical treatises. Its main purpose is checking and explaining every possible error. HP3 is enough "intelligent" a software to be a rather "patient teacher".

Main new features:

multiple document interface (multiple instances of the same file are also allowed).
free file-length in multiple-page files
unlimited undo-redo
zoom-in, zoom-out of the page
measures are automatically mapped, so avoiding users having to divide them into units or subdivisions, as a preparation to the error checking procedure
the option to self define the way Roman and Arabic numerals are displayed, including specific symbols
a new chord description window
no link-window needed, being all errors showed directly on the score
automatically determined modulations
a new chord dictionary
new file extension (no previous extension supported)
more professional printing

System requirements:

Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0
Windows 2000 Service Pack 3; Windows 98; Windows 98 Second Edition; Windows ME; Windows Server 2003; Windows Vista, Windows XP Service Pack 2

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Who should use Harmony Practice?
HP3 is addressed to all students of music who attend courses, either in the traditional form or with recreational purposes. In a few words, HP3 is useful for anyone who wants to know more about music.

What can you do with HP3?
You can realize harmony exercises: given basses, given melodies (soprano voice), and...learn to do it.

There are two arrangements of the voices you can work with:

This arrangement allows a wide range between bass and tenor, while the three parts above are grouped within an octave (see: Falk, Technique complète de l'harmonie, ed. Leduc, the first volume, p.22 §73 and following), so that they can be played on the keyboard with the right hand only, while the left hand plays the bass. This arrangement, at a first stage, is useful for learning the connection rules of chords, but often at the expense of melody, especially the Soprano.

This is the most widespread way of writing four parts harmony: the group of three parts over the bass can exceed the interval of an octave. This arrangement does not prevent you from the occasional use of close parts, and gives you more freedom in realizing harmony exercises.

How can you learn with HP3?
Simple! Whenever you need to check your exercise for errors, you will learn, and classical harmony will seem ever easier and closer to you.
After writing some chord-links, you can press the F3 function key, or go to the Tools menu; and launch correction!

HP3 stops when finding a mistake. This is indicated in red. In addition, a small window gives you information about the current error, allows you to listen to the chord-links.

At the end of the checking procedure, HP3 warns that chord descriptions have been automatically determined .You can decide to accept new data, or reject them, if you prefer to insert chord descriptions by yourself.. Same behaviour for modulations.

Technical information about the error-checking procedure

The process consists of five main moments, all executed automatically in background:

Relevant data collecting (only selected measures will be considered). Any user-made indication/attribute is taken into account. With complex writing, a significant portion of the exercise should be selected, or at least, the part preceding the selected area should carry the most descriptive properties (modulations, numerals, key changes…).

Measure mapping. Each measure is divided into several units representing chord functions (specifically the program has to know where each chord function begins and ends). On this purpose, several properties are considered, such as: rhythm, chord position changes, non-harmonic notes, user-assigned numerals, user-assigned modulations, key changes etc… This moment may be particularly affected by user-made indications. So, should you note, after error-checking your exercise, that some measure needed to be mapped with more accuracy, insert any indication (numerals, modulation etc..) as a further mapping mark, and repeat the procedure.