Read the harmony of a line
Stage 3 ended by walking every symbol on a dense line. This is the other half: walking the musicianship of a line — the key, the degrees, the chords, the cadences, the phrase shape. It's the sentence you'll be able to write about every piece from here on: "this is in G major; the first phrase climbs over the tonic and stops on a half cadence; the second answers it and closes home."
We'll do it on the opening of Ode to Joy, in G major.
The antecedent
Now read it:
- Key: one sharp, and the tune rests on G — G major (relative minor E minor, but it's clearly major here).
- Degrees: the melody lives in ^1 to ^5 — no leaps, all steps, a gentle arch.
- Chords: bars 1–3 sit on notes from the tonic chord (^3, ^4, ^5, ^1, ^2 — mostly I, with the ^4 and ^2 passing through). Bar 4 lands on ^2 (A) — part of the V chord.
- Cadence: ending on V = a half cadence. A comma. The phrase is a question.
- Phrase: this is the antecedent of a period — it stops open, expecting an answer.
The consequent
- Same climb, same degrees — until the last bar.
- Bar 8 ends ^2 → ^1 (A → G), landing on the tonic, over a V → I motion.
- Cadence: ending on I from V = a perfect cadence. A full stop. The answer.
- Phrase: the consequent — it resolves what the antecedent left open.
Put together: an eight-bar parallel period in G major — two phrases that start alike and end differently, a question and an answer, defined entirely by their two cadences.
Try it
Try
Play both phrases in sequence. As you reach the end of the first, think "half cadence, question" and leave the A hanging. At the end of the second, think "perfect cadence, answer" and let the G settle. You're not just playing the notes — you're reading the harmony and shaping the phrase to match it.
Where this goes
From here on, every tune in this course gets this treatment — a one-line harmony note per phrase, alongside the fingering and the bowing. "Understand what you're playing" stops being a slogan and becomes something you can actually do on sight.