Harmony: the Advanced Higher harmonic concepts, including the added sixth chord, false relation, tierce de Picardie, secondary dominants, chromatic chords, suspensions, pedal, and modulation, identified aurally and from a score.

What this dot point is asking

Harmony at Advanced Higher is the largest concept area and builds on everything from the earlier levels (major and minor chords, the primary triads, the four cadences, dominant sevenths, inversions) before adding the demanding concepts: the added sixth chord, false relation, the tierce de Picardie, secondary dominants, chromatic chords, suspensions, pedal points and modulation between related keys. The listening paper asks you to hear these features and name them, and the literacy questions ask you to spot them in a printed score. This dot point sets out the harmonic concepts you must know and the distinctions examiners test.

The answer

Recognise the Advanced Higher harmonic concepts by ear and from a score, and name each precisely. You must hear the named chords and devices: the added sixth (a major chord with the sixth added, with a smooth, jazzy or relaxed colour), the false relation (the clash of a note and its chromatically altered form in different parts close together), the tierce de Picardie (a minor piece ending on the major tonic), secondary dominants (a chord acting as the dominant of a chord other than the tonic, pulling briefly toward it), and chromatic chords. You must hear the linear dissonances (suspension, prepared and resolving; pedal, a sustained note under changing harmony) and follow modulation as the music shifts key. For each, the mark is the exact concept word matched to the sound or the score, never a vague impression.

Hear the named chords

Advanced Higher names particular chords you must recognise. The added sixth is a major (or minor) triad with the sixth above the root added, giving a soft, unresolved, often jazzy colour. The tierce de Picardie brightens the end of a minor piece by raising the final third to major. A secondary dominant borrows a dominant chord from a key other than the home key to lean briefly toward another chord, colouring the harmony with a chromatic note. Learn each by its characteristic sound.

Hear the linear dissonances

Some harmonic concepts come from voice leading rather than a single chord. A suspension holds a note over from the previous chord into the next, where it is briefly dissonant before resolving down by step (it must be prepared, then sounded, then resolved). A pedal is a sustained or repeated note, usually in the bass, held while the harmony changes above it, creating tension as chords move against the fixed note. Tonic and dominant pedals are the common types.

Follow the modulation

Modulation is a change of key within a piece. At Advanced Higher you should hear a move to related keys (the dominant, subdominant, relative major or minor) and recognise that the music has settled in a new key rather than merely touched a chromatic chord. The clue is a new key being confirmed by its own cadence. Distinguish a genuine modulation, which establishes a new key, from a passing chromatic chord or a secondary dominant, which colours the home key without leaving it.

Examples in context

A jazz standard ends on a tonic chord with an added sixth, soft and unresolved rather than a plain triad: the added sixth. A Baroque choral cadence sounds F natural in one voice and F sharp in another within a beat or two: a false relation. A minor key fugue closes on a bright major chord: a tierce de Picardie. A Classical exposition begins in the tonic and arrives, confirmed by a cadence, in the dominant: a modulation to the dominant. Each mark is earned by the precise term and the audible or visible evidence behind it.

Try this

Q1. What is a tierce de Picardie? [2 marks]

• What the marker wants. A piece in a minor key ending on the major tonic chord, with the final third raised from minor to major.

Q2. What must be true for a dissonance to count as a suspension? [2 marks]

• What the marker wants. It must be prepared (held over from the previous chord), then sound as a dissonance, then resolve down by step.

Q3. How does a modulation differ from a passing chromatic chord? [1 mark]

• What the marker wants. A modulation establishes and confirms a new key; a passing chromatic chord colours the home key without leaving it.

A note on sources

This guide is AI-written and not individually human-reviewed. The concepts follow standard music theory and SQA's Advanced Higher Music concept list; verify current detail against the course specification and concept lists at sqa.org.uk.