CSR-WCM Lessons - Vol-3

We already know that there are two types of Clefs……Treble & Bass ……..!

Treble- Middle C & above……… and

Bass- Below Middle C…!

For the purpose of Harmony, each of these two Clef ranges are further defined by WCM system into two more Clefs….! Resulting into Four basic clef ranges…!

Treble Clef is further elaborated to ---- Soprano and Alto Clefs……!

Bass Clef is further elaborated to -------Tenor and Bass Clefs……..!

So the whole range of musical sound is thus divided into four ranges viz. S – A – T – B and Harmonisation of music demands usage of all these ranges to give the completeness…!




Each one of them is having some overlapping zone with the adjacent ones….!

So, as a general rule, the chord system which we develop shall cover the SATB ranges…!

This is called a Four Part Harmony system…!


Generally, in short score format they are reprsented using existing Treble and Bass Cleffs.

However, in open score format, these are normally notated using the following clef symbols:



A Typical Short score and full score conversion is shown below




Each one voice or instrument covers each one of this four ranges…!

The topmost line ie the Soprano is what generally form the Melody line….!

So please remember every song has the Melodic Line….!

Atleast now you can realize that classifying songs as melody and dappankuthu…etc shows our ignorance…! Every song has Melodic aspects !

Once that basic melodic line is formed or created…the Harmonisation exercise requires adding of other Three parts…!

In fact, if any one part of SATB is given, we can add the other three parts…!

WCM students are often given either the S-line (top most line or the melody line) or the B-line ( the bottom most line) and are asked to add the other parts !

That is done by assuming each note (or selected note on beginning of each bar) as the part of the Chord of the present Scale of the song…and fill up the remaining notes of the chord…vertically….!

Satisfying certain Harmony rules….! As explained in our previous session…!

For a harmonized song, the S and B lines are very critical and life-giving….!

However, one question by this time that may be pre-dominantly occupying your mind and troubling you…..will be….

“You told the Chord as combination of Three notes….whereas we need Four notes for writing a Four Part Harmony…..! What’s this….?”

You are right…. !..... If 2-Parts Harmony …or…3-Parts Harmony is to be written, then Ok we can manage with the three notes Chords…..!

What to do for the 4-Part Harmony….?

Simple……!....Just double / repeat one of the notes of the 3-notes chord….! To get the fourth note….!

OK…..Then…….Which note shall be doubled….?

That’s what most of the Harmony rules are worrying and prescribing…..!

Most of the time, the Root note of the chord is doubled…….certain cases….5th is doubled….and 3rd is doubled in some other cases…..!

Another aspect is the rules regarding formation of adjacent chords …..!

When two chords are placed side by side……Harmony system views that as the travel of each individual note of Chord no 1 to the corresponding position of notes of Chord no 2….! ….

Meaning the topmost note Part-S of Chord-1 has moved to the new Part-S of Chord-2…and so on…! As illustrated below :




This is what called as the Progression of Chords…!

So another set of Harmony rules talk about such movement of One Chord to another….Also movement of each note to another position….!

Like this…..there are a lot of rules, procedures etc are prescribed by WCM Harmony system….!

All these harmony rules talk about

certain things as idealistic,
certain things as must….
some are desirable…..
some avoidable…..
some forbidden…..!

etc etc….!

What made such Perceptions are based on the quality of sound produced by various such intervals between these notes…… certain difficulties encountered while singing or playing……certain smoothness required to make them better…..etc etc….!

I deliberately use the word Perceptions…..because…even though centuries of studies and experiences and collective wisdom are accumulated to form such rules and regulations…WCM has used only a few pattern of scales and restricted these rules to them…as WHAT THEY (WCM) FELT AS RIGHT AND WRONG……!

What may be seen as an awkward interval by WCM experts, need not appear or felt the same by our Carnatic system…….. which uses a lot of such delicate intervals…..and formed hundreds of such scales on such delicate intervals….!

As demonstrated by IR throughout his career……! The one……. WHO FOLLOWED THE RULES…….. TO BREAK THE RULES……. AND FORMULATE NEW RULES….!

However, to start with one shall learn rules and practice rules religiously in the beginning….!

It is always better to warn a child “Don’t Touch an electric Wire….! Don’t look into a well….! ” etc. etc……!

Rather than explaining why…!

When you grow up, you automatically follow such rules…and sometimes adopt the risk of breaking such rules also…when you are confident of your safety…! To feel the enjoyment of breaking such rules….!

So some more insight into the Harmony perceptions….! Many more to follow…….!

Labels: SATB-Intro