Along with the books, there are interactive applications that not only help create music, but understand it.
Chord Superstructures
Interval Visualizer
Piano Roll PNG
And they are constantly being updated :)
All books include example videos to listen to and bring the explanations to life.
For all instruments:Harmonic and melodic. Not just for guitar or piano.
No sheet music:Everything is explained visually with diagrams, arrows, and colors.
Permanent access + updates:Buy once and receive all future versions.
Self-explanatory diagrams:The graphics speak for themselves, but each one includes a written explanation.
What you'll find
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Four voices, thought of horizontally
I lay out the problem: chords placed in blocks sound disconnected. The way out is to think horizontally, with four voices (soprano, alto, tenor, and bass) that are four melodies and form chords when they sound together.
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Vertical: the voices inside the chord
On the C chord I show you voice distribution, the controversial intervals, open and closed chords, and inversions. Then the rules of counterpoint: contrary, oblique, and parallel motion, and keeping the voices from crossing.
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Dominants, modal interchange, and chromatic bass
I split a G7 in two, first G and then the seventh, as in Bach's chorales. I also show you modal interchange, which borrows chords from the minor mode to build a bass that descends chromatically.
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Semivertical: harmonizing the major scale
A melody plays the C major scale and I put chords under it in several ways. To choose them, I look for the chords in which each note is the root, 3rd, 5th, or 7th, and I arrive at the soli with independent bass.
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Semihorizontal: Happy Birthday
I build the sonic bed for Happy Birthday at three levels of complexity. Along the way come the range of each voice, the easiest and hardest intervals to sing, and secondary dominants to give it movement.
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Horizontal: counterpoint starting from Bach
A bonus to go further: I start from a phrase from Bach's Little Fugue in G minor, continue it, and add a countermelody and the inner voices. Each voice goes in its own color, without a single piece of sheet music.
Book details
- Author
- Brian Callipari
- Format
- PDF (digital book)
- Pages
- 142
- Languages
- Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Italian, German, Turkish, and Japanese
- Who it's for
- It's intermediate level and works with triads and dominants: for anyone who tries chords blindly in their DAW's piano roll and wants to understand why something sounds good.
What musicians are saying
Hey Brian, just wanted to reach out. I studied music composition at Berklee and I genuinely wish I had your books back then. Not because my professors were bad, but because your visual approach would have cut my learning curve in HALF. Picked up Tensions Illustrated last week and it's brilliant. The way you map out tensions over chord types is something I haven't seen anyone else do this clearly. Respect man.
Brian I have to be honest with you. I almost didn't buy your books because I've wasted SO much money on music theory courses and books that promised everything and delivered nothing. Bought Harmony Illustrated on a whim and I literally sat there with my mouth open. After 20+ years of playing guitar I finally see the bigger picture. This is not an exaggeration. You cracked the code man
THE COLORS. Thats what gets me. The way you use color to show relationships between notes and chords... my brain just GETS it now. Bought all of them btw 😅
Bro I showed your Harmony Illustrated to my guitar teacher and he literally ordered a copy for himself on the spot 😂 said he wished he had something like this when he was studying. Thats the best review I can give you honestly
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