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Demonstration of one of the simplest forms of harmony. The C Major triad (labeled with the chord symbol C) is the home chord in this sequence. The  F and G  triads are the C triad's closest harmonic neighbors. You could think of F being on the left of C and G being on the right.

Moving from C to F somehow feels like its a move in the opposite direction from a movement from C to G. It's possible to listen to small pieces of this with the Excerpt Server facility that SongTrellis gives you. If you start at the beginning and then end the sequence on either F or G,  it feels like you moved away from home and stayed away. When you come back to the C, it feels like you're back in balance and have moved back to the center where you live.

This is a ping pong pattern because the chords are oscillating back and forth like the ball in a ping pong match.

What's a cadence? It's a movement between chords in a chord sequence that signals to the listener exactly which chord in the sequence is the home chord for that sequence. The chord sequences for many tunes end with a cadence. If you think of a chord sequence as a journey away from home, the sounding of a cadence lets you know that you've come home again.

I need to mention that it took me 45 seconds to construct this musical example using the Workscore Chord Entry page. Writing the text commentary took about 15 minutes. Now that it exists, you can use the Excerpt Server link at the bottom of this page to dump this chord sequence into your Workscore so that you can make up a melody using the Workscore Composer.

Launch the SongTrellis Excerpt Service for this track (Follow the link)

Customize this piece: Prepare scores for transposing instruments. Transpose the score to a new key. Change tempo. Clip an excerpt for your own practice, study, or composition work. Loop that in your browser or download it if you wish.

Video Demo: Excerpt Service Basics   Video Demo: Saving Excerpts