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SOME SIMPLE PRINCIPLES of Doubling

1. When doubling chords, it is best to follow simple principles rather than many specific rules. These principles reinforce the tonality and blend harmonies by considering the notes' acoustical properties. 2. Primary principles include doubling scale degrees 1, 4, and 5 of chords and avoiding doubling notes that require resolution. 3. The fifth of a 6/4 chord should always be doubled.

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Gaby Mbugua
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352 views2 pages

SOME SIMPLE PRINCIPLES of Doubling

1. When doubling chords, it is best to follow simple principles rather than many specific rules. These principles reinforce the tonality and blend harmonies by considering the notes' acoustical properties. 2. Primary principles include doubling scale degrees 1, 4, and 5 of chords and avoiding doubling notes that require resolution. 3. The fifth of a 6/4 chord should always be doubled.

Uploaded by

Gaby Mbugua
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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SIMPLE PRINCIPLES FOR GOOD DOUBLING

It is best to have a few simple principles for doubling in chords, rather than
remembering a lot of complicated specific rules. In general, you are trying to reinforce
the function of chords in the tonality, as well as work with the natural acoustics
(overtones) of the notes in the chords, in order to have well blended harmonies. Here
are some basic principles:
1.  Double the primary tones of the scale, scale degrees 1, 4, and 5. (Those tones
reinforce the tonic, pre-dominant, or dominant function of the chord)
2.  Don’t double active tones that require resolution, such as leading tones, chord
sevenths, and chromatic notes. (This would create parallel octaves when the tones
would resolve)
3.  ALWAYS double the fifth of a 6/4 chord (this is the one very specific rule to
remember.) 
4.  In major triads, the root is most often the best choice to double, followed by the
fifth.  Avoid doubling the third of major triads particularly when in first inversion.
(The overtones of the third of the chord work against the other notes.  The lower
the first inversion bass note of the chord is, the worse it sounds.)
5.  In minor triads, there are not as many acoustical issues to worry about between the
notes, so the third can be a very good note to double, especially in a major key,
where the thirds of the minor triads are the primary tones of the scale.  Also, the
root is a good note to double.  The fifth is the least used doubling (except in a
minor 6/4 triad of course).
6.  In diminished triads, the third is always the preferred choice to double, since it is
not a member of the dissonant tritone formed by the root and fifth (In a major key,
the root of the diminished triad is the leading tone; that is a bad choice to double
anyway for reasons described in #2 above. In minor, the diminished chord occurs
on scale degree 2, so the third of that triad is a primary scale tone (4), reinforcing
the pre-dominant function of the chord as described in #1 above)

Simple Principles For Good doubling GABRIEL


SIMPLE PRINCIPLES FOR GOOD DOUBLING

7.  In augmented triads, it doesn’t really matter which note you double from the
acoustic point of view, since by sound, any note could be the root.  To help clarify
which note is the root, you could double it, or, double a primary tone in the chord.
Good voice leading always takes precedence over doubling.  So you may sometimes
need to “break” these preferred doubling rules in order to avoid creating parallel fifths
or other poor voice leading.

Simple Principles For Good doubling GABRIEL

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