The Common Tone · Chapter 1.8
Four chords, one movement
Harmonic outline · four equal bars · clean piano
140 BPM
The Common Tone · Chapter 1.8
Harmonic outline · four equal bars · clean piano
Play the starting outline, then compare Roots alone, Root + fifth, Add octave and P4th (5-1). Change a root to hear what moves and what stays the same. Restore example returns to F–B♭–A♭–D♭ with root and fifth.
This is the four-chord harmonic outline associated with “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, played as four equal whole-note bars. It does not reproduce the recording’s riff rhythm, articulation, guitar sound or performance. The piano makes the pitches clear.
The starting sounding roots are F2, B♭2, A♭2 and D♭3. Each root choice stays in a fixed F2–E3 range. Root + fifth adds a perfect fifth; Add octave also doubles the root an octave higher. These combinations add no third. Bass-clef notation shows sounding pitches.
Perfect fourth (5–1) moves the chord’s fifth down an octave, below the selected root. F5 becomes C2–F2: a perfect fourth from the lower note to the upper note, with F still the harmonic root. The starting fourths are C2–F2, F2–B♭2, E♭2–A♭2 and A♭2–D♭3. The chord symbols retain the selected roots; no third is added.
A 5 in F5 is the power-chord symbol; it is not an octave number. Note names such as F2 name sounding pitches and registers. The labels above the staff are chord symbols; the notes show the selected voicing.
Playback uses the existing 140 BPM piano example: whole notes are written, and each chord begins releasing before the next bar. Loop repeats until Stop. Changing a root, voicing or Loop stops playback; press Play to begin again. Leaving or hiding the page also stops sound. On narrow screens, the choices and staff scroll together, following the sounding bar.