The Chord Symbols Are All Correct: Revising a Student's SATB Setting
A tenth-grade student submits an eight-measure SATB setting in G major for the theory class's end-of-unit performance. The soprano line was given; the student harmonized it at roughly two chords per bar. Four problems appear in the marked score. In m. 2 the bass leaps from G3 up to C-sharp 4 to reach a secondary dominant (A7). In mm. 4-5 the alto and soprano move from C5-G5 to D5-A5, both voices rising by step. In m. 6 the tenor rises above the alto as the phrase approaches a cadential six-four. In m. 7 the alto and tenor both sound F-sharp, and the tenor then leaps down from F-sharp to D to reach the final G major chord. The student points out, correctly, that every chord symbol is right, and asks why the setting was marked down. The class performs the setting in three days, and the student wants to know which fixes actually matter.
1. Rank the four problems by how much they matter musically, and state the criterion you used to rank them.
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The criterion is not "which rule was broken" but which flaw changes what the listener hears as harmony, key, or line, and how exposed the moment is.
- Parallel fifths (mm. 4-5). Two perfect fifths in similar motion make the soprano and alto fuse into one thick line and the arrival on V sounds hollow. This is functional: it damages the contrapuntal independence that the whole exercise is about. Highest priority.
- Doubled and unresolved leading tone (mm. 7-8). F-sharp is a tendency tone. With F-sharp in two voices, one of them is guaranteed to contradict the other's resolution, and the tenor's leap down to D abandons the cadence at its most audible point. This is the cadence, so it outranks anything in mm. 2 or 6.
- Voice crossing (m. 6). Mostly a spacing problem: the alto and tenor parts stop being distinguishable, and singers will have trouble tuning the six-four. Crossings are legal in keyboard and some choral styles, so this is stylistic and situational rather than an error of grammar.
- Augmented-fourth bass leap (m. 2). Hard to sing and hard to anchor because a tritone has no stable tuning reference, but it is an idiomatic objection, not a harmonic one. It rises in priority only if the piece is unaccompanied voices.
If the setting were instrumental, item 4 would drop out; because it is choral, fix it last but still fix it.
2. Show the revision for the parallel fifths and for the leading tone, explaining why you chose those particular voice assignments rather than other options.
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Parallel fifths, mm. 4-5. The cause is that both upper voices move up by step, so the interval stays a fifth. Two standard repairs:
- Keep the soprano G moving up to A (the line was given, so it stays) and move the alto C down to A instead of up to D. The resulting V chord is D in the bass, F-sharp in the tenor, A in the alto, A in the soprano. The doubled note is the fifth, which is the least critical doubling in a root-position V - the third and the leading tone are what carry the function.
- Alternative: soprano G to F-sharp, alto to A. This also works but rewrites the given melody, so it is the fallback, not the first choice.
Leading tone, mm. 7-8. Keep F-sharp in one voice only: alto F-sharp, tenor D (the fifth of V). The single F-sharp must then rise to G. If the tenor has to keep F-sharp, then the tenor must still resolve up to G, which means the final chord's D has to come from the alto - you cannot keep both the doubled leading tone and a stepwise resolution.
The other two problems are lower priority because each is a one-note repair that leaves the harmonic analysis and the cadence intact: put the C-sharp of the A7 in an inner voice and let the bass move G to A, and stop the tenor from crossing the alto at the six-four.
3. The student says the labels are right, so the piece should sound fine. How do you answer that in class, and what quick formative check tells you whether the class can apply the reasoning rather than memorize the rules?
Read the worked answer
The student's premise is half right and worth conceding before correcting: chord symbols describe what sounds at one moment; voice leading is the grammar of how one moment connects to the next. Every rule in the unit is a connection rule, which is exactly why correct labels do not settle the question.
Demonstrate rather than assert. Play the two versions of mm. 4-5 back to back at the piano, then have the student sing the alto line while the teacher plays the soprano. Parallel fifths stop sounding abstract the moment the student is the line that has lost its independence.
A quick formative check, ten minutes: hand out a four-bar unfigured soprano. Part A, harmonize it. Part B, swap papers and mark one specific item on a three-point checklist (parallel perfect intervals, tendency-tone resolution, spacing/crossing). Part C, an exit slip with one question: name one error you can now hear in your own setting without looking at the score. Part C is the one that predicts transfer; if students can name only errors they read off a list, they have memorized categories, not voice-leading.