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Showing posts with label 140. COMPLEMENTARY THEMES IMPROVISATION. Melody driven improvisation within a scale.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 140. COMPLEMENTARY THEMES IMPROVISATION. Melody driven improvisation within a scale.. Show all posts

Friday, November 9, 2018

140. COMPLEMENTARY THEMES IMPROVISATION. Melody driven improvisation within a scale.

(This post has not been written completely yet)

COMPLEMENTARY THEMES IMPROVISATION. Melody driven improvisation within a scale.

This method of improvisation is melody-driven within a scale or composite scale (like Bebop Scales of post 139). Its main idea is the statistical action-reaction principle or principle of complementarity of melodic themes as a kind of dialogue question-answer or proposal-answer   Its rules are the next

1) The melody is within a scale S (which can be also composite of  8-notes , 9-notes or more) E.g. The Bobop dominant 8-notes scale of post 139 or 8-notes maximal harmonic of post 117, C D E F F# G A B C`

and is subdivided into pairs of melodic themes A-B so that A and B are in some sense harmonic or melodic complementary. The themes A and B may be subdivided into 1 or 2 sub-themes A1 A2 or B1 B2.

2) HARMONIC COMPLEMENTARITY:  The total theme A+B covers as much as possible of the scale given the length of A and B. E.g. the A is mainly over even (or odd) notes of the scale and B is mainly over odd (or even) notes of the scale. Usually, the endnotes of A and B are either a) identical b) differ by an interval of 5th/4th c) differ by an octave. From this point of view we may perceive the scale as double layered: 1) A scale by intervals of fifths or 4ths 2) The full scale. Then the simplicial sub-melody is only on the first coarse sub-scale scale while the full melody is on the fine full scale. The structure of these two layers 1) 2)  reflects the structure of the sequence of pairs (A, B) of complementary melodic themes.

3) MELODIC COMPLEMENTARITY: The themes A and B have complementary dynamics as Dolphin Words (see post 114) E.g. A is ascending and B is descending or A is expansive and B is contracting etc.

4) The rhythm is rather fast e.g. 110-120 beats/min

5) The chords that accompany may follow the melody and are chords of the scale. If we want as few chords as possible and the scale is e.g. diatonic, then it could be only 2 or 3 chords e.g. I ii, V . But it can be in general a sequence of chords of the scale. If e.g. the improvisation is on a Celtic levered harp them we may alternate chords with pairs of such melodic themes A+B so that each chord has mediant the last bote of each theme.


The above method can be combined with the melodic improvisation within the harmony of a chord each time, as in post 141.

When spending time within the harmony of a chord the best idea is to have the chord in 4-notes form e.g. like a with 7nth or with 6th, and in the current octave or in the next. Then start the melody at a note of the chord and end it again at a note of a chord in this or the next octave. For example we may compose the melody from 3-notes micro-themes, the first and last inside the  chords and the middle possible outside the chords. Since the chord has 4-notes and the scale  7 notes the passing or transient notes are only 3, less than the 4 of the chord, therefore, any such melodic theme fits harmonically to this chord.

Here is an example :