285. HOW IS IT POSSIBLE WHEN LEARNING AND REMEMBERING MELODIES TO REDUCE THEIR INFORMATION TO AS LITTLE AS THE INFORMATION OF ITS CHORD PROGRESSION? THE ROLES OF SIMPLICIAL SUBMELODY AND SIMPLICIAL MELODIC THEMES ("DOLPHIN WORDS")

(This post has not been written completly yet)
See also post 70 and post 282

Dolphin words are beatifully composed with the arpeggiator

Dot Melody of https://www.olympianoiseco.com/

https://www.olympianoiseco.com/apps/dot-melody/

Most musical instruments players, memorize their musical pieces, by just playing them sufficient many times, and letting the subconscious memorize them.

There are neverthless short notes about a melody that helps to remember it (especially when the target is an improvisation over the melody) which are not more complicated than the  chord progression which underlies the melody.

Here are hints for it

1) Determine and take note of the root of at least one main diatonic scale from which the melody may deviate and the melody has  maximal number of notes in it among other diatonic scales  (there may be more than one!) . 

2) Determine and take  a note of the parts A B C etc and repetion (loop) pattern of them

3) Determine initial-final note of  each melodic theme in the parts as it varies , as well as lowest and highest note of it and take a note of it attached to  the part

4) Determine and take a note of the longest central notes that define the simplicial submelody that should not me more than the chords of the chord progression

After all the above 4) aspects of  partial information about the melody , listen to it sometimes to refresh the memory about it, and then improvise on  it without changing the information that you took notes. Chose the best version that you feel better , and play it as your own version of the melody.

When creating improvisational variations, or remembering melodies that we must improvise, we must start from the simple and proceed to the more complicated.

And the simple in a song is the chord progression. The corresponding simplicity in the melody is the simplicial sub-melody as defined  in various types of it (melodic harmonic , chromatic etc) in previous posts.

The next level of simplicity is of course the progression of simplicial melodic moves or melodic themes as defined in post 282, which is also called the "Dolphin words".

Once these levels of simplicity are defined and remain invariant,  the rest of the variation  is creating connecting and transient notes, between them (the notes of the simplicial sub-melody and the notes of the simplicial move-themes) which can be quite arbitrary, without spoiling the compatibility of the  melody with the chord progression and which will create an improvisational variation of the melody. 

An excellent example is the well known song Petite Fleur by Sidney Bechet in G major scale.

We will utilize only the simplicial submelody not the simplicial melodic moves in this song .

The chord progression (simplified) is the next

C->B7->Em->F#->B7

C->B7->G->Am->G->Am->Em->F#->B7

C->B7->Em->F#->Em->E7->Am->D7->G

C->B7->Em->F#->Em->E7->Am->D7->G

A less simplified chord progression would be the next

C->B7->Em->F#->B7

C->B7->(D7)->G->Am->(D7)->G->(B7->Em)->Am->(B7)->Em->(C)->F#->B7

C->B7->Em->F#->(B7)->Em->E7->Am->D7->G

C->B7->Em->F#->(B7)->Em->E7->Am->D7->G

And with the simplicial sub-melody notes in parenthesis (one note per chord of the simplified chord progression) it becomes

C(c)->B7(b)->Em(g)->F#(f#)->B7(b)

C(c)->B7(b)->G(d)->Am(c)->G(b)->Am(a)->Em(g)->F#(f#)->B7(f#)

C(c)->B7(b)->Em(g)->F#(f#)->Em(e)->E7(d)->Am(c)->D7(c)->G(b)

C(c)->B7(b)->Em(g)->F#(f#)->Em(e)->E7(d)->Am(c)->D7(c)->G(b)

Now any convenient linking notes between those of the simplicial sub-melody that we feel we like to play within the rhythm will create an improvisational variation of the melody.

Other examples are in Cretan mandinodies (kondilies) . In such cases because the chord progressions is very short of two only chords, the successful layer of simplicity that will remain invariant is the simplicial melodic moves.

A METHOD T O CREATE THEORETICALLY BUT ALSO PRACTICALLY SIMPLICIAL COUNTER-MELODIES:

 IMPROVISATION METHOD BASED ON  A SET OF CHORDS AND MELODIC LINES BRIDGING THE HIGHEST NOTES OF EACH OF THEM. APPLICATION WITH STRUMMING WITH CUATRO, CAVAQUINHO, UKULELE , HARMONICA VIOLIN, WINDS ETC

The application idea is that when the chord is realized with a voicing on the highest 4 (or all 4) strings , we create melodic lines on the highest string bridging the highest notes of two succesive chords. Because of a inherent phenomenon of the human sound perception , when we are strumming and chaning the chords with in-between such melodic lines, the musical perception clearaly heres a melody, which is that of the highest notes. If it was not the highest notes the melodic lines would be more often lost in listening in the strumming.
Such chord-bridging melodic lines use a last small part of the previous chord duration and a small initial part of the new chord duration. During the rest ofthe time there is strumming of the chord or a achord arpeggio or variations of small melodic themes inside the chord by intervals of 3rd or 4th/5th. Thus melodic-harmonic variaonions. While when bridging two succesive chords there may be melodic themes variations by intervals of 2nd 3rd or 4th/5th (thus chromatic-melodic-harmonic).
This technique utilizes the simplicity of the information of the set of chord and translates it it to a simple information about the partition of the types of variations of simple melodic themes with the time placement and duration of the chords.
With this technique we may create simplicial counter-melodies parallel to melody.

It applies verty easily when utilizing a chromatic harmonica (see post 274), but also a violin (especially marked at a particular diatonic scale, so that we can identify chord-triad  shapes on it after a convenient tuning) and finally also on a diatonic wind.