Countermelody:
Most of the suggestions about soloing parallel to chords are of the type:
Most of the suggestions about soloing parallel to chords are of the type:
1) Play the arpeggio or chord-tone of the chord
2) Play the pentatonic scale, minor or major, with the same root
3) Play a mode or scale that the song is in it
etc
And although applying the above will not sound ugly when soloing, still all of the above are inadequate for good licks and multiplicative (meaning dense and chatty) soloing by an instrument in a song! The reason is the next: A song has a singable melody and chords and when soloing, the soloing must not only fit the chord progressions but also resemble the melody that the singer sings especially at the pattern of repeating and transforming simple melodic themes!
Now the melody has simple themes that repeat, ascend or descend and expand or contact. So the soloing must refect the simple theme repetition and transform them in more complicated ways. That is why all the 1),2), 3) are not really adequate.
Here is an example of the fitting of the melody that the singers sings and the instrumental multiplicative soloing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYXYoUb13nM
Here is an example of the fitting of the melody that the singers sings and the instrumental multiplicative soloing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYXYoUb13nM
In other posts of this book, we have enlarged on the structure of the melody from simple themes that somehow repeat and the simplicial sub melody. E.g. the soloing must have also the same simplicial sub melody.
This improvisation is very very common is traditional and folk music. (E.g. Moden Greek songs with companionship with bouzouki, or Latin songs with companionship with charango or ukulele).
This morphology of the songs is as important as accompanying a melody with chords. But it is done only with the dialogue of two melodies! The first is the main simple melody that a human sings and the second is a multiplied melody or a twitting , bird-singing-like soloing.
The dialogue usually respects, that when one of the two is playing the other is most often silent but not always. But there is a radical difference between the two. Although both play supposedly the melody of the same song, the singable melody is simple with fewer notes and possible to sing by a human voice. While the instrumental dialogue melody, is with many notes, it is chatty, it utilizes almost all the 4 melodic harmonic-speeds (see post 68), the diatonic and chromatic speeds mostly at the chord transitions. Most often it is so densely complicated with possibly so abrupt jumps that a voice can hardly sing it . This second instrumental melody is like a singing bird in dialogue with a singing human voice.
Still, the chords that fit to both the human voice and the instrumental chatty-birdy reply are most usually the same sequence of chords. So the chatty-birdy instrumental instrumental reply is essentially a variation embellishment of the melody with the same harmony and the same simplicial sub-melody. The chatty-birdy reply is done usually during the longer playing of the last chord of the melodic phrase.
Still, the chords that fit to both the human voice and the instrumental chatty-birdy reply are most usually the same sequence of chords. So the chatty-birdy instrumental instrumental reply is essentially a variation embellishment of the melody with the same harmony and the same simplicial sub-melody. The chatty-birdy reply is done usually during the longer playing of the last chord of the melodic phrase.
Different playing of the song by different groups may respect the melody of the human voice but may largely improvise and vary on the second birdy instrumental melody.
The Birdy-chatty instrumental melody maybe utilizing more of of waving around the human singable melody, or fast melodic patterns of the chromatic, diatomic, and harmonic middle and high harmonic speeds, BUT always within the same chord progression of the simple human-voice melody.
Because this birdy-chatty instrumental accompanying melody follows in composition and improvisation both the chord progression AND the simple human voice melody its composition and improvisation is easier, than the composition of a melody after a chord progression. Still what we have write about how to compose default melodies from a chord progression applies here too (see posts 9, 27, 69 etc) . That is why in the method of composing melodies after a chord progression (see post 9) we use the technique of composing at first a simplicial submelody (which plays the role of the simple human singable melody) and then the full melody (which plays the role of the birdy-chatty instrumental dialogue melody. Of course here we have an additional element to compose, that of the way the two melodies make the dialogue as they both sound, while in the previous reference the simplicial submelody may not sound as a separate melody in the song.
The Birdy-chatty instrumental melody maybe utilizing more of of waving around the human singable melody, or fast melodic patterns of the chromatic, diatomic, and harmonic middle and high harmonic speeds, BUT always within the same chord progression of the simple human-voice melody.
Because this birdy-chatty instrumental accompanying melody follows in composition and improvisation both the chord progression AND the simple human voice melody its composition and improvisation is easier, than the composition of a melody after a chord progression. Still what we have write about how to compose default melodies from a chord progression applies here too (see posts 9, 27, 69 etc) . That is why in the method of composing melodies after a chord progression (see post 9) we use the technique of composing at first a simplicial submelody (which plays the role of the simple human singable melody) and then the full melody (which plays the role of the birdy-chatty instrumental dialogue melody. Of course here we have an additional element to compose, that of the way the two melodies make the dialogue as they both sound, while in the previous reference the simplicial submelody may not sound as a separate melody in the song.
I give here three example. One from a song of traditional music of Andes with charango , and two from modern Greek music with bouzouki.
2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoGdeg2K81c
3) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNE1bBVyImE
Improvisation with 3-string Greek bouzouki, requires learning scales essentially on two successive strings, which is a lot easier than learning guitar scale shapes on 6 strings!
3) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNE1bBVyImE
Improvisation with 3-string Greek bouzouki, requires learning scales essentially on two successive strings, which is a lot easier than learning guitar scale shapes on 6 strings!
We will discus here, how such a dialogue between the human singable simple melody and the chatty-birdy melody can me composed.
A way to make the dialogue is to chose some of the human voice melody intervals, and consider them as starting and ending points of melodic moves of the chatty-birdy instrument melody, so that this 2nd melody extrapolates the 1st. And the way to compose these chatty-birdy melodic moves are as in the post 72. For example we may take a simplicial submelody or all of the 1st human-voice melody and consider it as simplcial submelody to the 2nd melody to compose the chatty-birdy instrumental 2nd melody. Then we embellish the simplicial sub-melody with standard waving that are preferred by the player of the instrument.
ACCOMPANYING A MELODY WITH INTERVALS INSTEAD OF WITH CHORDS.
Another simple idea is that the countermelody (especially when it is on a simpler scale e.g. a pentatonic ) can be used to accompany the melody not with chords but with intervals from the simpler scale of the countermelody. E.g. we may utilize intervals by 3rds as in the role of minor diminished or augmented chords and the intervals of 4th or 5th as major or power chords
IN MY APPROACH IN THIS BOOK I FAVOR MIXTURE OF AN IN ADVANCED COMPOSED MUSIC PIECE AND A LATER IMPROVISATION OVER IT, RATHER THAN A 100% PRIMA-VISTA IMPROVISATION. THE REASON IS OBVIOUS. THERE ARE ADVANTAGES OF MUSICAL COMPOSITION THAT WILL TAKE MORE TIME THAN THE DURATION OF THE MUSICAL PIECE OVER A DIRECT IMPROVISATIONAL CREATION OF IT AS WE LISTEN TO IT. THE FORMER GIVES US THE OPPORTUNITY OF A BETTER QUALITY MUSICAL CREATION AND A BETTER BALANCE OF THE PREVIOUS TRIANGLE OF MUSICAL MENTAL IMAGES, SOUND FEELINGS AND FINGER ACTIONS WHEN WE IMPROVISE LATER ON THE ALREADY COMPOSED MUSICAL PIECE.
A way to make the dialogue is to chose some of the human voice melody intervals, and consider them as starting and ending points of melodic moves of the chatty-birdy instrument melody, so that this 2nd melody extrapolates the 1st. And the way to compose these chatty-birdy melodic moves are as in the post 72. For example we may take a simplicial submelody or all of the 1st human-voice melody and consider it as simplcial submelody to the 2nd melody to compose the chatty-birdy instrumental 2nd melody. Then we embellish the simplicial sub-melody with standard waving that are preferred by the player of the instrument.
ACCOMPANYING A MELODY WITH INTERVALS INSTEAD OF WITH CHORDS.
Another simple idea is that the countermelody (especially when it is on a simpler scale e.g. a pentatonic ) can be used to accompany the melody not with chords but with intervals from the simpler scale of the countermelody. E.g. we may utilize intervals by 3rds as in the role of minor diminished or augmented chords and the intervals of 4th or 5th as major or power chords
IN MY APPROACH IN THIS BOOK I FAVOR MIXTURE OF AN IN ADVANCED COMPOSED MUSIC PIECE AND A LATER IMPROVISATION OVER IT, RATHER THAN A 100% PRIMA-VISTA IMPROVISATION. THE REASON IS OBVIOUS. THERE ARE ADVANTAGES OF MUSICAL COMPOSITION THAT WILL TAKE MORE TIME THAN THE DURATION OF THE MUSICAL PIECE OVER A DIRECT IMPROVISATIONAL CREATION OF IT AS WE LISTEN TO IT. THE FORMER GIVES US THE OPPORTUNITY OF A BETTER QUALITY MUSICAL CREATION AND A BETTER BALANCE OF THE PREVIOUS TRIANGLE OF MUSICAL MENTAL IMAGES, SOUND FEELINGS AND FINGER ACTIONS WHEN WE IMPROVISE LATER ON THE ALREADY COMPOSED MUSICAL PIECE.
(this post has not been written completely yet)
