METHODS TO LEARN MUSICAL FREE IMPROVISATION-COMPOSITION WITH NEW PERCEPTIONS

This book is for learning music composition and improvisation , based on more abstract mathematics of the music, the rhythm and the musical instrument and with new musical practice. It is a new awareness and method to link mental perception-images, the creation of feelings and finger actions. The true goal of composition and improvisation is the existential process of creating and listening it. It is both individually healing and socially celebrating.

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

270. THE ADVANTAGES OF IMPROVISING A MELODY VERSUS PLAYING A MELODY

THE ADVANTAGES OF IMPROVISING A MELODY VERSUS PLAYING A MELODY

PLAYING THE MELODY

DISADVANTAGES: 1) No sufficient space to interpolate your own feelings parallel to the melody
2) Rigid stereotypic repetition , that the slightest deviation will cause the feeling of an "error" or "bad sound". This will create fear and will "slauter" the "wings" to add your own "signature" to the melody. It will stop also and suppress the ability to compose your own melodies.

ADVANTAGES: 1) You do not have to involve much of your emotions and creativity , after learning it it seems easier to repeat it each time and if the melody is played correctly it is expected by the audience to to appreciate it.

IMPROVISING THE MELODY:

ADVANTAGES:1) Plenty of free space to interpolate your own feelings parallel to the melody
2) No rigid stereotypic repetition , each time played it is somehow different . The randomness of the decorative notes of the improvisation allows for searching the appropriate melodic center that corresponds to the intended emotion or for gradual correcting till the melodic center of the original melody is found This will create an euphoria of abundance of creativity and will multiply the ability to compose your own melodies in later times.

DISADVANTAGES: 1) It requires listening to your own mood (or the mood of the audience) when improvising the melody, and there is always the risk that the current version of the improvisation of the melody is not good enough compared maybe to previous improvisations or that the audience will not appreciate it enough as you appreciate it when your are improvising it.

IN OVER ALL IT IS OBVIOUS THAT IMPROVISING A MELODY IS BY FAR MORE ADVANTAGEOUS THAN JUST PLAYING THE MELODY.

SIMPLISTIC IDEAS THAT ENCOURAGE IN IMPROVISATION IN MELODIES AND HARMONY.

(See also post 263 . 270 and 83. A SCALE OF CHORDS ORIENTED IMPROVISATION METHOD VERSUS SCALE OF NOTES OR CHORDS OF A SCALE.)

In order to improvise one has to be daring and under the flow of a kind of joy.

The educational system of classical music which is based on reading scores is not appropriate for creating improvisation abilities.

1) The most important and also simple idea in melodic improvisation, is that the improvisation must be created at first or at least as well (but usually better than what in an musical instrument) in singing or whistling which will dominate the instrument playing even if later no singing or whistling is heard.
The living bioware is always a better musical instruments than a rigid hardware musical instrument or even digital musical instrument

2) It helps a lot for the improvisation of melodies to have the idea of STEPWISE GLISSANDO in the sense of scanning all notes in pitch linear order sequence of the scale that the instrument is tuned, so as to find the one that you will stay longer (melodic center as note of the simplicial sub-melody) or even correct to the melodic center if the melody is somehow already known. Instruments like piano, Celtic harm, or diatonic pan-flute are very helpful in this. The guitar or other string instruments with fingerboard (fiddle) or fretboard are not much helpful in this but they are helpful in chromatic stepwise glissando.

3) A 2nd simple idea in melody improvisation is that of the 3 types of variation: 1) translation b) inversion 3) contraction/expansion. The translation is to repeat the same melodic theme lower or higher in the scale. once or many times. This may involve deforming the exact intervals of the theme, but it creates a sense of repetition and at the same time of changes. The inversion is to make the ascending melodic theme descending but same pattern theme and vice versa. Again this may involve distorting the theme. The inversion makes the sad happy and vice-versa. Finally the expansion/contraction is the idea that chromatic intervals (2nds of 1 or 2 semitones) will create a kind of chromatic dissonance and tension, the melodic intervals (3rds major or minor) will create a sense of melodic feeling, and larger harmonic intervals of 4th, 5th of 8th a feeling of harmony. The simple idea is to wave sadness and joy or serenity and anxiety by waving from short size intervals to larger type of intervals and vice-versa.

4) For the harmony and in improvising at the level of chord progressions, the corresponding idea is a linear order of chords (major/minor) in sequential harmonic relation ,in other words that their roots are consecutive notes in the cycle by intervals of 4th. Given a melody in a diatonic scale or in chromatic tonality of a diatonic scale, when improvising almost randomly with chords, there is also a similar idea of stepwise glissando by chords either in diatonic pitch linear order of the roots or in the harmonic progression of their roots by 4ths so as to find the right chord and also twinkle major or minor till it fits well to the melody.

Other simple ideas to compose chord progressions involve the harmonic triad of major chords in a diatonic scale 1-4-5 and also the chords of a diatonic scale as enhanced by chromatic tonality (see post 263) Other simple ideas involve triads of harmonic pairs of chords in various relations like chromatic , melodic harmonic.

Monday, August 19, 2019

269. HOW TO LISTEN THE MUSIC OF THE LIVING PLANTS

HOW TO LISTEN THE MUSIC OF THE LIVING PLANTS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZaokNmQ4eY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR5iCvFevWw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4CONoyIMaw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rlTIPiLYHo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Og0KoeZzpGM

268. Transforming everyday objects into musical Instruments: Bruno Zamborlin at TEDxBrussels

Transforming everyday objects into musical Instruments: Bruno Zamborlin at TEDxBrussels

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGbyFxw3-pY

267. BART HOPKIN : A REMARKABLE ALTERNATIVE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS EXPERIMENTATOR

http://barthopkin.com/books-cds/

http://barthopkin.com/instrumentarium/

Sunday, August 18, 2019

266. THE ANCIENT 1ST CIVILIZATIONAL GENERATION MUSIC MELODIC TYPE OF IMPROVISATION

Here is about how improvisation was carried out in ancient times and is still carried our by the lovers of the 1st civilizational generation music (see post 265).

THE KEY-WORD HERE IN THE 4TH GENERATION DIGITAL MUSIC FOR THE MUSICAL-THEORETIC IDEAS OF THIS POST (AS FAR AS MORDEN SOFTWARE FOR MUSIC MAKING IS ) IS MELODY-SEQUENCERS AND ARPEGGIATORS

THE TERM SEQUENCER MEANS HERE A LOOP OR RHYTHMIC CYCLE OF A MELODIC THEME THAT IS VARIATED INTERACTIVELY BY THE USER IN A MELODIC SEQUENCER.

THERE MANY GOOD SOFTWARE PROGRAMS FOR THIS COMPOSITION AND IMPROVISATION LIKE FUGUE MACHINE, YAMAHA MOBILE SEQUENCER, THUMPJAM ETC. ALSO ARPIO AND ARPEGGIONOME FOR GENERAL ARPEGGIOS ALTERNATED WITH MELODIC IMPROVISATIONS

1) THE RHYTHMIC THEME (A PERCUSSION INSTRUMENT)

In addition to the percussion instrument we may have a morphological rhythmic pattern E.g. A1 B1 B2 B3 or A1 A2 A3 B1 , which shows how the melodic theme is repeated or varied by translation inversion , expansion/contraction and rotation-mutation.

2) THE 5 OR 6 OR 7 NOTES SCALES

3) THE NOTES THAT THE MELODY STAYS MUCH LONGER (CENTERS THAT MAKE THE SIMPLICIAL SUB-MELODY)

4) ALTERING THE SCALE TO CREATE SCALES PROGRESSION

5) REPETITION PATTERNS IN THE SCALES PROGRESSION

6) ISOCRATIC NOTES

7) ISOCRATIC NOTES IN STRING INSTRUMENTS WITH FRET BOARD AND TUNING BY 5THS OR 8THS AND COMBINATIONS

8) NO UNDERLYING CHORDS AND NO INSTRUMENT PLAYING ANY ACCOMPANYING CHORD.

9) BEST INSTRUMENTS FOR THIS TYPE OF IMPROVISATION. THE HARP WITH LEVERS AND.OR PEDALS.

IF THE CENTRAL ENTITY IN HARMONY IS THE TRIAD CHORD THE CENTRAL ENTITY IN MELODY IS THE MELODIC THEME AND IN PARTICULAR THE OVERSIMPLIFIED VERSION OF SIMPLE MELODIC MOVE BY AN INTERVAL AS TRACED IN SIMPLIFIED WAY BY THE SIMPLICIAL SUBMELODY.

Based on the above, the themes in the simplicial sub-melody as simple moves are of two polarities up (+) or down (-) and of three sizes Chromatic (symbol C) by intervals of 2nds, Melodic (symbol M) by intervals of 3rd and Harmonic (symbol H) by intervals of 4th, 5th, 8th or higher. Then the progression of the simplicial melodic themes in the song will have a symbolic form like E.g.

H(+)M(-)H(-)M(+)C(-)M(+)H(+).......etc

The translation/transposition of a simplicial melodic theme retains its cahracter as chromatic , melodic or harmonic.
The inversion of a simplicial melodic theme inverses the + to - andthe - to +
The expansion/contraction of a simplicial melodic theme e.g. an expansion changes a chromatic to a melodic or harmonic and a melodic to an harmonic. A contraction changes an harmonic to a melodic or chromatic and a melodic to a chromatic.

265. THE 4 CIVILIZATIONAL GENERATIONS OF MUSIC. MONOPHONIC (MELODIC SCALES) POLYPHONIC (HARMONIC CLASSICAL MUSIC) IMPROVISATIONAL (JAZZ AND FOLK) DIGITAL (ELECTRONIC )

Thursday, August 15, 2019

264. A NEW BOWED STRING INSTRUMENT THE METRIC (FRETTED) LYRA OR FRET-LIN (OR...BOWED DULCIMER)

FRETBOARD VIOLIN (FRET-LIN OR METRIC-LYRA ) PLAYED AS CRETAN LYRA (OR SMALL CELLO)

Many companies of electric violins manufacture them with frets on the fingerboard.

If we apply on the violin fingerboard ready made auto-sticking fretboards, we still can have tremolo and vibrato and even a type of glissanti while we do not spent so much time learning the fingerboard. Then if we know fretboard string instruments like mandolin , ukulele, guitar it helps a lot to start playing the violin as an instrument without artificial difficulties.

(Here is such a product from a canadian musician http://www.frettedfiddle.com/ )

In addition it is by far more convenient to play it as they play the folk Lyra in Greece (Crete) and other places in other words like a small cello, on the knees. If we want to have also the bow falling with its own weight in stable way on the strings as in the standard position of the violin we may use simple bow drivers like these here https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32878752247.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.21cd4c4deuojvB )

After learning to play adequately in this little violin-Lyra we may put the bow outside the plastic driver and on the site of the upper side of the fretboard, and let simply this driver be used so that the bow does not get lower than this, and use its own weight to pressure, but still we may have the freedom of moves to turn the bow on its own axis at different angles if we want a more narrow surface of the touch on the strings.

FRENCH AND GERMAN BOW HOLDING

The bow in case of this modification of the violin which is essentially a new instrument that could be called FRET-LIN OR METRIC-LYRA can be either with the German (the hand lower than the bow) or French (the hand over the bow) way in cello. The French way gives more control because of more efficient use of the bones of muscles of wrist for difficult moves of the bow, but the German way is more relaxing. A best result is if we use both ways for difficult bowing the French way and for stand more easy bowing the German way.

CHORDS IN FRET-LIN

Because the fingerboard is a fretboard, the chords shapes pressed by the fingers is a by far more practical practice than what is the case in violin.

GLISSANDO-GLASS FOR THE BOWED FRETTED-LYRA

By utilizing a sliding glass as in a havaia guitar, at the index or another finger, we may add very nice sounding glissanti melodies especially at t hose pieces of melody that the notes are few and not of very large intervals (2nds or 3rds)

ALTERNATIVE TUNINGS FOR THE FRET-LIN OR METRIC-LYRA

1) As we wrote in post 209, there is a system of melodic improvisation based on drone (isocratic) interval of an octave and melodies derived by alternating intervals 5th and 4rth so as to create successive power-5 chords among octaves. But this requires alo in string instruments special tuning and a space of 3 to 4 octaves.

happily for the violin have been created the octave-violin strings which are one octave lower from the standard. So instead of G3-D4-A4-E5 these strings will tune the violin to G2-D3-A3-E4.

See e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgZdlEBpIBI

This allows for mixed low-standard tunings of the violin for melodic improvisations as inpost 209 that are 8-5-8 meaning that the 1st-2nd string are one octave apart , the 2nd-3rd one fifth apart and the 3rd-4th one octave apart E.g.

G2-G3-D4-D5 (utilizing strings octave G2, standard G3, octave D3, standard E4 for the D5 ) or

A2-A3-E4-E5 (utilizing strings octave G2 for A2 , standard A3, octave E4, standard E5)

The 2nd requires one tone loosening one standard string and the 1st one octave string and one standard string tightening by one tone.

OTHER ALTERNATIVE TUNINGS

1) HARMONIC TUNING FOR 4-STRINGS

(These tunings are not only mainly for playing arpeggios and simplicial submelody, when another ,usually wind , instrument is playing the solo, but also when the Lyra is playing solo)

This is an alternating minor-major 3rds tuning that has open chords in normal position per consecutive 3 strings and also a 7nth open chord in normal position for all 4-strings (see post 90 )

It is the tuning

E4-G4-B4-D5

It is an open E minor 7nth chord

We use for the D5 the E5 violin string. For the B4 the A4 violin string. For the G4 the A4 violin string For the E4 the D4 violin string.

This tuning has the maximum number of chord shapes per number of frets, and also all the melodies are quite compact close when changing from string to string.

Because the tuning by 3rds has less total range to increase it we may have the 1st two strings one octave lower by using octave violin strings. In other words

E3-G3-B4-D5

Then the E3 is by the D3 octave violin string, and the G3 by the normal G3 violin string.

The above harmonic tuning has privileged scale the G major. For folk sings and jazz songs we may have also as privileged scale the F major as follows:

D4-F4-A4-C5

It is an open D minor 7nth chord

We use for the C5 the E5 violin string. For the A4 the A4 violin string. For the F4 the A4 violin string For the D4 the D4 violin string.

2) UKULELE TUNING

Of course an alternative tuning for many chords but not in normal position is the ukulele tuning.

It is the tuning

D4-G4-B4-E5

We use for the E5 the E5 violin string. For the B4 the A4 violin string. For the G4 the A4 violin string For the D4 the D4 violin string.

3) THE OCTAVES 3 STRING TUNING:

This is utilizing again the D3 octave string of the violin and it is simply the

D3-D4-D5

For the D5 we use obviously the E5 string

The advantage is obviously very easy grasping of the notes on the fingerboard , as known one strings is known all the violin.

4) THE PANDURI OR OPEN MAJOR CHORD 3 STRING TUNING:

These tunings have less range than the tunings by 5ths , but also other advantages that we describe here

These PANDURI tunings are not only mainly for playing arpeggios and simplicial submelody, when another ,usually wind , instrument is playing the solo but advantageous, as we explain below when the Lyra is playing solo too.

For solos, the tunings below have the characteristic that we can easily-readily play the 2nd or 3rd voice on the other 2 strings. In addition as the strings are close and differ only at an interval of 3rd, and as most melodies have a span of 1-2 octaves, then all of the melody they can be played in one only of the 3 strings which is quite intuitive in its linear pitch order, as in harp or panflute (except here chromatically not diatonically).

This is not utilizing octave strings of the violin and it is simply the open G3 major chord. The advantage is obviously very easy arpeggios (harpisms) on all chords of the (G major) diatonic scale.

G4-B4-D5

For the D5 we use obviously the E5 string and for the B4 the A4 string of the violin.

For the G4 we use the A4 string of the violin

Or we can set the

F4-A4-C5

For the C5 we use obviously the E5 string and for the A4 the A4 string of the violin.

For the F4 we use the A4 string of the violin

The above tuning is best for familiar sound of chords.

If we want ab octave lower such tuning, in other words

F3-A3-C4

Then we utilize a G3 string for the F3, an octave violin A3 string or a standard violin G3 string again, and for the C4 the standard violin D4 string.

There is also a similar open major chord (panduri) tuning which is a 4th higher (for arpeggione and simplicial sub-melody to the solo melody played by another instrument ) but still in a diatonic scale fitting the brass winds the clarinet and the saxophone in Bb

Bb4-D5-F5

For the F5 we use obviously the E5 string and for the D4 the E4 string of the violin.

For the Bb4 we use the A4 string of the violin

If we want a larger range version of the open major chord tuning,then we may utilize the D3 string of the violin and an octave G2 string of the violin and have the tuning by jumping an octave between the notes as follows:

G2-B3-D5

This 3-string tuning has larger range than the usual 4-strings violin!

Nevertheless because of the octaves between the strings the sound of the chords is not so natural as the previous more narrow range tuning.

A VERSION WITH 2 ONLY STRINGS

For starters it is more convenient to start learning it with 2 only strings tuned D4-A4

or D4-D5

We may start with rather cheap chinese violin that start from........30-40 $ or 90-110 $ and if we still like playing the instrument after a year we may proceed with more expensive violin bodies.