129. IMPROVISATION WITH THE 1st 2nd 3rd and 6-NOTES PENTATONIC HARMONIC MINOR AND PENTATONIC OR 6-NOTES HARMONIC DOUBLE MINOR SCALE.

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These scales are relatively unknown. We describe them below.

The pentatonic harmonic minor scale can be derived from the harmonic minor scale by truncated it to a pentatonic scale. E.g. if the C diatonic scale is the c d e f g a b c, and the pentatonic is the c d e  g a  c  (2-2-3-2-3)  while the  harmonic minor is the  c d e f g# a b c, (2-2-1-3-1-2-1) then the 1st pentatonic harmonic minor is the scale c d e g# a c (2-2-4-1-3). Nevertheless although both the pentantonic and the 7-notes harmonic minor can be set by the levers in C major tuned Celtic harp, the pentatonic harmonic minor cannot. What can be tuned though is the next 6-notes scale: c d e f# g# a b#=c with interval structure 2-2-2-2-1-3 which may be called 6-notes harmonic minor. A cyclic permutation of it which is the same scale (but different mode) is the 3-2-2-2-2-1 which is nothing else than the scale of Native American 6-holes flute. E.g. if such a flute is with root C, it will be c-d#-f-g-a-b-c.

Sometimes a 5th step mode of the pentatonic is used which is the c-d-f-g-a-c (2-3-2-2-3) or a still different realization of this mode of the pentatonic as the d-e-g-a-b-d (2-3-2-2-3). Now if in these versions of this mode of the pentatonic we substitute the g with g# as in harmonic minor we get the pentatonic scales c-d-f-g#-a-c (2-3-3-1-3), and d-e-g#-a-b-d (2-4-1-2-3).  The former pentatonic may be called 2nd pentatonic harmonic minor and the latter 3rd pentatonic harmonic minor scale.
These scales are also easily realizable in Irish whistles and diatonic winds in general

We remind from the post 81 that THE HARMONIC PENTATONIC (not the pentatonic harmonic minor )  (AN UNNOTICED SO FAR PENTATONIC SCALE!) is derived from the first 11 harmonics of a tone and it is the

C-D-E-F-G-C (SEMITONE STRUCTURE 2-2-1-2-5)
(WITHIN THE FIRST 11 HARMONICS) which is again sometimes overtones scale of the overtones flutes! .

We explain in the next, what is the pentatonics and 6-notes harmonic double minors, and how improvisation can be done with it.

128. IMPROVISATION AND CREATION OF ADOPTIONS OF A SONG BY MELODY (COUNTERMELODY) SIMULTANEOUSLY SOUNDING OR ALTERNATING WITH ANOTHER MELODY

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This improvisation technique is from old civilizations like in the Chinese  harps , Greek Kanon or Kanonaki or Sandouri,  eastern kanon (qanun) , etc when the concept of chord was not discovered or invented yet as widespread tradition in the music. We do not mean here the simultaneous sounding of 2 or 3  or 4 voices in harmony. 

See also post 102 , 111 , 118, 197.

And a relevant video of two parallel melodies music



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcHWvl16mpg

The next is a rather funny but beautiful example with the ukulele band playing same chords but different well known melodies that still fit!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HuSx3z0E6g

Some rules of compatibility of the simultaneous or alternating melodies 

The basic rules are the next 2

RULE 1 NON-DISSONANCE The main  (possibly human voice ) melody and the instrumental counter melody  have intervals of simultaneous sounding  that statistically are more of 3rds 4ths/5ths, 6ths and 8ths or larger compared to those by  2nds. Thsi may include that one of them is chord-arpeggio, but it is not necessary. Also they may sound simultaneously or sound by pieces in an alternating mode. 

(See also post 112 about the harmonic statistical profile of a melody)

RULE 2 SIMPLE-COMPLICATED The one of the two melodies is monotone simple and repetitive, like percussion or drone melody or chord-arpeggio , while the second is more complicated and changing.Some times the simpler may be simply strumming an interval of the scale that contains the parallel melodic theme, but maybe on different octave. If the instruments is a piano or digital keyboard, or an harp, or a Kanun (Qanun) or a Sandouri played by the fingers, then is is convenient to play the simpler melody with the left hand, and the complicated with the right hand. 

RULE 3. BASS-LINE OR SOPRANO DRONE The simpler repetitive type of melody can be   at higher octaves compared to the more complicated melody or it can be a kind of bass-line in lower octaves.


RULE 4. KITE-LIKE THEMES.   Usually but not always the simpler  type of melody may be a melodic simplicial sub-melody (like drone melody) of the melodic centers of the more complicated melody, or an homemorphic variation of it. If there is also a chord progression it may be the harmonic or the chromatic simplicial sub-melody. For this to work better the complicated melody might consists from melodic themes that are kite-like with a tail and a head. In other words the tail is a path that is  waving or straight  (Dolphin-words) that ends on a longer and louder sounding note (Head)  which is a local  center of the melodic theme. We remind that the basic structure of the melody is through melodic themes (see also post 101 about Dolphin-words). Each melodic theme must convey a musical meaning as simple proposition has verb that expresses some action-motion subject and object (see posts 27 and 40 about melodies as language).

RULE 5. We may go as far as utilizing this method as a method of creating adoptions or remix of a  song. This requires that the improvised melody will fit only to a percentage x%<50% with the parallel sounding song and the rest 100%-x% the melody , rhythm and chords will not fit and will be the innivated adoption of the song (according to our inner emotional impulses and habits) . Of course the overall  result of the underlying song and its adoptoion will not be audible with good feelings as they will be incompatible , but the intention is to be inspired in real time by the song and create in real time an adoption of it. Finally oly the adioption will be presented not the parallel initialinspiration. 

127. IMPROVISATION AS FREE VARIATIONS OF YOUR OWN PREDETERMINED COMPOSITION

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126. IMPROVISATION BY A SINGLE CHORD OF VARIABLE EXTENSION TYPE

SIMULTANEOUS BASS-CHORD-MELODY IMPROVISATION (David Reed)

(As we utilize only 4 fingers of the left hand, the 3 of them always sound the bass and the chord, while the 4th the notes of the melody, that may or may  not belong to the chord.)

In his book "Improvise for Real" David Reed, strongly suggests to investigate by improvisation the 4 types of chords Rmaj7 (in semitones 1-4-7-11), Rm7 (in semitones 1-3-7-10), R7 (in semitones 1-4-7-10), Rm7b5 (in semitones 1-3-6-10), with parallel melodies, always on higher pitch relative to the highest pitch note of the chord. For harmony beyond tonality, the appropriate numbering of the notes of a diatonic major scale measured with semitones is 1-2-4-5-7-9-11 |  1. David Reed suggests that utilizing the relative numbering rather than the specific name of the note (and he is mainly utilizing the numbering as a major diatonic scale 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 | 1), the mental tools in the human imagination are kept simple and directly applicable on the frets of the guitar fretboard or the buttons of the piano keyboard. In simpler words he insists in re-creating the desired harmony , by intervals and triads from chords  for the melody and the chords.

See also this video which presents almost exactly the same idea, as suggested by Jerry Bergonzi.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2X-WsnWCAaA&t=209s

This chord-melody  technique is by far more abstract, thus powerful. It is not based on memorized chord-shapes!  The chord-shapes are continuously changing even for the same chord inside and area of 4-5  frets and are created on the going with the melody!  Both the melody is played but at the same time the chord behind the melody too. It is  played so that the melody is always the highest pitch note, the root of the chord the lowest pitch note, and the 2 intermediate notes again notes of the chord. One finger is used for the melody and 3-fingers for the chord. It is always sounding at most 4 notes, of 4 strings.  Notice that finding and playing these fingerings of e.g. 1st chord Cmajor  harmonizing any note of the C major scale, from higher C to lower C, is not the same as just finding the fingerings of the chords Cmaj7, C7, C6, Cadd11, Cadd9, because of the condition of having the note of the melody always the highest pitch,  the root  unchanged as fret position and because we descend 2 octaves rather than one. Most of the times the resulting chord may not have any known symbol, and so also its shape may not be any known chord shape. Nevertheless the classification of the fretboard shapes of the 8 types of chords as in post 28 and of  triads as in post 38, is useful in practicing this type of beautiful chord-melody improvisation. From the next videos that describes this techniques of improvisation called chord-melody, we may deduce that the chords behind the melody are always of one of the next 4 types: Rmaj7, Rm7, R7, Rm7b5.  Of course we can restrict the technique to have background chords for the melody only R, Rm, with one (or rarely two) notes (but never the root) each time missing and substituted by the note of the melody. This would be improvisational classical 4-voices harmony, and the  post 39 is devoted to it. We may also change the background chord in such a way, that the note of the melody is always also a note of the chord. For this the classification of shapes in post 38 is useful. In other words we may make sure that the 4-string chord-melody is such that the utilized chord types are of some only specific set e.g. Only R, Rm 4-string chord melody. This would be improvisational classical 4-voices harmony on 4-strings , and the  post 39 is devoted to it. Or only Rm7b5, R ,4-string chord melody, or only Rmaj7, R7 4-string chord melody etc.

In general though David Reed suggests that we play and improvise  as melodic notes any note of the diatonic scale for any chord of the diatonic scale!  It seems to me that the only requirement that binds the arbitrary chord with the arbitrary melodic note of the diatonic scale, is that the melodic notes that belong to the chord as a total last in time longer , say 2/3 of the time , while any other arbitrary note of the scale, only 1/3 of the time. 

 For this wonderful technique see e.g. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=binjvIqAN1s
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAxB5bQfF5s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-P06FDk4NA)

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxeOjqNK2Cw

The channel and sites are the next
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz83VW6dQLvAdUeZg9IDTHg

https://improviseforreal.com/Products/ifr-video-course-guitar-module-1

125. INTERVALS AND POWER-CHORDS IMPROVISATION

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See also post 40  on intervals classification and post 35 on power chords

This method is simply mainly creating a rather arbitrary sequence of intervals of 3rds in the diatonic scale (easily visualized in the piano keyboard, diatonic harp or diatonic winds) , which may be alternating with intervals of larger intervals of 4ths-5ths 6th and 8th. Occasionally but less than 33% of the times, we may alternate intervals by 2nds (see also post 93 on the statistical harmonic profile of a melody). 

124.IMPROVISATION WITH THE HARMONIC MINOR (1st Byzantine minor) AND HARMONIC DOUBLE MINOR (2nd Byzantine minor) SCALE

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Again one of the 1st and easiest way is as in post 102 by unaccompanied melodies with the alternation of chord and transition melodic themes. Any triad of the scale and any melodic theme would sound romantic and beautiful.

In a Celtic harp with levers tuned in C, an easy  A Harmonic minor is to give a sharp by levers at the G, and the harmonic double minor (Byzantine) is to give a sharp by levers at G and D (strictly speaking it will be a mode of the C major harmonic double minor).

Especially the method described in post 104 with simple Dolphin words of long and short parts, that are alternated not with a full 3-notes chord but with a interval of 5th, and especially only one based on the B (2nd step of the harmonic A minor scale) will give beautiful pieces that remind the Erik Satie Gnossiennes.  To be more specific just follow the video by Ray Pool on Dorian Improvisation with harp and apply it not on the Dorian mode of a diatonic scale, but on the Dorian mode (starting from B) in the harmonic A minor scale. Here is the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NomPFFmycDo&t=447s

Another method is to play in the harp with the left hand a simple random melody in lower octaves , (It applied to all scales not only the Byzantine scales) and then with the right hand at higher octaves , a triad chord with always middle note the last note of the simple melody of the left hand (or root or dominant note but always the same rule during the improvisation)  . For guitarist that have fingernails at the right hand and no finger nails at he lefts hand playing a simple low pitch melody and then such an alternation of chord with the right hand is easier and more convenient (See also the Colombian harpist Edmar Castandeda). Of course this improvisation can be done also with a (diatonic or harmonic simple minor  or harmonic double minor) wind instrument, and instead of chord we play the arpeggio of the chord in single or in two octaves.

Still, another simpler improvisation method that applies to all scales is to keep sounding the root note of the scale and play freely with melodic themes in the scale. E.g. Shastro flute improvisations

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BD1y0TOk3o&t=188s

There are of course more advanced improvisation methods with chord accompanied melodies.

See also this very relevant video

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

123. IMPROVISATION WITH THE PENTATONIC SCALE

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The simplest way is as we described in the post 102 , of improvisation  of unaccompanied melodies, with the alternation of chord and transition melodic theme.

Here the chords are the root and 5th (e.g. in F major pentatonic F G A C D, it is the F and Dm) and arbitrary sequences of notes between them.

Next we describe more methods with accompanied by chords melodies.

As in lever Harp tuned in C major the directly tunable pentatonic scales is the G major and F major we refresh some information about the F major pentatonic scale

Musical Scale Info: F major pentatonic

Notes of this scale:

F G A C D

Interval structure of this scale:

W W (W+h) W (W+h)  (W: Whole tone, h: half tone)

Scale structure:

1 2 3 5 6

Chords that fit in this scale:

Normal Triads: Dm     F    Other Triads: Csus4     Csus2     Dsus4     Fsus2     Gsus4     Gsus2    4 Notes Chords: Dm7     D7sus4     F6     G7sus4     G7sus2      Csus4\F     Csus4\G    5 and 6 Note Chords: Dm11     F6/9     G9sus4     G9sus2

Scales Equivalent to F major pentatonic :

D minor pentatonic;

Scales wich notes are within F major pentatonic:

;

Scales where F major pentatonic is within them:

C major; F major; A#/Bb major; C melodic minor; C ionian; F ionian; A#/Bb ionian; D natural minor; G natural minor; A natural minor; C dorian; D dorian; G dorian; D phrygian; E phrygian; A phrygian;  D#/Eb lydian; F lydian; A#/Bb lydian; C mixolydian; F mixolydian; G mixolydian; D aeolian; G aeolian;  A aeolian; E locrian; A locrian; B locrian; D blues;

Scales 1 note away from F major pentatonic:

C major pentatonic; A#/Bb major pentatonic; G minor pentatonic; A minor pentatonic;

Here is a video where the soloing around any chord X is the pentatonic scale of its root, which equivalent with the arpeggio of the chord X with 6th and added 9th (or 2nd) thus X6add9.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVSzSVYqjbU&t=44s