JAVS Fall 2003

A BASICS OF M ELODI

By KatrinaWreede

notes on an adjacent string. I usually start with something like open D and G, A, Bb, C. Change pitches slowly. Enjoy the quality of comple tion in a perfect fourth, the passion in a major second. After a few min utes, additional notes, perhaps some shifting exercise or a part of a scale, will demand to add themselves. After ten minutes, whole, logical phrases may appear. Tone and pitch sensitivi ty improve without effort. In a group, especially with students, everyone can drone quietly on the same pitch, while each player takes a turn playing a few notes, a short phrase, or an entire musical event. Wait for a while between improvisa tions to settle the air and allow each person to claim their own voice, not just answer the previous player. A person leading the group can set boundaries like: create a contour like a wave, use only notes in E major, start loud and get soft, etc. The important thing is to listen to each other and appreciate the privilege of making sounds that have meaning. A great deal of folk, fiddle, ethnic, and jazz repertoire uses the church modes -Mixolydian, Lydian, Phrygian, etc. (See side bar)-with few or no altered notes. Miles Davis would not have been Miles Davis without the Dorian mode. With a practice partner, try trading a drone on the root of a chosen mode Modal Improvisations - with and without a drone

A Quick Review of Church Modes

Improvisation at its most basic is sim ple conversation. Like in any conversa tion, improvisers respond to events, people, emotions, and/or they use sty listically appropriate language, deter mined by context, which they learn through study; listening, and imitation. While any music relies on human con nections like those between players, audience, and composer, improvisation draws on skills that violists excel in: lis tening, supporting, answering, and expressing oplllions. These skills, used in improvisation, along with a little patience, curiosi ty and joyfulness, will open an entire new dimension of music to be created and shared. For purpos es of this article, I have divided some general improvisation tech niques into four categories. Much of the world's music as well as the beginnings ofwestern European classical music rely on drones. Drones maintain a tonal and emo tional center, create movement and story-telling through the consonance and dissonance of each changing interval, and in the simplest possible way, allow the musician to experi ment with stillness, drama, pure pitch, even spiritual reflection. When improvising alone, a violist can use long, slow bow strokes on a double stop of open string with a few Improvisations Over a Drone-in groups and alone

The church modes are series of pitches similar to scales. Used roughly from 800-1500, they furmed the basis for nearly all western music. Benward, Bruce, Music in Theory and Pracrice, Vol. I, (Dubuque, IA: Wm. C. Brown, 1981) p. 44. Note in the examples below that in authentic modes, pitches are arranged within the octave ofthe final (later called tonic), refir ring to the final note on which a melody might end. Plagal modesftature pitches arranged both above and below the final Authentic modes Plagal modes I. Dorian II. Hypodorian Ill. Phrygian N Hypophrygian V Lydian VI Hypolydian VII. Mixolydian VIII Hypomixolydian IX. Aeolian X. Hypoaeolian XI. Ionian XII Hypoionian

... ... -&-

• • •

I. Dorian

a •

liB liB liB liB 3

• •

II. Hypodorian

a • •

• • •

......... .a..

•

6> • •

III. Phrygian

• • ...

IV~ Hypophrygian

• 6> • • • • • • • 6>

V. Lydian liB

• • a

VI Hypolydian liB

.....

• • • •

• 6>

Vll. Mixolydian

• • •

liB

6>

• •

a •

• • ..

VIII Hypomixolyclian liB

• • •

a •

• • • •

IX. Aeolian

a

liB

6> • •

X. Hypoaeolian liB

• •

• •

• 6>

• •

• ... .a..

• •

XL Ionian

6> • •

liB liB

•

XII Hypoionian

• • •

• 6>

• •

VOLUME 19

NUMBER 2

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