Chromatic Scales; The Vitamin C of Your Music Vocabulary

Chromatic Scales:

Vitamin C of a Musical Vocabulary

ascorbic acid (əˈskôrbik)

noun

a vitamin found particularly in citrus fruits and green vegetables. It is essential in maintaining healthy connective tissue, and is also thought to act as an antioxidant. Severe deficiency causes scurvy. Also called vitamin C.

Vitamin ‘C’ maintains the connective tissue of human body cells.  In the same way, the chromatic scale connects chordal ideas, distant keys, and atonal episodes.

Examples of all the above can be found in almost any extended piece of music, written or improvised, classical or jazz.

Sadly, the chromatic scale is treated by most as a given; once learned, seldom practiced, instead of never practiced enough.

I give you here ways and means to acquire control of this overlooked treasure in the following exercises. 

An example of my thoughts on the chromatic scale:

To play a 2-octave scale from ‘x’ note to ‘y’ note, the groups of 4, or 3, or 5, or 6, etc. should be determined, counted, and marked.

This way the scale will be executed with precision, instead of beginning and hoping for the best.

I’ll offer methods to do this.

My information however, can have the effect of a prescription for Castor Oil:

I was once giving a lesson to a university student, a saxophone major, explaining my ideas on chromatic scale practice, having her play my etudes.  All of a sudden she burst into tears, slammed her book closed, and rushed from my office, crying: “I’m a junior in college; I don’t have to practice the chromatic scale anymore!”.

The more fluent you become in the control of the chromatic scale, the more valuable it’ll become; you will want to use it more and more, in writing music and in improvisation, not to mention increased ability acquired in reading music more precisely.

So, whether a beginner, playing your instrument as a hobby, or earning your living as a classical, commercial, or jazz musician, you need to always explore and practice the chromatic scale, ---- even if you’re a junior in college.

Exercises:

Begin practicing the scale for only one octave, ascending and descending, dividing it into triplet groups, groups of 4, and groups of 6.  Tiplets will begin each group with a note of a diminished 7^th chord, groups of 4 with notes of an augmented triad, and groups of 6 with the notes of a diminished 5^th interval.  Each musician can go on from here to find organizing ideas of his own.

More Exercises to follow; please check back soon.  Errol

I’m not inferring that while a jazz musician is playing his solo, he’s calculating this way, of course not;

I’m explaining how to work in the practice room, where you internalize these processes, so when performing, your intuitive subconscious will effortlessly add them from your deep creative pool.

 I hope you enjoy this information and the musical examples.  Please give me feedback and comments.

Sincerely, Errol Weiss Schlabach

New!!: PROCESSES On 'All The Things You Are': Ways To Use Your Musical Vocabulary

PROCESSES:

process ¹ |ˈpräˌses; ˈpräsəs; ˈprō-|

noun

 A series of actions or steps taken in order to achieve a particular end:

(American Heritage Dictionary)

This information will take some time to internalize, but I guarantee that you will be using it for the rest of your life.  These techniques can be traced back to before Bach, before Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, to the first thoughtful playing of tonal music.

Musical processes are the methods through which we can present our total internalized vocabulary, all the scales, chords, licks, etc. which we have at our subconscious, intuitive command.

I hope to give you some examples of processes I have developed, from which you can go on and discover your own.

The early greats of jazz let melody be their guide.  Embellishing the melody is still the first level of improvising, and is called Filigree: Ornamenting the Melodic notes with upper and lower neighboring tones.

Example #1:

 A further example of this first level of improvising is to choose only notes of the given chord to embellish the melody, keeping the notes added to a minimum amount and rhythmically inactive.

For all these examples, I will use the beautiful Jerome Kern tune,

‘All The Things You Are’.

Example #2

The list of processes for non-melodic improvising, using both chordal and non-chordal tones is endless.  I explain a few of mine, from which you can get ideas to invent your own.  The main thing is to practice these processes on all applicable parts of your internalized vocabulary until using the processes themselves is internalized.  As long as the processes are at your complete and intuitive command, the number of processes need not be great.  It’s better to have 15 to 20 well learned, than 50, which are only partially learned and have to be consciously worked out.

The first such process I’ll mention is to play a continuous flow of eighth notes, using only notes of the given chords, and changing the chords with the harmonic rhythm.  We would describe this style as rhythmically active.

Example #3

 

The arpeggios can be simply played, or in any number of broken, varied forms; there are no rules.

Example #4

Next, develop the ability to identify the scale which applies to the given chord, play that scale, and change the scale with the harmonic rhythm.  As long as the key remains the same and the chords used are the basics of that key, the same scale can be applied for a very long time.  This is very true for modal playing.

Example #5

Now. try mixing both scales and arpeggios in one improvisation.

Example #6

Bebop scales are yet other processes to learn, practice, and internalize.  This requires learning what scale from which each chord is generated from, then adding a chromatic half between either the 5^th and 6^th steps (for major and minor 6 chords and major 7^th chords) or the 7^th and 8^th steps (for dominant 7^th, minor 7^th, and half-diminished 7^th chords).  Each chord has it’s own individual, unique scale; the added half step creates an 8 tone scale, making the same notes occur on the down and up beats, when the scale is played over 2 or 3 octaves --- a 7 tone scale reverses in each octave.  In other words, the chord tones will always occur on the accented downbeats.

Example #7

The Bebop scales are played over the changes in the same way as normal diatonic scales.

Example #8

Using the scale of the key you’re in, you can learn processes to make the triad off of every scale step a rich source of materials for improvisation.  This way of playing creates lines that play over the changes – go ‘outside’ (meaning regardless, or in spite of the chord).

Example #9

These same processes can then be used with 7^th chords off of every scale step.

Example #10 
(A process favored by of J. S. Bach)

Here are processes using the Octatonic, 

or diminished  scales.

Example #11

Processes with the Pentatonic Scales.
Example #12

I hope these techniques are helpful; I will be adding to this ‘Processes’ list from time to time.  Please check periodically.

Please comment and give me feedback.

Sincerely, Errol Weiss Schlabach

'Appomattox': Scene Of Servility

'Appomattox': Scene Of Servility

I was reading an essay by William Zinsser, one of the finest American writers of the 20th century, called 'Appomattox', (from a little book he wrote in 1990, called 'American Places').  In his essay, he describes the kindness with which Grant treated Lee 
in the surrender terms of the agreement, ending the American Civil War: 
The soldiers were simply to give over their arms, keep their horses, and go home!  

No vindictiveness!  The surrender was silent, civil, peaceful, having been  preceded by President Lincoln's statement to Grant on March 28-29, 1865 (before the April 12, 1865 surrender): "Let 'em down easy".

That surrender morning at the Appomattox red brick house of Wilmer Mclean's, 
was quiet, reverent, and servile.

The spirit of Appomattox, that of Lincoln, Grant, Lee, and the 100,000 total soldiers, 
who treated each other with reverential respect, created a stillness which was to be not the end of fighting, but the beginning of a new 'NATION', never

again to be called a ‘UNION’.

(Prior to the Civil War (1861), the ‘United States’ was a plural noun; after, ‘United States’ was always singular (1865).)

Wouldn’t it be a ‘Zen’ moment in world history, if all intercourse between peoples of a marriage, of a family, of a community, of a state, of a nation, ----of the whole earth, could look at one another and see a ‘one’, where everyone’s action would be for the good of everyone, without thought of a ‘self’: Just one organic whole!

‘With a musician's love for America and mankind.

Please give me feedback and comments!

God Bless, Errol

The Central Nervous System: It's importance in playing a musical instrument.

CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM

What is the best way to develop a smooth and exacting technique?  Which muscles should a player concentrate on?  What is the order of sensory concentration that should follow the reading of written music?  How should fingers move and touch the keys of a musical instrument?

How many of these questions can you answer and where do you start?

The first, most important fact to understand and admit is you are the instrument, you are making the music; your musical instrument simply translates what you are hearing and thinking.

What is trained when you practice and acquire knowledge is the Central Nervous System; what plays when you perform is the Central Nervous System, using the tools you have stored through practice.  In performance, you really have no control over what you play, except to play what you’re hearing.  The performance is entirely intuitive and subconscious, controlled by intense brain signals.  Your subconscious intuition operates 20,000 times faster than your conscious thought.  The reason for a fine performance is the 10,000 plus hours that you have  invested in training the Central Nervous System.  What I would like to explain in this essay is how to go about that training task.

AMAZING FACT:

Each peripheral sense center has an assigned spot on the cerebral cortex; the cell sequence of the spot on the cortex is an exact replica of the cell order in the peripheral perceiving units: ‘Talk about a miracle!

This applies to visual, aural, and olfactory sensors, and fingers, hands, feet, toes,----every conceivable peripheral sense.  Two classes of sense perception exist: Proprioceptive: sensing motion; Exteroceptive: tactile (touch) sensing.

This information is very useful when applied to practicing a musical instrument.  Finger action is proprioceptive, with exteroceptive involved in the touch of fingers on keys.  Movement of the fingers should concentrate on the small finger muscles; large arm and shoulder muscles should on serve as stabilizing elements. 

To practice proper finger movement, the hand and fingers should be placed directly above and touching the involved keys.  The first movement will be a finger pressing only the depth of the movement of the key.  When the next finger presses a key, the former finger lifts up as this next finger presses down.  All this should be done slowly and with precise, authoritative movements.

When learning new fingering formations and movements, the new stimuli would be termed neutral.  As you repeat movement, an already established ‘definite unconditional stimulus’ already established is used to complete the reflex.  As you repeat the movement numerous times, the new stimulus and the old established stimulus achieve the reflex together, and eventually, the new stimulus produces the reflex alone.  This process of learning is always the same for motion related stimuli.

Results will be most successful when the movements are performed slowly, with each repetition as precise as possible.

The intensity of your concentration and your basic health and well being also have a direct effect on training your central nervous system.

The previous reflex conditioning is categorized as a ‘First Signaling System’, stimuli such as impressions and sensations from the outside world and muscular movements.

Verbal and sight stimuli belong to the category of ‘Second Signaling System’.

Written musical notation, like verbal stimuli, becomes signals, in this case for sound.  The written note first excites the visual region of the cortex, and is then transferred to the auditory region, which provokes the corresponding motor response.

When playing from memory, the auditory region becomes physiologically connected directly to the motor region (through numerous times of practice), and the written notation (visual region of cortex) is no longer needed.

This will start your awareness of the importance of your central nervous system and how it is what you are training as you practice a musical instrument.

Keep checking this Essay for updates, as I will constantly be adding information as I learn more about the brain.

Please give me comments and feedback.

I hope this study helps you, for it surely excites me.

Sincerely,

Errol Weiss Schlabach

What is a sentence?: Music related or not, we all should know this!

We all should be able to answer this; if you can't, here's the answer:

What Is A Sentence?

A Sentence is an organization of items in the world.

A Sentence is a structure of logical relationships

The basic components of a sentence are:

‘DOER---DOING---DONE TO’

Helping old ladies cross the street prevents accidents.

(What is the verb?)

Thanks for viewing and visiting.

Please give me comments and feedback.

Sincerely,

Errol Weiss Schlabach

Grim Haiku!: response to shootings in US schools:

Grim Haiku to shootings in US schools:

Man’s History

Born, grow, shrewdly bloom,

That’s our whim, so history says;

Better luck next time!

Rossini Cadenza: Errol's transcription for you practice and perusal

This is a transcription and edit I did for the Rossini Variations,  

One more little widget you can pack in your ever ready tool box.

Sincerely,

Errol Weiss Schlabach

Please give comments and feedback.