CONCEPT: PENTATONIC MELODIES. What is music? What is music theory? If music is a language, what is it saying? If music is a story, what is the plot? Explain PAC. What intervals are formed by the harmonic series? What intervals make up a pentatonic melody?
EAR: KEYBOARD THEORY (TENUTO ) www.musictheory.net/exercises/ear-chord/dyrbbnyngnendeb level 06 (M,m,2) level 07 (M,m,2,m7) www.musictheory.net/exercises/ear-chord/dnrbbnyngnendeb
NOTES: WRITE OUT SDN AND RHYTHM FOR 5 CCLI TOP 5 SONGS AND SEE IF OTHERS CAN IDENTIFY THEM. FRETBOARD TO NOTATION: HERE ARE VARIOUS CHORDS, ALL VARIATIONS OF PLAYING IN THE KEY OF E.
MELODY: ALTERNATIVE CADENCES IN CWM SINCE 2000
HARMONY: MELODIZING HARMONIES. First, notice and recognize the pre-dominant function (ii-V-I) at the final cadence of these five hymn tunes (a supertonic at the antepenult, if you will): ST ANNE (O God Our Help in Ages Past), HOW GREAT THOU ART, LOBE DEN HERREN (Praise to the Lord, the Almighty), CALVARY (At Calvary), and HEAVEN CAME DOWN. Now write a short tune (of about 8 bars) that uses a ii-V-I cadence, and try two other ways to write an ending to your tune, using the same chords. You will notice that there are only a few options, because the melody has to follow some combination of 2 or 4 or 6 going to 5 or 7 or 2 and then to 1. Try each of the combinations.
ART: CHANT MELODIC RULES (see below)
CWM: EXPLORE CCLI TOP 10 RHYTHMS. DRUM GROOVE + MELODY
The Story of Music
QUIZ: The Story of Music
After watching the video, take this quiz to celebrate your mastery!
FUN WITH FRETBOARD THEORY!
TRANSFER FROM FRETBOARD TABLATURE TO NOTATION, BEING CAREFUL TO CAPTURE THE EXACT VOICING SHOWN. This exercise is presented as a video which provides answers. But it is intended that you work through it first, pausing the video while you work it out, and then having your answers confirmed. It is a quiz, with the answer sheet included.
FOR FUN: THE FASOLA SYSTEM IN EARLY AMERICA
FOR FUN: SOLFEGE, IN FIXED OR MOVEABLE DO (AS A CHILDREN’S BOOK)
CHANT MELODIC RULES
For about a thousand years in the church, before we had figured out such things as harmony and time meter and major mode, people sang what came to be known a Gregorian Chant. Perhaps you have heard of it. We looked at some notation from that time period way back in Fundamentals, while we were covering the development of traditional notation. Maybe it would be good if you hear some of it, and then we learn some of the “rules” for melodies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAmydVsNMqM&list=RDCAmydVsNMqM&start_radio=1&t=87
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4T4BkXvSPw
Now, it just so happens that both of these melodies are in “major” mode, which is not normal for the era, though it sounds normal to our ears. It helps us to know where tonic is this way. To help you read, remember that at the start of the staff is a “C” which surrounds the pitch middle C.
Here are some features that you might notice as you listen:
This is not in a time meter, but rests based on punctuated breaks in the text.
There are occasional places where 2-4 pitches are sung to just one syllable. But mostly, the tune is syllabic (one note per syllable).
Can you hear where tonic is? (C in the first chant, F in the second) Each phrase begins and ends most anywhere, but at the end, it will finish on the Final (home). Always end with a 2-1 or a 7-1 final cadence and finish by step. The scale degree 7 always goes to 8.
Pretty often there are repeated syllables on scale degree 5 (which helps to explain why even today we call that scale degree the “dominant.”) The range of the melody covers an octave or less (sometimes as much as a tenth).
The BIG deal in chant has to do with the direction of leaps and steps. Here are some generalities that you might notice:
You can step as many as 4 to 5 in either direction, particularly on a melisma (when there are multiple pitches on one syllable). Stepping down is more common than stepping up.
There is one time of touching on the highest point (climax), but no more.
While there are gestures that might repeat, or be sequenced, there is no sense of a “hook” or melodic “theme.”
If you leap up, you will most often turn back down in the direction you came from. If you leap up, the one thing you CANNOT do is to follow it with an even bigger leap. Gregorian chant is considered “natural,” in the sense of following nature. And it is natural to jump up and step back down. You can even take a jump up and step up or take a smaller leap up. But to “accelerate” while rising requires a rocket, and they aren’t around at this point in history. So follow the harmonic series and leap smaller on the way up, larger on the way down (following gravity, you might say). In fact, often before leaping up, the melody will step down (as we bend our knees before leaping upward).
If you leap, it must be singable; up or down a fifth, possibly a third or a fourth, but not a sixth and NEVER a seventh. Think of the tune for “Be Thou My Vision,” and you will see a tune that follows the “rules” of chant. Other ancient chants that have made it into contemporary practice are “O Come O Come Emmanuel” and “All Creatures of Our God and King.” They are modified and do not follow as well as most, but provide a good example of how much leap and how much step, and how repeated notes are okay.
Of course, now I’m going to have you WRITE a Gregorian chant. Use any verse of Scripture and approach it similarly to these melodies. Don’t think of chords or harmonies; they don’t exist yet. Try a different mode, such as Dorian (D to D) and see how it feels to you.