Lesson video

Hello and welcome to today's lesson entitled, Improvising Around a Melody.

My name is Mr. Morrison.

Today I'm gonna be taking you through as we've got a few different strategies for improvising in different ways around a melody.

Our outcome is that I can improvise around a simple melody.

And some key words are, firstly, anacrusis.

And anacrusis is when a melody starts before beat 1.

Scale.

And a scale is a set of notes.

And finally, G major scale.

And the G major scale is a scale in the key of G Major which includes the note F sharp.

The first part of today's lesson is looking at recording a melody.

Most popular Brazilian songs have lyrics, but it's also common for musicians to perform instrumental versions of the song.

This is where an instrument plays the melody.

For our samba project, we're creating an in instrumental version of our song.

Now, the melody in this song is 14 bars long, which is a slightly unusual one.

Usually, sections are in 16 bar or 9 bar phrases.

This melody includes some disjunct and conjunct movements, so steps and leaps, and it also includes some long sustained notes as well as some repeated fast rhythmic ideas.

So, if we're just looking at the notation there, we can see there's some very long notes, some faster notes like our quavers, and it's quite a varied melody in terms of the rhythms. This melody also includes an anacrusis as it starts before the first beat of the bar.

So, if we look there, the melody starts on beat four, it doesn't start on beat one.

And lots of melodies do this where they start before the strong beat and the downbeat of beat one so that's called an anacrusis.

We're gonna listen to the melody here and I'd like to try and identify and hear the anacrusis.

Try and notice how the melody starts before beat one and link it up with a metronome to try and help you identify that.

Here we go.

(upbeat piano music) So, hopefully you managed to hear there how that melody starts before beat one, and now there's a mixture of repeated patterns, some faster rhythmic ideas, and some long sustained notes in this melody.

Let's watch a video now that shows us how to record this melody.

Let's have a go at recording the melody.

Now, the first thing we need to do is to make a new track because we're gonna create a new instrument for our melody.

And for this, you want to use something acoustic, so not something synthesized, but something like an orchestral instrument or another acoustic instrument.

One I like to use is the classical guitar.

I think that sounds really effective in this style.

(upbeat piano music) I think it really suits the sort of mood that we're going for and it's also quite typical in all of Brazilian music.

Now, the challenge with this melody is getting the rhythms correct, and that's because of a few reasons.

Firstly, we begin with an anacrusis, so that means we start playing before beat one.

The melody's gonna start at the start of bar five, so we need to start playing one beat before then, and that's really important to start the melody correctly.

We've then also got a lot of long notes and it's really important that we count those precisely.

So, remember the semibreve is four beats and a minim is two beats and where they're tied together, we're joining those two notes into one.

First thing I'm gonna do is I'm gonna play through the melody, but with no backings and nothing else playing, and I'm just gonna count the beats as I'm playing.

When you are practicing, I suggest you do the same to make sure you're getting the right length of particularly these long notes.

So, try and follow the notation through as I'm playing the melody here.

Here we go then.

So I start on beat four after three.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

One.

And that last note there is a really long one, isn't it? It's three sets of four and then a crotchet as well.

So, really making sure you're giving each note its full value.

Once I practice it like that, then I'm gonna record in and remembering that I'm coming in on beat four of bar four so at the end of bar four.

Here we go then.

(upbeat music) One, two, three.

(upbeat music) And if you finish at the correct place, it'll mean your last note finishes just at the start of bar 18.

So, that's melody recorded in.

Remember, when you're doing that to choose an acoustic instrument for the melody.

Remember, this is samba, so we're using mostly acoustic instruments.

The melody starts before beat one just before the chord start in bar five.

So, at the end of bar four is when the melody starts.

And remember to count the beats in your head during the long notes to make sure you're holding them for the right duration.

Let's check your understanding.

Which of these recordings correctly plays the rhythm of the first four bars? Here's option A.

(upbeat music) Here's option B.

(upbeat music) Now option C.

(upbeat music) So, quickly choosing your answer.

And the correct answer then was option B, that was this one.

(upbeat music) Starting on beat four, having those waivers in bar two and bar four and making sure those long sustained notes were both held for six beats in total.

We're gonna do the same here, but with bar 7 to 11.

So which of these recordings correctly plays the rhythm of bar 7 to 11? Here's option A.

(upbeat music) Option B.

(upbeat music) And option C.

(upbeat music) So, quickly choosing your answer.

And the correct answer there was option C.

That was this one.

(upbeat music) Well done if you correctly identified that.

So for this task, you're gonna record the melody into your project, make sure you've chosen a suitable instrument, make sure the melody starts on beat four of bar four, that's our anacrusis and finishes in bar 18.

And make sure the melody is quantized in this case to an eighth note because there are quavers in the melody.

There's your notation there.

You can pause my video now and give this your best shot.

For the second part of this task, I'd like to listen to this recording of the melody and complete the table.

Answer yes or no for each success criteria.

Let's have a listen.

(upbeat music) So, let's pause my video while you're completing this table.

Once you review this task then.

So this melody does start on beat four bar four.

And it does finish in bar 18.

The pictures are not quite accurate.

In particular, there's one when they jump down to a low scene instead of playing a scene next bar.

The rhythms are not quite accurate as well.

There's a few more errors in the rhythms. And it's not really a suitable instrument.

This is a synthesizer, a synth lead, which is not an acoustic instrument.

For this style, we want to be using acoustic instrument, so something like a guitar, piano, trumpet would be much more suitable.

The second part of today's lesson is focused on improvising with target notes.

Often when improvising, musicians will use similar notes to the melody.

This helps to give it a structure and to help it sound familiar.

Now, this melody has a number of long sustained notes, we can see them highlighted there.

Some of those that are six beats long like the D near the start, and then there's some sorts of minims in the middle section too.

We can use these long sustained notes as what we call target notes.

When we're improvising, we aim to land on each target note and in between we improvise using different notes.

So, we're keeping those long notes in the same place, but then improvising in between to change it and make it a little bit different.

Have a look at these three images.

Which image shows one of the target notes in the melody? I'll give you a few seconds.

And the correct answer then is C because that's one of the long sustained notes.

Remember, in this case, our target notes are those longer sustained notes.

When we're improvising, we use a set of notes or a scale that fits with the chords and melody.

Now, this song uses the G major scale, which is mostly natural notes.

That's the white notes on the piano, but with an F sharp instead of F.

And we use this scale 'cause these notes will fit with the chords and the harmony of this particular piece of music.

Let's have a look at how we can improvise using target notes from the melody.

Before I do anything else, I'm gonna loop my backings so that I have a section to improvise over.

So, I'm gonna copy all of my percussion instruments, my bass and my chords, and I'm just gonna loop them until the end of bar 32.

And that will then mean that I can play my improvisation during this section there so there's no melody playing at the same time we're doing the improvisation instead in this section.

I'm gonna select my melody instrument, and then I'm gonna take a look at the melody.

So, as we can see in the melody here, we have these various target notes, which are the sustained notes, the longer notes.

So if I was to play through, we've got our D in the first bar, (calm music) that one there, that's a target note.

(calm music) Then that's C.

(calm music) Then another C.

(calm music) There's G.

(calm music) C.

(calm music) G.

(calm music) C.

(calm music) G.

So those are our target notes and it's those long ones that we're aiming for that improvisation.

Now, the first thing I'm gonna practice is just playing those notes on their own.

So, I'm gonna skip out all the rest of the notes and I'm just gonna play those ones at the right points in the melody.

So I'm gonna put my backings on, I'm just gonna play those.

Here we go.

(upbeat music) So, that's the D.

Then C.

(upbeat music) C again.

(upbeat music) Now G.

(upbeat music) Now C.

(upbeat music) Now G.

(upbeat music) Now C.

(upbeat music) Now G.

(upbeat music) So, there skipping at all the quavers in the faster notes and just playing those target notes and that's the first thing to do so you get really familiar with where those target notes land, where they fall.

So, practice that a few times.

It will feel easy compared to the melody, but it's important to get familiar with those target notes.

Now, this time I'm gonna do exactly the same thing, but rather than just putting the target notes, now I'm gonna improvise some different notes in between.

I'm still gonna land on each target note at the same point, but I'm gonna improvise some different notes to fill the gaps and add some interest.

Now, when I'm doing this, it's important that I'm just using the notes of the G major scale.

So, that's all the white notes, (upbeat music) apart from F.

And instead of F, we have F sharp.

(upbeat music) That's our G major scale and it's important we use that because that's the key of this piece of music so we need to fit within the key to make it sound good.

So here we go then.

I'm gonna aim for the target notes.

I'm gonna find some notes from the G major scale and just improvise, make up some ideas in between, making sure I'm landing on each target note when I get to it.

Let's give it a shot.

(upbeat music) So, there were lots of different things I did there.

I was being really careful to make sure I was hitting each of those target notes, and that makes it sound a bit familiar, so it makes it feel a little bit like the original melody, but then we're adding something new and something different in the gaps without improvisation as well.

I did lots of different improvising techniques.

I did some repeated rhythmic patterns.

I did some moving up and down the scale.

I did some just repetition of notes, lots of different things there to just experiment and explore that scale.

Now, remember when you're doing that to make sure you loop your backing track to create a section to improvise over.

Make sure you identify and practice those target notes on their own first.

Then improvising the gaps between the target notes.

And make sure when you're improvising that you are using only the notes of the G major scale, so that's all the white notes except F, and you can use F sharp instead of F.

Which image here shows the G major scale? I'll give you a few seconds.

And the correct answer here is option B.

That's because it's all the white notes except F.

And we've got F sharp instead.

And because it starts and finishes on G.

For this task, you're gonna improvise around the melody using the target notes.

Here's your success criteria.

The chords, percussion, and base are looped to repeat from bars 19 to 32 so you've got a section to improvise over.

You've practiced playing only the target notes in the same place they would be in the melody.

You've added improvisation in between those target notes, and you only use notes from the G major scale so as we can see at the right hand side there, that's all the white notes except F, and we can use F Sharp instead of F.

So, you pause my video now and give this your best shot.

For the second part of this task, I'd like to reflect on your improvisation so far and discuss, have you looped the chords, percussion and base to repeat from bar 19 to 32? Have you hit each target note with improvisation in between? And does your improvisation only use notes from the G major scale? Use your answers in your discussion to help guide you to improving your improvisation.

Pause my video now.

Okay, so the final part of today's lesson is looking at improvising freely in G Major.

We can develop our improvisation by removing the target notes entirely and improvising freely.

Here's a few different strategies we can use.

The first is to just use a few notes, so for example, just G, A, and B, and to create different rhythms. Let's have a look at what that might look like.

Before we do anything else, again, assuming that I've recorded in a target note improvisation, I'm gonna grab all my backings and I'm gonna loop them for one more cycle so that should take us up to the end of bar 46.

That should be where it is.

And then that gives us this space where we're gonna be improvising in the melody down here.

Now, so far when we've improvised, we've been doing it around target notes, which means we're aiming for specific notes in the melody.

When we're improvising freely, we have these strategies that can help us to structure our improvisation.

So, I'm gonna demonstrate a few of those and then we're gonna put a few into practice when I record.

So, the first strategy is starting with just a few notes and creating different rhythms using those notes.

So, here I'm gonna show you what I might might do there in G Major.

I know my notes are G, A, B, C, D, E, F, sharp and G, and I could go up higher as well, so I could keep going up and down the the piano, I don't have to stick to just one octave.

So, I'm gonna take maybe two of those notes and I'm just gonna demonstrate here how I might improvise using just two notes, create some different rhythms and patterns with those.

(upbeat music) So, you can see there I was improvising literally just using G and A and with just those two notes I was able to create a relatively interesting improvisation just by changing the rhythms that I was using throughout.

Another strategy is to go up or down the G major scale varying the rhythms, or skipping out different notes each time.

Let's see what that looks like.

So, we've got our G major scale.

(calm music) This time when I'm improvising, I'm gonna try going up it and try going down it and I'm going to change the rhythm that I do that with and I might try skipping out some different notes as well as I go.

So here we go, let's demonstrate that.

(upbeat music) So, that's up.

(upbeat music) And that was down.

(upbeat music) Going back and up.

(upbeat music) So, there you can see.

I didn't skip any notes out at all actually.

I was just going up and down, but changing the rhythm as I was doing it.

Now, I'm gonna try it, but I might skip out a few notes this time.

(upbeat music) So, you can see by varying going up and going down and by skipping out notes, that's created quite an interesting improvisation there.

And the third option is to create a short rhythm and repeat it on different note combinations.

Let's see what that looks like.

This is a really popular technique when people are improvising, and you'll hear this all the time in styles of music where people do improvise.

So, I'm gonna come up with a little rhythm and then I'm just gonna repeat it, but on different notes.

So, I could use for example this rhythm.

(upbeat music) I quite like that (humming).

It's really simple, it's quite short, and I know that's gonna work on different notes so let's have a go, let's explore.

(upbeat music) So, there's nothing complicated going on there and we're literally just moving that rhythm around to different places in the G major scale and it makes it sound quite interesting, but also makes it sound coherent, like it sort of makes sense because there's this common thread throughout it.

So, that's our final strategy.

Now what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna have a go at putting some of those together and and recording it and improvisation from bar 33 to bar 46.

Here we go.

(upbeat music) And that's my free improvisation done.

Let's check your understanding.

When improvising in a DAW project, which two of these are important steps, using the notes of the correct key or scale? Using any notes on the instrument freely? Keeping the backing track short? Or looping backing track? I'll give you a few seconds.

And the correct two answers then are, using the notes of the correct key or scale in this case that's G major, and looping the backing track.

So, you've got a section to improvise over.

And in this case, we're making sure it's looped from about 19 to 32.

Okay, so for this task, you're gonna create a free improvisation in G major using some or all of the following strategies.

You could use just a few notes, for example, G, A and B and create different rhythms. You could go up and down the G major scale varying the rhythms or skipping out different notes each time.

You could create a short rhythm and repeat it on different note combinations.

So, there's a few strategies you can choose from there.

There's our G major scale at the bottom.

Remember to make sure you sticking to that.

And without further ado, you can pause my video and get started.

For the final part of this task, we're gonna watch this video of an improvisation.

Which of the improvisation strategies can you identify and is there anything else this improviser does that's particularly effective? Let's have a look.

(upbeat music) So, just pause my video while you finishing off your answer, and let's go through this then.

So, you might have picked up that the performer goes up the G major scale with different rhythms, that's one of the strategies they use.

There you go down the G major scale with different rhythms and the performer repeats some short rhythms using different notes.

The performer also creates some patterns using just one or two different notes as well.

So, it's on the skills of a good improviser is making all these different strategies sound really natural and musical.

Well done if you picked up on some of those.

Let's summarize today's lesson.

Our melody is an unusual length, it's 14 bars long, and it has anacrusis, meaning it starts before beat one.

The song is in the key of G major, which is a key that includes the note F sharp.

When improvising, we should use notes from the key of the music.

And in this song, that means we use the G major scale.

One strategy for improvisation is to use target notes.

And when we're improvising more freely, we can use other strategies to help us structure our improvisation.

So, that brings us to the end of today's lesson.

I hope you really enjoyed getting stuck into that, improvising, being really creative.

I hope you've also now feel like you've got some strategies for improvising in a really structured and effective way.

Thanks for taking part, and I'll see you in another lesson.