Improvising around a melody
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Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can improvise around a simple melody.
Key learning points
- Our melody is an unusual length (14 bars), and has an anacrusis. The song is in the key of G major, which includes F#.
- When improvising, we should use notes from the key of the music. In this song, we use the G major scale.
- One strategy for improvisation is to use target notes.
- When we are improvising more freely, we can use other strategies to help us to structure our improvisation.
Keywords
Anacrusis - an anacrusis is when a melody starts before beat 1
Scale - a scale is a set of notes
G major scale - the G major scale is a scale in the key of G major, including F#
Common misconception
There are 'rights' or 'wrongs' in improvisation.
While there are rules that help us improvise effectively, a big part of learning to improvise is experimenting and seeing what works and what doesn't. Be willing to make 'mistakes' and don't fixate on doing it perfectly first time.
Teacher tip
Some students will naturally start improvising more freely during the target notes task - encourage this, as this task is scaffolding for improvisation. Learning cycle 3 could be used as an extended task.
Equipment
A DAW or other suitable compositional tool or instrument.
Licence
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