Creating a musical toolkit Part 1
All music, regardless of point of origin or idiomatic category, shares a simple, basic element; the creation of movement using tension and release. It is this movement, whether melodic or rhythmic, harmonically complex or built around a drone, which draws us into the music. The interaction between tension and release mechanisms is, at least from an analytical point of view, the very stuff upon which music theory is built.
Whoa. Don't get nervous. This column isn't going to be a dry series about complicated chord changes or lydian dominant scale substitutions. At least not yet. (grin). This column is about helping you develop a toolkit based on practical applications of music theory. It's about how to listen to music, any kind of music, and bring that music into your playing. Right away. As time goes on, I'll be providing practical exercises and suggestions. But for now, let's talk about the basic stuff of music, the basic elements of creating tension and release. Elements that can be found in anything from pennywhistle music to Stockhausen, from the music of the Ituri pygmy to John Coltrane.
The simplest elements of music are harmony, melody, rhythm and timbre. Each of these elements, or drivers, can be used by itself or in conjunction with other elements to create movement or tension/release patterns.
Try this: pick up your instrument and slowly play a major scale. Listen to each note and try to really hear what that note wants to do; rise or fall or remain stationary. Notice that when you get to the fourth scale degree it wants to fall and if you let it fall back to three, three becomes a stable resting place. However, if you play simply from one to three in the scale, three feels restless. Why is it that dropping from four to three creates a stable sensation, yet moving from two to three doesn't? This is a simple example of a melodic driver.
Now play only the first two notes of the scale, playing a little rhythm on the first note, then jumping to the second. Notice how the second note now feels stable? You've created a tension/release pattern in the music using only rhythm and two notes. There's not really a melodic or harmonic component; just a rhythmic one.
Here's an example of using timbre (tone color) as a driver to create tension/release patterns. All I've done here is "chicken pop" one note, but I'm moving my right hand (the plucking hand) from close to the bridge toward the fretboard.
Because "chicken popping" is really a method of selectively bringing out overtones and I'm moving along the string, you're hearing a shift in the presence of the overtones. It sounds sort of like a phase shifter or flanger. But notice that you experience tension/release as I move along the string. The note isn't different, nor is the rhythm particularly interesting. It's strictly the changing timbre that draws your attention and creates movement.
Harmony is, of course, a very familar driver for those of us weaned on Western (that is, music from Europe or America) music. If I play a series of chords without resolving them, your ear tells you something is wrong.
By completing the series
your ear feels as though things are "right". This a simple example of harmonic drivers.
Over the next few months I'll discuss each of these drivers in greater detail. I'll also discuss them in regard to various world musics, since musics from different places in the world use different drivers or driver combinations to form their characteristic sound and nature.
Why is this useful? Well, the simplest answer is that the more ways you know of to think about music and the more kinds of music you can listen to, analyze and make use of, the broader your own musical vocabulary will be.
Aric Rubin
