What notes are actually important?

**christianm77** · 04-27-2021, 01:49 PM

This week’s video

**kris** · 04-27-2021, 01:58 PM

Great video.
...but I hear some buzzing strings...too low action?

**christianm77** · 04-27-2021, 02:53 PM

Originally Posted by kris

Great video.
...but I hear some buzzing strings...too low action?

Prob whacking them too hard; no monitoring. Not bloody raising the action bastard things hard enough to play as it is.

**pauln** · 04-27-2021, 05:48 PM

I suppose the most common extreme low resolution high threshold approach is the "half note melody" - forcing the melody line to be represented by two notes per measure (for the harmonic pace of most straight tunes). Then the other end is the extreme high resolution low threshold approach of "all of them, or I would have left some out".

But as you show, it really all moves around in the middle.

**bako** · 04-27-2021, 05:50 PM

Nice video.

What are your thoughts on how articulation and accentuation play into indicating what notes the player (and subsequently the listener) hear as the important ones?

Took a few theory classes at a music department that was Schenkerian in orientation. Skeleton reductions were (pardon the pun) more bare bones than chord tones. Tonic/dominant and transitional pre-dominant, end of story.
Far too many colorful details deemed irrelevant for my sensibilities.

**Clint 55** · 04-27-2021, 09:05 PM

I think to be a good melodic player you have to use different harmonic concepts, so most of the notes are important imo. I don't really get the premise of the video though.

**christianm77** · 04-28-2021, 03:06 AM

Originally Posted by Clint 55

I think to be a good melodic player you have to use different harmonic concepts, so most of the notes are important imo. I don't really get the premise of the video though.

some notes contribute to the harmony, some notes don’t?

**christianm77** · 04-28-2021, 03:12 AM

Originally Posted by bako

Nice video.

What are your thoughts on how articulation and accentuation play into indicating what notes the player (and subsequently the listener) hear as the important ones?

Took a few theory classes at a music department that was Schenkerian in orientation. Skeleton reductions were (pardon the pun) more bare bones than chord tones. Tonic/dominant and transitional pre-dominant, end of story.
Far too many colorful details deemed irrelevant for my sensibilities.

Well I never took Schenker. It mostly a US thing AFAIK? Which is funny because all the US’s best composers were actually trained by an old school French counterpoint obsessive who probably thought German music theory was the work of the devil.

I think articulation and accentuation is key; but I also think if you construct a line with these principles in mind it’s a lot easier to swing it. The two things go hand in glove, both ways.

I think it’s a mistake to separate melody, harmony and rhythm in the sense that they all work together. Transcription remains the best way to learn that.

**christianm77** · 04-28-2021, 03:15 AM

Originally Posted by pauln

I suppose the most common extreme low resolution high threshold approach is the "half note melody" - forcing the melody line to be represented by two notes per measure (for the harmonic pace of most straight tunes). Then the other end is the extreme high resolution low threshold approach of "all of them, or I would have left some out".

But as you show, it really all moves around in the middle.

That reminds me of Hal Galper,

The thing about the half note thing is that I don’t think it’s as structural in lines in jazz as it is in classical music. I think (but haven’t yet formulated) that accentuation of chord tones might well be related to structures like clave. Anyway that’s one for the future...

**John A.** · 04-28-2021, 10:13 AM

Originally Posted by christianm77

Well I never took Schenker. It mostly a US thing AFAIK? Which is funny because all the US’s best composers were actually trained by an old school French counterpoint obsessive who probably thought German music theory was the work of the devil.

Wow, I never knew that about Smokey Robinson.