Re: The use of Intervals

On Wed, 03 Dec 2003 15:55:14 -0800, Harm-Olodic wrote:

> Another question I had is for the use of giant intervals, which I use to
> very poor effect.  I can't help but make it sound awkward and "obvious" if
> you guys know what I mean, like this note is obviously much higher then
> this note and it just sounds terrible.  I know John McLaughlin and Wes
> Montgomery use these leaps to great effect, but I haven't really seen
> examples in transcriptions to see how they use it.
> 
> Any help would be appreciated

My way to approach questions like this is: What melodies do you want to
create? Start playing with melodies in your head and just use bigger
intervals. I always find that i come up with melodies that often leap a
bit and then go into the other direction.

Then in the next step try to find some of these melodies on
your instrument. 

At the beginning try it without the context of a song. just try to come up
with little fragments and work them out. Rhythmic patterns that
include bigger leaps, etc.. Later you can apply that knowledge to songs..

My playing is still pretty much linear, too. But i know that the key here
lies in not artificially constructing melodies with big intervals. That
won't sound good usually. You rather have to hear them and know what
they'll sound like before you play them. Of course, it is easier to come
up with linear ideas that just appropriately change keys. But like the zen
masters said: "The easy way is the hard way"

Flo


-- 
music: http://www.soundclick.com/bands/9/florianschmidt.htm