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Tune Of The Month, April, 2015: Harliquin Air


Jim Besser

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... Thus I included the Emaj here in the spare form of playing a "B" note (which is not part of the Amaj harmony either but the fifth in the Emaj chord) in the (if you will) "bass" - a low E is not available on the treble, the G# alongside just the "B" sounded too strong (or tight) to my ears - and I wanted to thin out the harmony in order to keep the tune light anyways.

 

Do you nonwithstanding "hear" the tension in my take?

 

It's very nice, but no, I don't hear the tension I spoke of. The B can stand for many things in this context: An E major or 7th chord, an E minor chord, a B minor chord, even a G chord. Without actually hearing the G#, there's no reason to assume an E major or 7th chord, hence, no tension.

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Forgive me...

 

Please interpret this not as criticism, but as a bit of a music lesson (dare I use the word "theory"?). Several of the entries in this thread seem to be missing an opportunity that this tune offers.

 

Considering the tune in the key of D, the A section ends on an A chord (the dominant, or five chord), and this tonality will be considerably more convincing (satisfying, if you will) if it is preceded by an E major (or 7th) chord, with a G# in there that's not in the key signature of D. This creates a tension that drives the harmonic movement forward. This is called a secondary dominant, or "five of five."

 

 

Hmmm. Tried it and I like it.

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Forgive me...

 

Please interpret this not as criticism, but as a bit of a music lesson (dare I use the word "theory"?). Several of the entries in this thread seem to be missing an opportunity that this tune offers.

 

Considering the tune in the key of D, the A section ends on an A chord (the dominant, or five chord), and this tonality will be considerably more convincing (satisfying, if you will) if it is preceded by an E major (or 7th) chord, with a G# in there that's not in the key signature of D. This creates a tension that drives the harmonic movement forward. This is called a secondary dominant, or "five of five."

 

Thanks for the suggestion, David. I have tried this and, to me, it does indeed sound better.

 

Rich

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Geoff, I agree, what you were doing harmonically is a nice variant, giving in fact the brief impression of a Mixolydian soundscape (similar to what I'm doing for an entire section of my playing Apley House). Thank you for bringing that up!

 

I like the countermelody too, maybe the pitch of the recorders could get slightly adjusted for a more pleasing listening experience... (would well be worth it IMO).

 

Best wishes - Wolf

 

I understand what you're saying, Wolf. However changing thr pitch of the recorder would change the harmonies. Two things I can try, is leaving the bass out which actually works quite well. The other is trying a soprano recorder rather than a tenor which I might try if I get the time as it only involves recording the new part and making a new mix with the existing parts.

 

It might be possible to experiment with Eq to balance the blend of the existing parts but my present facilities are not really up to it.

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maybe the pitch of the recorders could get slightly adjusted for a more pleasing listening experience...

I understand what you're saying, Wolf. However changing thr pitch of the recorder would change the harmonies.

 

Perhaps you don't understand what he's saying. I took it to mean that he's telling you (in the nicest possible way, of course) that your recorders are out of tune.

 

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maybe the pitch of the recorders could get slightly adjusted for a more pleasing listening experience...

 

I understand what you're saying, Wolf. However changing thr pitch of the recorder would change the harmonies.

 

Perhaps you don't understand what he's saying. I took it to mean that he's telling you (in the nicest possible way, of course) that your recorders are out of tune.

Oops! I'd not thought of that. I'll have to go back & check. I'd rather have been told straight out.

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maybe the pitch of the recorders could get slightly adjusted for a more pleasing listening experience...

I understand what you're saying, Wolf. However changing thr pitch of the recorder would change the harmonies.

Perhaps you don't understand what he's saying. I took it to mean that he's telling you (in the nicest possible way, of course) that your recorders are out of tune.

Oops! I'd not thought of that. I'll have to go back & check. I'd rather have been told straight out.

 

 

Hi Geoff,

 

I'm very sorry for apparantly not having stroken the right note, so to speak.. (should've PMed you instead). - but I meant what I'd been saying because you hardly woulld tune every single reed of the concertina for just a recording whereas a recorder could easily adapt the pitch of another instrument to play along with to a certain amount.

 

However,as I can't listen to your tune (or in fact tunes) right now I'm not sure if it can be done that way. I seem to recall that the pitch of the concertina is slightly lower. In fhis case - if you didn't drop the pitch of the recorders voluntarily - you wouln't be able to sharpen it of course. OTHO. multitracking would give you any option...

 

Whatever the case may be, I found (and still find) it a real pity when nice and special musical ideas don't actually come through because of "physical" problems like this...

 

Best wishes - Wolf

Edited by blue eyed sailor
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maybe the pitch of the recorders could get slightly adjusted for a more pleasing listening experience...

 

I understand what you're saying, Wolf. However changing thr pitch of the recorder would change the harmonies.

 

Perhaps you don't understand what he's saying. I took it to mean that he's telling you (in the nicest possible way, of course) that your recorders are out of tune.

Oops! I'd not thought of that. I'll have to go back & check. I'd rather have been told straight out.

Hi Geoff,

 

I'm very sorry for apparantly not having stroken the right note, so to speak.. (should've PMed you instead). - but I meant what I'd been saying because you hardly woulld tune every single reed of the concertina for just a recording whereas a recorder could easily adapt the pitch of another instrument to play along with to a certain amount.

 

However,as I can't listen to your tune (or in fact tunes) right now I'm not sure if it can be done that way. I seem to recall that the pitch of the concertina is slightly lower. In fhis case - if you didn't drop the pitch of the recorders voluntarily - you wouln't be able to sharpen it of course. OTHO. multitracking would give you any option...

 

Whatever the case may be, I found (and still find) it a real pity when nice and special musical ideas don't actually come through because of "physical" problems like this...

 

Best wishes - Wolf

Thanks, Wolf. I checked and I was playing sharp with the tenor recorder much of the time. Even worse, the bass was very flat. I should have let it rest and listened again before uploading as I wasn't entirely happy with the recording but couldn't put my finger on why at the time. It often needs someone else to identify the cause of a problem as you can get too close to it.

 

I'll re-record the counter melody and I'll leave out the bass as I wasn't entirely happy with the bass line and a friend had said something similar.

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Finally getting around to learning this tune-getting in under the end of month wire. The advantage to being late is I got to listen to the other submissions and use David Barnert's excellent suggestion of using an E chord as secondary dominant at end of first section.

 

This song was very user friendly for the Anglo, I suppose since it is bouncy. If the current TOTM voting is predictive, I suspect next month's selection(if it is Da Slockit Licht) will be anglo challenged.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps44MSqoU4U

Edited by Daria
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Finally getting around to learning this tune-getting in under the end of month wire. The advantage of being late is I got to listen to the other submissions and use David Barnert's excellent suggestion of using an E chord as secondary dominant at end of first section.

 

This song was very user friendly for the Anglo, I suppose since it is bouncy. If the current TOTM voting is predictive, I suspect next month's selection(if it is Da Schlokit Licht) will be anglo challenged.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps44MSqoU4U

 

Some nice bass stuff going on in your version.

 

Actually Da Slocket Light is pretty anglo friendly! We'll see if it actually wins.

 

Edited to add: whoa - I just checked the poll and Slocket Light has a BIG lead. Guess some people can get a head start on May!

Edited by Jim Besser
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maybe the pitch of the recorders could get slightly adjusted for a more pleasing listening experience...

I understand what you're saying, Wolf. However changing thr pitch of the recorder would change the harmonies.

Perhaps you don't understand what he's saying. I took it to mean that he's telling you (in the nicest possible way, of course) that your recorders are out of tune.

Oops! I'd not thought of that. I'll have to go back & check. I'd rather have been told straight out.

Hi Geoff,

 

I'm very sorry for apparantly not having stroken the right note, so to speak.. (should've PMed you instead). - but I meant what I'd been saying because you hardly woulld tune every single reed of the concertina for just a recording whereas a recorder could easily adapt the pitch of another instrument to play along with to a certain amount.

 

However,as I can't listen to your tune (or in fact tunes) right now I'm not sure if it can be done that way. I seem to recall that the pitch of the concertina is slightly lower. In fhis case - if you didn't drop the pitch of the recorders voluntarily - you wouln't be able to sharpen it of course. OTHO. multitracking would give you any option...

 

Whatever the case may be, I found (and still find) it a real pity when nice and special musical ideas don't actually come through because of "physical" problems like this...

 

Best wishes - Wolf

Thanks, Wolf. I checked and I was playing sharp with the tenor recorder much of the time. Even worse, the bass was very flat. I should have let it rest and listened again before uploading as I wasn't entirely happy with the recording but couldn't put my finger on why at the time. It often needs someone else to identify the cause of a problem as you can get too close to it.

 

I'll re-record the counter melody and I'll leave out the bass as I wasn't entirely happy with the bass line and a friend had said something similar.

 

I've deleted the original from Soundcloud. I'll repost when I have a revised version.

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