Pentatonic Tunes: The Stone Arch
Some background for this piece— one summer I had done some enjoyable walking around the river in downtown Minneapolis and across a beautiful historic stone bridge and soon after that I also found myself doing a lot of musical “wandering” through pentatonic scale patterns. Hence the title of this piece, which helps you study pentatonic runs with interesting little twists and turns, and which never stay on the same pattern for too long.
I have noticed that one challenge for improvisers (especially at first) is how to string running notes together. The ability to keep going without stopping, and to keep it interesting, and to make the notes flow are all things to work on and develop. Below are a few of my tips on stringing notes together, which we so often do when improvising in fiddle styles.
Thinking ahead is the biggest thing you can do. I recommend learning to imagine what you’ll play a few notes ahead of the note you’re on and visualize where your fingers will be playing to make those sounds. That in itself can take some practice.
It is also worth thinking about the role of leaps, that is skipping notes in the scale. They can add interest if used once in awhile, but interestingly I often find myself heading back in the other direction after a leap. When I say leaps, it may be slightly confusing because the pentatonic already leaps over some notes of major (the 4th and 7th). What I mean here is leaping around the pentatonic.
One final little trick I like to throw in is to use groupings of 6 notes to create some syncopation. I will most likely expand on all of the concepts here in future posts.
Notes on playing the tune
Pay a lot of attention to the accents. They are what will keep the streams of notes interesting.
Use short bows since this will eventually go fast, and a heavy enough weight for a solid sound.
Build up your speed by working on smaller “chunks” at a time or by adding rests in between measures or phrases. Start at a speed that is very in control, and then experiment with faster tempos.
Don’t worry about memorizing this quickly, if at all. It is more important to internalize the scale and patterns here.
To help it stay interesting you might want to do some subtle dynamics, rising in volume as the notes go up and down as the fall. I noted one place that a crescendo works well, which is during the transition from A part to B part.
