EXTEMPORE PLAYING - online tutorial
40 Lessons in how to correctly play improvisations.
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LESSON XXXVIII |
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Modal Music |
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The study of modal music opens up a very wide field. There is no space here to deal adequately with it, but it is possible to give the student a few hints by considering some of the main points. Every musician should underÂstand what the old modes were, and how they were treated. He should further be able to play simple progressions in each one himself.
The Ecclesiastical Modes have come down to us from the middle ages, and are a set of scales which can be approximately reproduced by playing a succession of eight notes from each of the white keys of the keyboard, beginning on D, thus: |
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The above were called the Authentic scales, and are reckoned with odd numbers—the Greek names having been added at a l.ate date. By commencing each a fourth lower, the Plagal forms were obtained, and were known |
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