3-Note Improv
Found in: Composition & Improvisation, Curriculum
Megan F., Nebraska
Is the idea with the 3-note comp/improv exercise that the students are to play three consecutive white notes in the RH or can they be any three notes, black or white?
Leeanne I., Australia
I get them to pick any 3 white notes without telling them about the project. I write the notes they have chosen on the whiteboard, then I tell them about the project. I also demonstrate an improv with those notes, just to show it can be done.
Laurie Richards, Nebraska
Technically they can be any 3 notes; but it’s much easier to find a LH ‘home base’ that works well with consecutive notes, or at least if 2 of the notes are consecutive.
Joan H., Canada
I’ve never fully understood the 3 note song and I know that I am not the only one! Anybody want to elaborate on the above?
Laurie Richards, Nebraska
I kind of think of it as an ear training project. I have my students select 3 (usually consecutive) notes for the RH, then ‘try out’ those notes with different LH 1 & 5 positions. The purpose is to discover 1 or 2 LH positions that sound like ‘home’; i.e. if you were to stop on that position it could sound like it was the end of the song.
That’s the first step, and a project in itself. Then they can try a broken octave in the LH, or CP a LH from an arrangement that has broken octaves. The RH can play the same 3 notes in any octave.
I usually then do an exercise where we try to identify whether their home bases sound major or minor. Again this helps develop the ear.
What they do from there depends on the maj/min. I don’t want to go into all the detail here, and it is presented in the C&I Teacher Training.
Original discussion started January 15, 2020