If Possible

@jim-4

@jim-4

Link to Score

Starting this blog has made me look at my back catalogue and there sitting rotting away on my hard drive was “If Possible”. Something that I wrote over two years ago, had fun with it and then moved on to the next big thing. The minute I reheard it I was drawn in. It has an unsettled feeling but is still melodic. The unsettled thing is because I used Bartoks Axis

It was short and I thought too simple with just a piano over an arpeggio of the cords. So I said to my self “I am going to fix this”. First I wrote a little middle section, that allowed me to repeat the piece and change the order of the bits, to give it variety. I added some guitar to play the harmony and a bit of percussion to enhance that waltz feel. “Do you now what? “ Yes I was very disapointed. The melody still shines through but the backing is like clockwork. It dose not work. Where did I go wrong?

I think I did not analyse the music enough. I needeed to ask myself “what do I like about this?” First when I originally wrote it and now in my second encounter I though the cords where the most important. It is the notes of the appeggio. They at times cause dissinance but then at the end of a phrase they resolve. Thats where it gets its movement from. In my opinion this is really counterpoint. So if you have had a look at the score you seen many notes are enharmonic, To agree with the harmony.

My to do list on this is

1. I need to simplify the notes, what is realy going on here
2. look at doing this as a solo again, there may be room for more instruments

Then I think more of it’s secrets will be revealed

Jim

I reserve the right to Re-visit this at a later date.

Bartok

Pilgab at hu.wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Common

Bela Bartok was a composer that wrote music that employed a lot of dissonance. To enable Erno Lendaval to be able to analyse his work, he developed a system called Axis System.

See This Video from Milton Mermikides on You Tube.

My take on this is the cords can be laid out as in the table below.

1	C	A	F#	Eb
2	G	E	C#	Bb
3	D	B	G#/Ab	F

Assuming we want to create tension then resolve, if we make a particular group tonic. We have for a three cord melody the below ways of moving through.

Tonic	Sub Dominant	Dominant
1	3	2
2	1	3
3	2	1

If for example you use 1 – 3 - 2 from first column you get a standard Jazz II V I.

Some of the other possible combinations are

C – E - B Where C is the tonic, E the sub Dominant and B the dominant.

C – F – C#

There are many more.

Also bear in mind cords can be minor or major. I personally think that Dominant Cords work best. That could be the Blues lover in me coming out.

Take the time to go over this and watch Milton Mermikides Video again, because this system opens up a whole new World of possibilities.

Jim