This is the final episode in a five-episode mini-series on “idiomatic improvisation” as a pedagogical technique in the music theory and aural skills classroom. In this episode, Alex Jonker and Peter Schubert ask students to improvise classical phrase continuations that modulation to the dominant, drawing on basic musical instincts about phrase lengths and tonality.

This episode was produced by Amy Hatch & Katrina Roush along with Team Lead Caitlin Martinkus. Special thanks to peer reviewers Phil Duker and Joseph Straus.

SMT-Pod’s theme music was written by Maria Tartaglia, with closing music by Yike Zhang. For supplementary materials on this episode and more information on our authors and composers, check out our website: https://smt-pod.org/episodes/

Welcome to SMT-Pod, the premier audio publication of the Society for Music Theory. This is the final episode in a five-episode mini-series on “idiomatic improvisation” as a pedagogical technique in the music theory and aural skills classroom. In this episode, Alex Jonker and Peter Schubert ask students to improvise classical phrase continuations that modulation to the dominant, drawing on basic musical instincts about phrase lengths and tonality.

Hi, I'm Alex Jonker, and I'm back for the fifth and final episode in our series on idiomatic improvisation. I'm here with my mentor and colleague, Peter Schubert, and today we'll be talking about an improvisation activity that we call melody continuation.

[Intro music – Elisabetta de Gambarini minuet]

Peter, you've done this activity as part of a little YouTube series called “See What an Ass I Am,” and I'm wondering for those listeners who haven't heard this or watched this series before, can you give us the backstory here?

Yeah, well, it's a story about Mozart. Mozart wrote to his father and said, 'I'm doing what you said. I'm giving lessons to the daughter of this nobleman, but she has no imagination. She can't compose, and she has no ideas. She's a good player, though, and knows a lot of music by heart. So,” Mozart says, “I decided I would give her something to start with, so I wrote out the beginning of a minuet, and then I said to her, ‘See what an ass I am? I've composed this beginning and can't continue it.’

And she took it and left.” After a long time she came up with something. So, the idea of continuations is that we know enough intuitively about classical style that if somebody sings a two-bar basic idea it's very likely that another person can come up with a good following melody, a good next two bars. And so, we've been doing this for quite a while and we give them only two bars. I think Mozart gave her four bars to be honest, but it's the same idea. So we give them a two-bar basic idea as we call it and they come up with the next two bars and then we can build on this in very surprising ways, right?

Yeah, our melody continuations offer even more freedom than some of the other activities that we've talked about in this series so far because they don't necessarily have a strict harmonic framework. There's no bass line that the student is singing against. They're just making up a melody and following their intuitions. And for that reason it's one of the first improv activities that we teach our students because they can do this with very, very little musical training of any kind. It's “here's a two measure melodic idea. What do you think should come next? And you can sing anything that you want.” And this freedom and flexibility, I think, is a good introduction to the idea of improvisation.

Right. And also they can then be asked, what are those scale degrees? What do you imagine the harmonies? You could ask people to add a bass to it. That's something possible.

Absolutely. To get us started on this activity we have another little analysis of a classical phrase to kind of set the model for what we're looking for. Our first student that you'll hear from, from is Alyce.

My name is Alyce Renaud. I'm a second-year at the Schulich School of Music. I am an early music voice performance major as a soprano. I also do organ on the side. I have no experience improvising. I'm definitely a note reader type of girl.

She'll be analyzing a phrase from Joseph Bologne's first violin sonata. So I'm going to play the beginning of a sonata for violin and harpsichord, and I want you to just find tonic the first time through. So when you hear it, the harpsichord starts, and I really want you to listen for the phrase that when the violin comes in.

[Audio plays, then Alyce sings]

Lovely, where is it on the piano.

[Alyce finds note on keyboard]

Nice, what key would you say this is in?

B-flat.

Yeah, B-flat major, nice. Okay, listen again and see how much of that violin melody you can remember and sing back.

[Audio plays, then Alyce sings]

That’s where, I can’t, is that right?

Yeah, yeah.

[Alyce sings]

Sorry your first your first four measures were right

Okay, yeah.

Let's listen again and see if you can add in these last four measures.

[Audio plays, then Alyce sings]

Something like that.

It was close.

It was really close.

Yeah and you made up music that was a little bit believable in between the right notes so that was nice. Do you want to give it one more shot?

[Audio plays]

Like I like had it in my brain and then it went away but I'll try.

[Alyce sings]

No, because it goes back to the, oh, no it doesn't.

Okay I think maybe let's leave this little middle section here. Let's talk about the first four measures. Can you sing the first four measures again?

[Alyce sings]

And then I can hear it in my head it's

[Alyce sings again]

Well that would do if he had composed that.

You're right, yeah. I'm wondering just within those first four measures so we can just scrap the little bit at the end that we're not sure about. Within these first four measures, I'm wondering if you could say something about how they're composed, like, are they related to each other?

They’re kind of like, the same kind of theme, just like, I think it's,

[Alyce sings]

Is that a third? I don't think it's a step.

Okay what direction is it?

Down.

Yeah, good. So we have an idea that's presented and then it's-

And then it's shifted down a little bit.

Yeah, OK, great. I wonder if you can think about the scale degrees for this. Can you think about what the first one is, and then maybe the second one?

Oh, it is. Wait. So it is seven.

Yeah, good. So the second one starts on seven.

It feels bigger. I think it’s because of all the, like, it goes up higher, and then it goes back down, so it feels like it's bigger.

Yeah, yeah, nice, great.

But it's a seven.

Yeah, it is. That second one, the first one starts on one, and then the second one starts just a step lower on seven. Yeah, nice.

As you heard from Alyce, remembering and singing back eight measures of material is very difficult. And this phrase is pretty difficult. It leaps around a lot in the second half, and I think it's a particularly difficult melody for the students to remember and to sing back. So as you heard here, one of our basic kind of philosophies with improvisation is meeting the student where they're at.

And Alice was struggling, and I could hear she was struggling. So I just focused on the first four measures and asked her to work with those and see what we could learn just from those first four measures. And it ended up working out pretty well. Let's listen to Alice improvise now. She's figured out how our model goes. And now she can improvise her own melody continuation.

So I'm going to give you a two-measure basic idea. And the first time, I just want you to sing it back.

[Alex sings, then Alyce repeats]

Beautiful.

And I can continue?

We're going to talk about just this much for a second. Can you get a sense for what meter it's in?

[Alyce sings]

OK. That was in three then.

Great. Yes, it was in three. And where do you think the tonic is, just based off of this little..

[Alyce sings]

Beautiful. Yeah, good. And what scale degree does this little melody start on?

Five.

Can you sing the starting pitch?

[Alyce sings]

That's your tonic.

Three.

Beautiful. Yeah. Can you sing the whole thing with scale degrees?

Ooh. OK.

[Alyce sings]

Ah, I like your first little bit.

[Alyce sings]

Beautiful. OK. Now you can leave the scale degrees behind and make up a little two-measure continuation that follows it. Whenever you feel like should come next. So sing the first two measures and then add two after.

Does it have to follow any of the structure or can I just

Nope, it can be whenever you're feeling.

[Alyce sings]

How do you feel about that?

I didn't like that.

Why didn't you like it?

Because it was too adventurous.

It was too adventurous?

I wanted to go, I wanted to add something higher. But it didn't work out okay, I don't think it felt, like, it felt too out of place, like it didn't fit in the context.

Yeah, would you be able to sing it again?

No.

Okay so try something else and see if you can remember how it goes.

[Alyce sings]

Okay.

I'm not gonna remember that either.

How much material did you add?

Too much. Another, an extra measure I think?

You added four measures to mine two.

Oh, sorry!

That's okay, that's okay. We're gonna get there eventually but for this first time just see if you can just add two measures.

[Alyce sings]

Okay, nice! Can you remember how it goes?

[Alyce sings again]

Lovely. Can you sing all of that with scale degrees?

[Alyce sings]

That was a different thing.

No, no, you sang the same thing.

Yeah, you sang the right melody.

You named the scale degrees wrong.

Oh, I sang the same thing, okay.

[Alyce sings again]

Can you sing the last two?

[Alyce sings]

How big does that feel?

Like five, one.

Just sing it without numbers.

[Alyce sings]

Oh, seven, one.

There you go! Okay, great.

For the students who find this very easy and get it very quickly, we can add an extra challenge by asking them to modulate to the dominant or to the relative major. So here's Emilie improvising a continuation that modulates to the dominant.

My name is Emily Popolo. I am a rising U2 at McGill, but I'm from the United States, so this will be my third year and then I have one more year after that. I'm a mezzo-soprano, but I'm in BMus History.

So I'm gonna give you a two-measure basic idea. And the first time through, I just want you to sing it back for me, okay? So it goes like this.

[Alex sings, then Emilie sings]

Yeah, good. Okay, now I want you to sing that little bit again and I want you to add two measures after it. And it can be whatever you feel like. Whatever you feel like should come next.

[Emilie sings]

Ooh, lovely. Can you sing it again? Just repeat it exactly what you did.

[Emilie sings]

Lovely. Very nice. Okay, so if we wanted to turn this into an eight measure phrase, what do you think would maybe come next? So now we have four measures. What do you think would maybe start the second half of this phrase?

[Emilie sings]

That was lovely. So you finished the whole eight measure phrase. That was really, really good. And you ended on the same tonic that you started with. So that was lovely. Great job. And you did something completely different in measures five and six. So it had a little bit of, you know, moving away and then coming back to tonic. And that was lovely. Really nicely done. Great job. I wonder if we can make this one modulate to the dominant?

Oh, okay.

Yeah? Okay. So you can keep your first four or maybe even six measures the same. And then we just want to get to the dominant at the end. What note would you need to modulate to the dominant? Or how can you kind of signify to the listener that we're in a new key now?

Well, it can always help to have the leading tone. That can always be a really good indicator if you go from, you know, leading tone to, like, the leading tone of the dominant.

Yes, great. I think that's exactly what you need. Yeah. Okay. So can you sing your tonic again?

[Emilie sings]

That's your starting pitch.

[Emilie sings]

That's my tonic.

Yep. And where's your dominant?

[Emilie sings]

Yep. Okay. And where's your leading tone of the dominant?

[Emilie sings]

Yes. Exactly. So that's where you're going to get to at the modulation, yeah? Okay. So start off by singing the same first four measures that you sang before, if you can still remember it.

I have an idea.

Okay. And if it's not the exact same, that's fine. And then see if in the last four, at some point, you can modulate so that you end in the dominant key. Yeah?

Yeah.

Give it a shot.

Okay.

[Emilie sings]

Incredible.

That was great.

That was beautiful.

That was terrific.

Yeah. Really, really nice.

So to sum up, what do you think, Alex?

I hope the thing that we got across through this whole series is that improvisation is really where the rubber of theory meets the road of ear training. Sometimes we spend just 10 minutes with each student, and in those 10 minutes, we don't just see the theory student or just the ear training student, but we see the whole musician. And I think a lot of times we're surprised and delighted at their abilities, and often a little bit appalled by their weaknesses.

And I think it's very informative for us as instructors. Our flexible approach to all of these activities allows us to meet the student where they're at and to work with whatever skills that they have. So we can provide an easier exercise for the weaker students or really push the stronger ones to build on what they already know. The last thing I'll say is that I think the social dimension of these activities, with the student interacting with the instructor and the other students in the class, makes them some of the most fun and engaging activities that we do in our classes.

Well, that's just great, Alex. Thanks.

Thanks, Peter.

Outro music – Jane Savage minuet

[Outro Theme by Yike Zhang.]

Visit our website, smt-pod.org, for supplemental materials related to this episode and to learn how to submit an episode proposal. You can join in the conversation by tweeting us your questions and comments to @SMT_Pod. SMT-Pod’s theme music was written by Maria Tartaglia, with closing music by Yike Zhang. Thanks for listening!