Bajan Pied Piper || Call & Response to the Blues || Busking

The Cat in the Hat(s) amazes me again with sage advice. I wrote a note to Jim D'Ville who teaches us to use our ears more and writes the blog PLAY UKE BY EAR and he said he learned about BPP by reading my blog. My friend EcoDougie clued me in. BPP has a way of explaining so much about MUSIC THEORY. Back to Jim, he said that he feels as if he's being talked to directly each time he watches. I have been soaking it all in, and as you know, have posted several BPP videos, on this personal storage place and notebook.

The following is Bajan Pied Piper's
IDEAS FOR COMPOSING A SONG AND MELODIC IMPROVISING
1. Start by choosing a scale. You can use the major scale, or one of the modes, or one of the many other scales that are out there.
2. As a general rule, start on a note and advance or retreat in small increments. This does not mean you can not or must not or should not make a big jump.
3. There are really no rules where music theory is concerned. Every theory rule can be altered. At best there are only guide lines!
4. You may like to throw in a semi-tone or two...
5. Many songs are composed on the major scale and then ~ for the bridge, one of the modes is used as the template, and/or a change of key, etc...
6. Use repetition of notes.
7. There are a lot of songs that begin with the same 4 or 5 notes! And you get passages of notes that are identical in the body of the song but because of what comes before or after these identical phrases, and the way they are played i.e. the duration of the notes whether half-notes, quarter notes, sixteenths, etc you don't recognize the phrase. As an example: these four notes G A B D are the first 4 notes of Tennessee Waltz; Someone to Watch Over Me; You Belong to Me; P.S. I love You; etc.
8. Play a progression of chords and see what melody suggests itself.
9. Play sweet nothings ~ just get together with your instrument and play runs and behold a melody line will appear! practice with a tape recorder or write down the phrase. After you have a motif carry on and build on it.
10. Write the words the lyrics. Then say the lyrics. Sing the lyrics to various little melodies that suggest themselves.
11. Play a chord as an arpeggio and see where your ear wants to go. Extend the chord to dominant 7th or a 9th and so on.
12. Etc. etc. !