Music Theory Question

seconal

Music theory question.

I've got to take a short melody, and add 1 note between C & E. It's the C major scale, so I need a D.



4/4 time. Book says this exercise is making the melody conjunct instead of disjunct, and, here is the problem I'm having, I have to keep the rhythm.

So as you can see, the book's answer just shifted the E over to the second bar and replaced it with the D.
My answer was to take the 16th note attached to the first note(C) and just seperate the beat.

I thought this was correct because... the melody still starts on beat 4, doesn't add a beat, and just simply breaks down a note. Am I correct in this thinking? or has my answer changed the rhythm.

The part that really gets me is that, after the book showed the answer, it said, "...we suggest you experiment with your own such variations."

Being in the C-major scale, isn't it only possible for the note-to-be-added to be D. Neither C# or Eb would fit. So the book's answer would be the only one?

Thanks.

Zifnab

To keep it a conjunct melody, then yes, D is going to be your choice. I'm not entirely sure I'm understanding the assignment, though. If you need to keep the same succession of rhythmic values, in this case dotted eight, sixteenth, quarter, then yes, the book's answer is going to be the right one. You're still changing the rhythm, though, as far as I'm concerned because adding a quarter note, as the book did, changes the rhythm of the overall melody. To keep the general rhythm, you could conceivably make the D and E 32nd notes and keep the dotted eighth. I just don't feel like I'm understanding what it is that you need to do, and my theory's a little rusty anyhow, so...

YosemiteSam

In my opinion, yours is more true to the original melody. The answer they give changes a fundamental characteristic of the melody (by moving the E to the first full measure and changing it to a quarter note). Whether one or the other is "correct" or "incorrect" is kind of a weird question because it's music, whatever sounds good to you is correct. But if one is more correct than the other, I'd argue that it's yours that is more correct.

Regarding other notes you could have used, D# (Eb) would have sounded pretty good because it's a leading tone to E. You could have used a Db if you felt like it, I guess, but it would have been kind of out there and not really theoretically sound if you're trying to stay in a Western music tradition.

seconal

Ok. Thanks for the help.

t Zifnab: I think what the book did was only add two 1/4 notes to measure 2 and sort of leave the rest off (since it's 4/4). So I could use the 2/4 to do whatever seeing as the bar wasn't set. I just added the red lines to distinguish the sections.

A question for you regarding the splitting of the 16ths into 2x32nds. This is what I need to get out of all of this, if nothing else.

Does splitting a note, but keeping it within the beat change the rhythm.

ex. 4/4 time... 4 quarter notes --> 4/4 time... 3 quarter notes plus 2 eighth notes

This has me kind of baffled. I want to say yes, because if you tap it out, then it sounds different, but how the book answered the question (which was fine) then added that there were more possibilities that didn't break rhythm was a bit confusing.

Zifnab

Well, yes, it does change the rhythm because you're using a different sequence of rhythmic values. However, splitting the 16th like in my example is a way of keeping the sense of the rhythm without strictly keeping the original rhythm. Think of it as adding color, like adding a 7th to a chord makes it technically a different chord, but the chord is still functionally the same.

Tube

A major 7 chord is tonally very different from a major chord.

Pheezer

Changing the number of notes and increasing the speed with which they're played yes that changes the rhythm

Hamju

Cardboard Tube wrote: »

A major 7 chord is tonally very different from a major chord.

But, say if it's a V to a V7 then it is functionally the same.

seconal

Alright, thanks for the help.