July 26, 2007
A Sansula Pivot

Last week we referred to two notes, one on the upper row and one on the lower row, which are so close together in pitch that they don't sound good together. I call these the pivot notes. A chord can either have one of them or the other, but not both.

In today's exercise, we hold all other notes ("2, 3, 4, 5") constant, but change the pivot note - which happens to be "1". These numbers "1, 2, 3, 4, 5" do not refer to the position in the chord, but rather to the sequence in which the notes should be played.

First play the sequence of notes shown above, going "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1" - and then repeat a time or two. You may want to crescendo (get louder) as you go up, and decrescendo (get quieter) as you come down.

Now, let the other notes stay the same, but shift, or pivot, the first note, playing a very similar note that totally changes the color of the riff. Again, go up, then back down, and repeat a few times. Go back and forth between the first and the second riffs.

And you now have a large part of a song.

Listen to this Sansula Pivot

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