Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Twinkle, Twinkle, Upper Octave and 6th in the Bass

Last week we did the lower and upper octaves together. The octave is a sort of harmony, but it is very simple (harmonically simple, maybe not simple to play). A richer harmony is the 6th. The 6th is an upside-down 3rd, and both 6ths and 3rds are very beautiful.

Both the 3rd and the 6th come in major and minor varieties, and if you were playing guitar, you would need to worry about these. On the kalimba, you are locked into whatever the kalimba's tuning is, so we just take what the kalimba gives us.

We repeat the upper octave as in the last two weeks, but we scoot the lower octave melody up by one tine, on the same side as the lower octave melody. And we have something very pretty.

Listen to Twinkle Melody in the upper
octave with a 6th added below

Here is the KTabS file for the song

To find out more about KTabS, go to the KTabS website

So far, all of these parts have been totally parallel to each other - when the right thumb plays, the left thumb plays. When the upper melody goes up, the lower melody goes up. Next week, we'll start working on an accompanying part that is not parallel to the upper melody - i.e., things are going to get a bit complicated. But this is how we learn to do amazing things. So, watch out! Then again, this is still just Twinkle, Twinkle. What can be easier than that?

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