Lessons from Jazz/World to 20 Century Classical Music Harmony Rhythm and Theory
Author: Modern Music Theory and Application
Clifford Martin is a trained classical musician and composer. His 1st study being piano and composition and a deep study in the application of modern music theory. He also studied jazz piano and jazz drums privately.
This website is a catalogue of ideas and musical concepts for improvisation and composition.
This stand won the best music stand award at NAMM in 2024.
Not only, is this a great music stand, but it’s also a great tool for the content creator.
The best part for me, is that the design allows [with accessories] iPad/iPhone and “LumiLight” application for social media needs.
THE BASIC STAND:
Straight out of the box the stand has a sleek, smooth and state of the art feeling. The materials used are top notch.
It’s also pretty light, and very mobile/portable.
The other great thing is that the stand folds and unfolds easily with a sliding telescopic leg support. So, there’s nothing sticking out or sharp
This makes it especially useful for traveling, gigging, orchestral performing and social media/content creating on the go.
ACCESSORIES:
The great thing about this stand is that we can attach a light, an iPhone and/or an iPad .
The “LumiLight”
The light accessory, screws on to the top of the stand.
This, has two settings and can be powered by a USB Power bank or 3AA batteries.
The iPhone/iPad HOLDER:
Next, we have the iPhone/iPad Holder. This simply screws in, either, at the centre or at the top.
This, can also make the stand into an iPad holder [or iPhone] on its own if needed.
For a musician and content creator this is unbelievably useful, and essential when creating on the go.
This, is what makes the stand so unique, because, it is more of a “Tool” really, a sort of Swiss army knife [of mobility] for a social media and/or gigging musician that dosen’t want to carry a big bulky stand with separate iPad/iPhone stands and cases etc.
PRICE:
Prepare yourselves!….This is not a cheap stand. But, as in all things in life, you get what you pay for.
The stand itself costs [at the time of writing this review] £68
The stand with all accessories costs £114[at the time of writing this review]
THE CONS:
There are two points that I would say need looking at though.
1] The middle bar needs to go out further and come in closer. As, the clips can’t attach themselves to both ends of the manuscript paper. Not all music paper sizes, but some, especially songbooks.
EXAMPLE:
The second point: [for me this is not really an issue, but, to some musicians it might] it’s this: This stand does not really hold books that are excessively heavy or super bulky in weight.
Although, in my test it can hold one single heavy [heavy-ish]book without a problem.
Here’s a couple that I tried.
The “Jazz Theory Book” [Thick ring binder book]
This held fine:
This, also held up fine.
But, both together were too much and the telescopic leg slid down a bit.
Again, for me, this was not a problem, [as I use this as a gigging/content creating stand], but, perhaps for some people who wish to use big bulky books at home, a heavy duty stand would be preferable.
IN CONCLUSION:
This stand is a pretty light, mobile, [quick telescopic set up], easy to carry tool that can handle an iPad and an iPhone [and/or Light] with sheet music at the same time.
This is not what I would call a home music stand. Although, it does look really nice in the house and does work relatively well in that function.
But, I would call this a tool for the gigging musician that needs to travel light. This one stand can do the work of having separate stands and cases etc, whilst being hassle free in terms of mobility/portability.
If you are interested you can get 15% off with the code below:
Today, a look at using the guitar pick/plectrum to create contrapuntal/counterpoint ideas.
In this first part, [This lesson] we will look at treble to bass and bass to treble and how to make the non consecutive 3rds, 5ths and octaves and harmony work.
In the next part [next lesson] we will look at how to create “Resonance”, especially in regards to scales.
PART 1: Etude/Prelude
At the beginning of the video above, you will see/hear a little prelude that I composed for the contrapuntal plectrum/picking ideas.
This demonstration concepts piece will be the lesson of today.
SMOOTH “CLEAR” HARMONY=Key
In the first bar we have chord I to Vb. This, could also be seen as, C to G/B or chord I to chord V first inversion:[Landing on the root]
Musical notation for plectrum guitar illustrating the progression from chord I to Vb, emphasizing harmonic structure.
From here we have chord ii and then chords moving up the scale – I ii iii iV
Here, I am also employing the second finger with the pick in order to pluck both strings at once [see video].
In order to keep the harmony ascending with clear movement, we will now take the F natural up a semitone to F# and create a secondary dominant first inversion-II7b
This chord ii [Dm] is now, made Major with the added seventh [D7].
This in turn, resolves up another semitone to G for the dominant chord of G Major.
Musical notation depicting the secondary dominant II7b and chord V for guitar pick practice.
We will now, exploit a perfect cadence of I V I to complete this section of the composition:
PART 2:
Now, to create contrast, we will employ scale movement, double stops and imitation:
The technique to keep this ascending is “Imitation”, using and implying what we have already played up an octave.
Finally, the cadence is created with “Contrary Motion” technique. And, once again we will imitate this, but, an octave lower this time, to complete the cadence.
Musical notation illustrating the technique of contrary motion, highlighting specific notes and finger positions and imitation.
PART 3:
In the coming part, we will exploit much string skipping and intervallic movement.
This technique is great for Low High Low with the Bass to Treble or Treble to bass.
This is an amazing way, to perform a contrapuntal effect and map out and perform crystalline clear harmony that resonates beautifully when fretted on the guitar.[See Video Above].
Sheet music illustrating plectrum techniques and contrapuntal ideas for guitar.
Second Part:
Musical notation showing notes and finger placements for contrapuntal guitar picking.
PART 4: Recapitulation:
The last part employs our original little tune, but will change key at the finale.
In order to change the key and “Uplift” the end, we will exploit two secondary dominants: The first being chord ii as II7b [D7 to G].
And the second being Chord iii. So, we have III7b [E7 to A Major]
Musical notation illustrating the progression from D7/F# G to E7/G# A, highlighting the transitions in chord structure and secondary dominants for guitar.
This, means that we now have to cadence with D Major as the new tonic key.
To wind down the composition we will outline a D Major [13/sus4] arpeggio and cadence with some simple contrary motion emphasising the new key and chord of D Major.
Conclusion:
This, was just a quick look at the fretting side of plectrum contrapuntal guitar writing and playing.
This style, encompasses the no consecutive 3rds, 5ths and octaves approach, taken from the Bach’s chorales.
In the next part, we will look at how to create resonance and a much bigger sound with more colourful plectrum techniques.
