Feeling Phrases
Scale: Part 3
Pitches in Sequence
Same in one sense, different in others.
We’ve explored reusing one word in different poetic contexts in Part 1, and phrase decomposition in Part 2 of the Scale series.
Let’s now explore how one phrase can be used in multiple melodies.
You’ll find 4 passages of melodic music below, ranging in duration from 8 seconds to 16 seconds.
Each passage has a markedly different structure and intended mood, but one thing they all have in common is the musical phrase below:
This phrase is also shown here graphically:
Since we’re mainly concerned with pitch (and scales) for now, we can refer to this phrase by its pitch decoding: Ni Re' Ga' Re'.
Intentional Listening
To make the most of the process, I’d recommend following these steps for each melodic passage:
Simply listen to the passage straight through the first time.
On your second (and third) listen, slow down, and observe what you feel and think.
Take a breath. If there was something that stood out in the passage, think about why it felt that way.
Ask yourself these questions for each passage of melody:
What was the most memorable aspect of the melody and why?
What is the feeling you associate with the entire melody?
How did the overall context of the melody change how you perceived the phrase Ni Re' Ga' Re'?
P.S. The common phrase occurs at the exact same time within each melody, at around 2.5 seconds from the start the audio (~0:02).
The 4 Melodic Passages
The first melody gives me a vibe of determination and upliftment:
The second melody feels simultaneously sad and hopeful to me:
The third melody, I can best express as the cycle of life and death:
The fourth melody gives me a sense of innocent playfulness:
Where are the Pictures?
If you’ve been following along with the earlier Decoding Melody series, you might have grown accustomed to seeing a visual decoding of the above melodies.
We’ll get to that, but not right away. This is intentional, so that you can engage deeply with each melody purely through listening.
In a future part of the series, we will see each of these melodies fully decoded in visual form. Until then, let your ears guide you! :)
The Meaning of a Phrase
When learning a language, we generally associate a word with its meaning. That meaning is dependent on the contexts in which the word gets used.
In a similar way, a phrase can have a “musical meaning,” which is dependent on the contexts in which the phrase is used.
Given the wide range of musical styles in which you might hear a phrase, this can quickly become laborious.
To make the process easier in the long-term, we can focus on these 3 simple questions when listening to any phrase:
What do you feel when you listen to the phrase? (I’ve answered this question for the 4 melodies above in their one-line descriptions)
How do others respond to that phrase? (You can answer this for me in the comments!)
What is the relationship between the phrase and its surrounding context? (We’ll attempt to answer this in the near future)
In the absence of any definite word-like meanings, these 3 questions can begin to give you a sense of the phrase’s musical meaning.
If you’d like to go a step further, exercise your compositional skills by using the phrase in a variety of musical contexts. There’s no better way to learn than by diving right in.
What’s Next?
In the next part, we’ll see how phrases and context might work in a visual medium.
Do you love music? And learning? Well, then Sound Insight is the place for you!
If you’d like to spread what you’ve learnt (and support me along the way ;D), please consider sharing this post.
If you’d like to learn more, please reach out through comments/DMs. I’d love to learn from you as well :)