(no subject)

John Lozier (hharmony@igc.apc.org)
Sun, 20 Oct 1996 03:33:34 -0700 (PDT)

Why is it so hard for some people to accept the obvious fact that
musicians improvise?? The old music is written in melody only. Not only
can you vary the lower parts infinitely, you can actually find different
chords that work for the same tune. And when you repeat a tune, you can
change the chords!!

I dare say there will be no one to say you can't.

Best wishes, John Lozier, Harping for Harmony

On Sat, 19 Oct 1996, Mike
Nielsen wrote:

> Andrew Colquhoun wrote:
> >
> >
> > >What I am wondering is, do you think that in olden times, the musicians
> > >played these songs "straight" or "jazz" style?
> > >
> > I'm not a betting man but... I betcha that they improvised constantly... I
> > grew up in Scotland and even today no two people sing or play exactly alike.
> > They all add their own flavor to the piece.
>
> Andrew,
>
> I am thinking more along the lines of playing some sort of alternate
> melody against the chords after playing it straight. By that I mean not
> just different accents or some flourishes, but a new set of basic notes
> built on the same scale. Is that also considered part of the tradition?
>
> Mike
>