Patterns and Variations
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Most music, but especially Irish music, is a mixture of two opposing forces: repetition and variation. A tune which consists of one figure repeating over and over gets boring very quickly, unless you happen to be meditating. Conversely, a tune which never plays the same figure twice is very hard to listen to because you can't get a handle on it. Most Irish tunes repeat several bars in various places within themselves to give a pattern to the tune. In fact, Irish music (and other forms of traditional music) often contain common patterns which occur in many tunes in the genre. If you recognize these, you will find it much easier to acquire tunes, as well as incorporate variations on the standard patterns, in your own playing. Here are some patterns which occur frequently in Irish music, along with some ideas on how you might vary them:
Ornaments are the easiest places to use variations. A long roll on G can be substituted with any of the following figures, for example:
Often you will have what is called a pedal note, or a note which keeps getting bounced back to, between other notes. In this example,
the A is the pedal note. Usually the notes in between will form either an ascending or descending pattern (in this case, descending), or else they will alternate between two notes. The pedal notes can be above or below the other notes, but usually they will be below. You can vary this type of figure by doing one of several things. For example, you could transpose the pedal note up or down an octave, if possible, leaving the other notes where they are. Try this with the above example, playing a high A instead of a low A. Or, you could reverse the direction of the ascending or descending pattern, or even substitute completely different notes, while leaving the pedal notes alone. Try playing the above example, but playing an E-F#-G progression instead of the G-F#-E one shown. Or, if you feel really adventurous, try changing the rhythm of the figure by moving one of the notes one beat ahead or late.
Often, you will see an ascending or descending progression where a note is skipped (i.e. A-B-middle D-E). In these cases, you could put a triplet in, so that you can get the missing note. In the example just mentioned, I like to put a triplet in place of the jump from B to D, substituting B-C-D. (If you do this cleanly, you can get a nice sounding bite on the C; Rob Greenway, a friend of mine, calls this figure a "burble".)
Now that you have some idea of the possibilities, a word of caution is in order. It is possible to over-ornament a tune; some tunes don't need much decoration at all, and most only need it in a few places. If you put too many in, it can sound florid and overdone, as well as be hard to play. The best players use ornaments and variations in a tasteful manner, complementing the melody but not distracting attention away from it. This goes as well for variations. You shouldn't put all your variations into one playing of the tune; rather, use them sparingly and let them play off of the straight melody. Otherwise, someone listening might not be able to tell what the real melody is, and the effect of your variations will be wasted. In that case, you'd be improvising on a chord progression instead of playing a tune.