I'm kind of obsessed with songs that use 1 or 2 notes as the central motif. "One note samba" would be the obvious example. Of course, it uses more than one note, but the initial theme is monotone. It adds the Bb after a while, and then the B section uses a ton of notes.
Second example, "Thelonious" by you-know-who. The motif is Bb, repeated, going down a half step to A, then back again to Bb. There is only one other note in the A section of the tune, a fourth up from Bb to Eb.
What else? C Jam blues has a melody that goes up a fifth from the tonic.
So the movement that normally was in the melody is transferred to the harmony, in the Jobim example. The initial F sounds different depending on its relation to the underlying chords. There is also rhythmic dynamism. It don't mean a think if it ain't got that swing / dah dah dah dah / dah dah dah dah / dah dah dah dah / dah dah. The last part is all on one note.
Staying on one note for a while is also an improvisatory technique. It could be "honking," in which a tenor sax will pick a low note and just milk the hell out of it while the audience goes crazy. Or, in Sonny Rollins, a way of creating tension and rhythmic variation. Repetition creates tension, because the listener wants it to end, to resolve to something else.
En effective technique is to play one note for a while, then a crazy ornamentation that goes all over the place.
What other tunes use this device of repetition?
1 comment:
When I started jazz piano lessons in 10th grade, I was not allowed to play a solo with more than one note for at least a month, to force me to think about rhythm, volume, and silence. In the second month: two notes. In the third: three notes (1st, minor third, sixth). Fourth: three notes but I could vary octaves.
In 11th grade I broke my hand in a fight, the week before a jazz band concert. Before my solo at that concert, I really spotlighted how wrapped up my right hand was. Then I played the first chorus with one note and one finger, the second with two notes and the same finger, the third chorus, etc.
A shining moment for Bob! (I still brag about it, obviously ...)
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