A Music Tip from David Reed's Improvise For Real book

I recently returned to my copy of David Reed's Improvise For Real book to review his section on the Seven Worlds, which is/are the seven harmonic worlds of the major scale. Since I am almost exclusively playing Irish traditional tunes (melodies) at this point, I don't need some of the more improvisation oriented teachings from the book, however, I still find his approach to scales/modes invaluable.

David describes the major scale as having no beginning and no end. Here's an example of how I conceive this: 

1·2·34·5·6·71·2·34·5·6·71·2·34·5·6·71·2·34·5·6·71·2·34·5·6·71·2·34·5·6·71·2·34·5·6·71... and so ad infinitum.

Notice that there's no space between 3 & 4 or 7 & 1. This is because these are half-steps/semi-tones. Everywhere else is a whole step/whole tone. What David calls the Seven Worlds are the seven different patterns found in this never ending sequence of whole steps and half steps. 

1·2·34·5·6·71

2·34·5·6·71·2

34·5·6·71·2·3

4·5·6·71·2·34

5·6·71·2·34·5

6·71·2·34·5·6

71·2·34·5·6·7

If you were applying these numbers 1 through 7 to the D-major scale the corresponding numbers to letters would be 1=D, 2=E, 3=F#, 4=G, 5=A, 6=B, 7=C# and so on. 

In Irish music we tend to use only four of these seven worlds: 1 through 1, 2 through 2, 5 through 5, and 6 through 6. An example of World 1 would be the reel The Wise Maid. It has a tonal center of D and if/when there is a C/C# note played it is always a C#. World 2 is also very common in Irish music. An example of World 2 is Swallowtail Jig. It uses all the same notes as The Wise Maid (D, E, F#, G, A, B, C#) yet the tonal center hangs on note E rather than D, making it the 2·34·5·6·71·2 world. E·F#G·A·B·C#D·E.

Worlds 3 and 4 are not typically present in Irish music so I'll skip those. And World 7 is not really used in any type of music that I know of. However, World 5 is very prominent in Irish traditional music. The High Reel is in World 5. It happens to use the same notes as The Wise Maid (World 1) and The Swallowtail Jig (World 2) but The High Reel has note A as its tonal center, making it the 5·6·71·2·34·5 world. A·B·C#D·E·F#G·A. World 5.

World 6 is also found in Irish music but surprisingly is not as common as Worlds 2 or 5. The Musical Priest is one that is World 6. Once again it shares the same notes as the other tunes mentioned as examples, but The Musical Priest has note B as its tonal center, meaning that it resolves to B instead of D, E or A. 6·71·2·34·5·6.

Maybe I'll cover the tonal centers of Irish music in another post, but I hope you can see how a book with its title/premise being Improvise For Real can still be very applicable to Irish music, a style known for ornaments and melodic variations but not improvisation, per se.

PS: I find it very interesting that David Reed disucusses the Seven Worlds without using the words Ionian (World 1), Dorian (World 2), Phrygian (World 3), Lydian (World 4), Mixolydian (World 5), Aeolian (World 6) or Locrian (World 7). Maybe he thinks those words scare people off or make their brains malfunction or sound too much like music theory talk, but for me making that connection between these music theory terms and the Seven Worlds was integral in my understanding of scales/modes. But then again, I Don't Punch Like Muhammad A Li.

***

Be a Fan