Re: Melodies move by step in any form of music?

On May 28, 5:41=EF=BF=BDpm, nono umasy <nigelinsouthamer...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote=
:
> just a general question on melody.
>
> no matter what form of music, jazz, flamenco, cuban, funk, afro-beat,
> the melody in these form of music moves by step and not by leaps.
> basically the melodies move using similar contours and intervallic
> spaces?
>
> this just leads me to another question,
> what makes melodies characteristic of certain forms of music, for e.g.
> flamenco the melodies usually start with a tonic note, followed by a
> b2, b3 imposing that phrygian sound.
> e.g. arabic music usually has 3 minor seconds in the scale.
>
> but what about the other forms of music?
>
> would be nice to have a guideline or chart which breaks these
> different characteristic grouping of sounds.

When does an interval become a leap? Leonard Bernstein was very fond
of the interval of a major 7. The opening phrase of Beethoven's Piano
Concerto 1 is a C octave leap (as you say). You can't include jazz as
a style of music --too varied, and there's plenty of leaps -- it's
more of a genre.

There are many how to books about different styles of music, and their
analyses should answer your question, though the title will not be
exactly How To Compose a *Whatever*.

Neil Miller, author of The Piano Lessons Book
Enter in Amazon.com search: Neil Miller Piano Lessons Book