Breathe together, Move together, Play together
C - Intonation Development
Utilizing drone scales in a quartet offers ensemble members a deeper understanding of harmonic tensions and releases within the key related to their piece. This understanding is then applied throughout the repertoire which will provide the ensemble additional tools to express the emotions, conversations, and characters created through harmonic tensions and releases more effectively.
The interval scale game allows for a deeper understanding of the complexities of intonation and blending tone amongst the group. This activity provides the opportunity to explore and create relationships of various notes within a chord as well as elicit the emotions, characters, and roles each scale degree plays within the chord progression, horizontally and vertically.
Playing the downbeats of a phrase or excerpt presents the opportunity to discover the outline or skeleton. This activity provides the ensemble opportunity to explore the voicing and harmonies of a phrase or set of phrases in a simplified manner, and helps highlight ringing tones, intonation, voicing, and blend.
Taking the downbeat game a step further, two members play downbeats while the other members play their measures of the excerpt as written. Thus starting the reconstruction of the excerpt and continuing the recognition of how parts work together to create a meaningful musical journey.