Who's Afraid of the Big Bad 9:7? Part 6

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Tip #9: |
| A reasonably effective, but ultimately diversionary, method of distin- |
| guishing 9:7 from 5:4, is to use 9:7 in some of the same melodic ways |
| that you would use perfect fourths, rather than thirds. |
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It's important to understand that using 9:7s like melodic fourths is
probably, in the end, something of a distraction. 9:7 is very much a third more
than a fourth. But using it like a fourth does seem to help break the mold of
thinking of 9:7 as a poor step-cousin of 5:4.

Perhaps the most intuitive melodic way to invoke the sense and expectation of
a fourth, into which you can substitute a 9:7, is in the old classic rising
fourth from a pick-up note on diatonic step 5 to the tonic (e.g., Old Lang Syne,
or however that's spelled).


+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Tip #10: |
| When you first introduce 9:7s in an actual composition, don't be timid |
| with them. |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+


Presenting anything too timidly makes it sound like a mistake, in this case,
like you accidentally played a 5:4 too sharp. Go ahead and blare it out with
rock steady tones. Feel free to start a motif with 9:7s on an accented beat,
and then repeat or sequence that motif. As my ol' freshman Theory instructor
put it, repetition is the great legitimizer in music.


+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Tip #11: |
| A subtle (but clearly diliberate) way to ease timid ears into harmonic |
| 9:7s, is by using a drone or suspending a note from a previous chord |
| that forms a 9:7 with a new chord tone. |
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I have found exploring first melody, and then melody with drones, especially
useful when I'm exploring ALL facets of a new tuning. So in the case of you,
the composer, getting comfortable with 9:7, drones might be the ticket. But you
might want to consider the suspension approach in "real" compositions, since
that's more interesting contrapuntally, and musically in general.


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