Check out my previous post about the descending 7-6 sequence here before reading this.
Here’s a descending 7-6 sequence from Brahms’ Waltz, Op 39 No 11.
Below is the full score of the first two lines. Here’s a recording.
Did you find the descending 7-6 sequence? Here it is in the second line.
Go to your instrument and try this!
- Play just the bassline, no chords or inner voices.
- Play just the melody. Pay attention to how Brahms is shimmying down by step in each bar.
- Play just the melody and bass, no chord or inner voices. If you play a single-line instrument try playing the bass note in a comfortable, but lower, register then follow that with the melody in a higher register.
Are you up for a challenge?
Here are some things to try:
- Try transposing the bassline and melody to another minor key. What scale degree does the bassline start on? What scale degree does the melody start on? What are the intervals between the outer-voices? These simple tools will help you transpose Brahms’ sequence.
- Try this sequence in F sharp major instead of F sharp minor.
- Try changing, adding, or subtracting the embellishment to the melody. Try doing that in one of the keys you have transposed the sequence into.
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- learn how to deconstruct and reconstruct the patterns at your instrument
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- then we’ll put the elements together and create a musical phrase.
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