Evolution of The Concept

[bsobolik]

Does anyone have access to the first edition of Russell's book? I have some questions about how it differed from the current version.

[motherlode]

I no longer have the printed pages, but I do have the original tonal gravity chart and slide ruler from the first edition. I do know someone with an original copy in Detroit. Would this be of help?

[bsobolik]

Maybe. Did the first edition have the same scalar organization as the 4th edition (lydian, lydian aug, lydian dim, etc.)? Was the gravity order the same? (I,V,II,VI,III,VII,+IV,+V,bIII,bVII,bII)?

[motherlode]

No. Look to the post 'Interval Mastery'. I've written out the first ed tonal gravity chart. The order is different. Also, contained within is something called the 9-tone and 11-tone scales. I don't know if these appear in later editions.

[motherlode]

1st ed Tonal Gravity (original):

http://www.4shared.com/file/132753878/5 ... st_ed.html

[strachs]

Does this chart help you choose from among possible scales when you encounter a certain interval in a melody? Is that it's purpose?


Side note: the typewriter font/formatting really makes you appreciate the bobappleton-ized 4th edition!

[bsobolik]

Thanks motherlode.

What you have shared with me has answered my question about the degree to which the first edition differs from the 4th and has made me realize that I need to get my hands on the first edition to do what I am trying to do.

Does anyone know of a library that has the first edition?

[motherlode]

You're welcome bsobolik.

Strachs, that chart IS tonal gravity. The answer to your question is yes, yes, YES!

The way we learned tonal gravity was to first learn the order of each interval, THEN...at which point the scale changes that supports that interval at that distance.

If you take another look at the 'Interval Mastery' post my color chart makes the whole process very/somewhat easy.
I've said this before, and I'll say it again...I believe that I'm one of the few here that can sing Tonal Gravity and know at which point the scale changes.
Not that I'm special...everyone back in Detroit that took 'the concept' to heart could do that... it's the FIRST step to mastery!

I knew a piano player (Rodney Crosby) in Nashville that rarely played the changes once out of the head. He freely took chords from the parent scale that the intervals (melody) belonged to. Sometimes he'd transpose the intervals (close to distant relationship). This guy was good. All he talked about was tonal gravity. To this day I still use that approach to tonal gravity.

Not knowing to which lydian scale the intervals belong...well, I find tonal gravity relatively useless...

[strachs]

http://www.4shared.com/file/133637245/6 ... Chart.html

I rearranged the chart you posted so that the intervals appear in the order of a ladder of fifths. It's cool to see in the Lydian section how there is an order to which MG's contain the intervals.

[chespernevins]

I was going to hold on to this until I figure out how to get the colors, but what the heck.

I put together the Tonal Gravity Chart based on the new edition. I call it "The Motherlode Challenge"... to sing it from memory, that is....

http://www.4shared.com/file/133685002/4 ... ition.html

Ok, but how cool is THIS....

So I sit around for a year debating spending the cash on Sibelius, Finale, etc. It never seems like a good time. And just recently I come across...

MUSE SCORE

http://www.musescore.org/

OMG!!! It's free! It works! I used it to make this chart.

[chespernevins]

http://www.4shared.com/file/133637245/6755edbc/Tonal_Gravity_Chart.html

I rearranged the chart you posted so that the intervals appear in the order of a ladder of fifths. It's cool to see in the Lydian section how there is an order to which MG's contain the intervals.

Woah, that really is interesting how the consonant nucleus section is symmetrical like that.

[motherlode]

Now look how much fun that was!

Chespernevins, congratulations on finding a free program that appears powerful enough to get the job done.
Everyone that doesn't have such a program should download it immediately and learn how to use it ASAP!
The thing that's missing from your rendering is some sort of cue as to what scale supports said interval. Those two things are inseparable.

Strachs, I haven't been able to open your chart as of yet. I'll solve the problem sometime this evening. Can't wait to see it.

Learning to sing tonal gravity isn't really that tuff using modern devices. Record it, and play it over and over again until you know it...one interval at a time. Then look to the chart to determine at which point the scales change. You just have to know that.

Consider this, Bird, Miles, Coltrane, Diz, Eric, Clifford, etc. never played a
Bb7 chord in their life. They all play one note at a time...a succession of
intervals. And through the sequences of intervals we might deduce a Bb7
or C-7, and as those intervals move in and out of various tonal centers we need to know the various scales that support that interval. The scale is in many ways more important than the chord.

Chords come from scales NOT the other way around (be-bop truism).

Miles Davis moved away from the complex harmonies of be-bop to an elongated harmonic approach, to allow him to explore the influence of intervals (tonal gravity) at a more leisurely pace. Be-bop slowed way, way down if you will.

Miles was not Charlie Parker! For Bird was Free within the chords. The chords were of little concern to what he wanted to say.

Bird was playing in Detroit and a good friend went to hear him, on the break my friend asked Bird the changes to a tune...Bird said, "ask the piano player". We all took that to mean that chords are the piano players
problem...he's playing intervals (tonal gravity).

Even Coltrane in his later years stopped playing chord based tunes but INTERVAL based tunes. Listen to "Expression" his last LP.

All those guys were chord masters...so what happened??

[motherlode]

Ok strachs, I just opened your file (.xls).
Yes...Good Job! Both your and chespernevins' charts should be in a new post together to make them easy to fine for future reference.

chespernevins is right. Your arrangement of the material reveals a certain symmetrical order that was/is not apparent from the 1st ed chart. But after seeing it, it's just what you might expect.

I love this type of engagement...one hand washing the other...

Tonal Gravity at it's best:
http://www.4shared.com/file/133791289/6 ... Pring.html

[chespernevins]

Whoops... Found a typo in my Tonal Gravity Chart. Am taking it down right now. Will edit and have it back up later today.