Starting from our neutral mood, we made the 3rd lighter, and that gave us a lighter mood. And, we made the 6th heavier, and that gave us a heavier mood.
So now, let’s add two more moods, one that’s even lighter, and one that’s even heavier.
To do this, we’ll change another pair of notes that are equal and opposite distances from the anchor. We’ll make the 7th lighter, and our 2nd heavier. Here’s how it works.
[lighter tonescape]
So this is the lighter mood that you already know, and here’s what it sounds like when I make it even lighter:
[change tonescape]
You can recognize a change in the overall feeling of the mood, and you can also get inside and listen to the tensions that make it up.
All the tensions in this new mood are the [play: anchor, 2nd, light 3rd, 4th, 5th, light 6th], and now, a lighter 7th [play].
We’ll call this new mood the “double light” mood, because, starting from the neutral mood, we’ve lightened two different tensions, the 3rd and now the 7th. We can also be a little more precise and start to call our original lighter mood “single light,” because it has only one tension lightened, the 3rd.
We can name the 7th more precisely now, too. Since we lightened it to create this new mood, now we can call it a “light 7th,” and start to distinguish between a light 7th and a heavy 7th.
So here in the double light mood, we have a light 7th [play], and in the single light mood, we have a heavy 7th [play]. [Switch between: heavy 7th, light 7th], and it’s that difference between the light and heavy 7th that creates the difference between the double light and single light moods.
[stop tonescape]
Now, we can also do something similar starting with the heavier mood that you already know.
[heavier tonescape]
When I make the mood even heavier, it sounds like this:
[change tonescape]
Again, you can recognize a change in the overall feeling of the mood. But now, in addition to making the 6th heavier, we’ve made the 2nd heavier, too. So we have [play: anchor, heavy 2nd], where before we had [play: anchor, light 2nd]. [Back to new tonescape].
So we’ll call this new, even heavier mood our “double heavy” mood, and our original mood “single heavy.”
[stop tonescape]
Now, there are three tonescape exercises to help you get to know these new moods, and the tensions that make them up.
The first plays all the tensions in our new double light mood, the second plays all the tensions in our new double heavy mood, and the third mixes all the tensions together with the neutral mood.
This will feel very similar to the listening you’ve already been doing, because a light 7th still feels like a 7th, and a heavy 2nd still feels like a 2nd. You’re being more precise about how you name these tensions in each mood, and then when you put them all together with the neutral tonescape, you’re also becoming more precise about distinguishing their sounds side-by-side.
So give it a try. And when you’re comfortable recognizing and naming the tensions in both new moods, and all together, that’s when you’re ready to come back for more.
Double Light Mood (Light 3rd, 7th)
Double Heavy Mood (Heavy 6th, 2nd)
All Tensions with the Neutral Mood