August 2001: Glissandi - Unit 2 - Content

Suppose your harp is tuned in the key of C major (all naturals). Execute a glissando and listen to it. It is a lovely, pleasing sound. You are running quickly across a series of strings that constitute an C major scale.

But glissandi can also be structured as chords which makes for a variety of sounds that can enhance the music so much more fully than scale lines. Let's create a glissando to sound like an F major chord. The content of the chord is F-A-C. But what about the notes that fall in between those notes? We will eliminate as many as possible by creating "enharmonic equivalents" (two notes that have different names but the same sound, e.g. A#=Bb). See Jan-Mar 2001 Lessons of the Month in the Archives for a broader explanation of this term.

Following are the notes of an F chord along with their neighboring notes.

F

G

A

B

C

D

E

F

- Consider the G. Were we to lower it to Gb it would not reach F and were we to raise it to G# it would not reach A. So we will have to keep the G. But, no harm done, it fits well when played along with F-A-C. Try it and listen.
- Next consider the B. If we lower it to Bb it will not reach A, but if we raise it to B#, voila-it becomes equivalent to C! We have found our first enharmonic note.
- How about D? Db does not reach C and D# does not reach E (nor would that do us any good) so we are stuck with it. But again, it fits well with F-A-C.
- Finally, E. Eb does not reach D but, voila-E# is equivalent to F.
- With your B's and E's raised to sharps, play the glissando and listen! You now have an F chord with an added 2nd (G) and 6th (D)-a true F glissando!

See you next month.

Stephanie

-You can access Unit 1 of this lesson in The Archives - Webmaster

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