Other Diatonic Leaps/Skips

1) Scale Ladders:Major Solfège Ladder & Minor Solfège Ladder

Suggested Exercises. Open the solfège ladder to use as a visual guide for the following exercises: 

• Point & Sing: Practice stepping within the scale and leaping to (or skipping between) scale degrees 4 and 6 as classmate or instructor points to each step on the ladder. 

• Improvised Melodies: Make up a 3–5 note melody that uses mostly stepwise motion, but adds leaps to (or skips between) 4 and 6. Have your partner pick up on the melody by starting with the last note of your segment (e.g. Do-Fa-Mi-Re, Re-Mi-La-Sol-Mi, Mi-Re-Do-La-Sol, etc.)

• Call & Response: Have a classmate or instructor improve a 3–5 note melody using the criteria above on a neutral vocal syllable ("Da") or played at the piano. Sing the melody back using solfège. 

2) Melodic Improvisation: Select a chord grid to use as a visual guide for improvisation or create your own: 

Chord Grid: i - bIII - bVI - iv - iio6 - V - bVI

Suggested Exercise: Open the chord grid to use as a visual guide for improvising a melody over progressions that use I, V, and V7. 

• Setup: Select a time signature, key, and mode (major or minor). 

• Select your Ensemble: You may sing solo, in groups, or all together simultaneously as a class. 

• Sing A Capella or Select a Backing Track. 

  • • Here are some online options: Chord Player, Musicca Chord Player, and ChordChord.

    • Experiment with the settings to try different styles, keys, and progressions. 

• Pick a Level: 

  • • Level 1: Improvise a melody that uses only one chord tone per measure. Move as smoothly as possible to a chord tone in the next measure. 

      • • Add rhythm: Improvise a repeated rhythm to go with your chord tone. 

    • Level 2: Improvise a melody that skips between 2 or 3 chord tones per measure. Slow down the rhythm for the final cadence. 

    • Level 3: Incorporate passing and neighbor tones between chord tones. 

      • • For example for I - V - I - V,  you might sing:  | Do  Re  Mi  |  Re  Do  Ti |  Do  Re  Do | Re   Sol  | 

        • As you get more comfortable, try adding rhythm and other types of non-chord tones.