Completion of my Mission Impossible Indian Arrangement
This lesson was the last lesson I had to complete my indian arrangement- however since this is very limited time to work on, I did the majority of my arrangement at home. I am very pleased with my arrangement as I successfully transformed into an Indian version of Mission Impossible. To continue on from where I left off from last lesson, I continued playing the main melody of Mission Impossible in the instrument of sitar. Melodic instruments such as the sitar have sympathetic strings the vibrations of which create a distinctive shimmering texture. These are the notes for the leading melody: D D D D D D F G, D D D D D D C Bb. This melody is overlapped with the strings playing from a low octave D to high octave D and by the fast rhythms of the tabla. This sequence is repeated two times. A drone of D is used.
Most Indian Art music uses a drone, a constantly sounding pitch or set of pitches which gives reference point to the ear in hearing the intricacies of the raga being formed. The drone is usually the interval of perfect fifth. An indian percussion instrument called Ghatam is added here. The Ghatam is one of the most old percussion instruments of South India. The pitch of the Ghatam varies depending on its size. Then following this the flute overlaps. These are the notes: E D B, D Bb A, G A. E E Higher Octave E, D D Higher Octave D, C C C Higher Octave C, C B. This sequence is repeated twice for emphasis and then leads back into the leading tune played by the sitar. Since this arrangement involves lots of overlapping, I over lapped one last instrument that is very popular culturally in india- the tanpura. This added a more classic touch and the notes Bb and F were played with sustained notes as a harmony to the melody. This spiced up the tune and added more texture by thickening the layers. Finally, the arrangement concludes by fading out. Since it is a soothing piece I wanted to fade it out rather than end it abruptly. This song only consisted of a few instruments but indian music is usually performed with small groups of music. This results in a chamber music feeling, encouraging more delicate dynamics.
Here is a video of my Indian Mission Impossible Arrangement:
I think you should learn to use the notation software Sibelius so that you can notate your melodic lines & then export them as a graphic to post on your blog. This will develop your skills & make your blog posts look more like that of a music student who knows & understands notation. You can use the school software, it is available for Mac's too, the student version is far cheaper than the full software. It is free to use it school though. There are loads of tutorials on how to use it, but I can also help. This is a very clever arrangement in which you have captured both essences successfully. You should be proud of yourself. Well done.
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