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Mp3 example Lesson IV: EIS Voice Leading

Frederick Russ

Founder Emeritus
Here is an early mix of a piece I've been working on lately. It uses equal interval system voice leading found in Book One, Lesson Four:

(Broken Link Removed)

Again, I know enough to be dangerous. I'll continue to develop this piece as things progress. Thanks for the listens.
 
Nice example of the use of simple voice leading. It's great that EIS ers are posting musical pieces from the early sections of the course.
 
Great job, Frederick. What I love so much about the course, is the combination of ear training, brain/sight reading coordination, voice leading and piano recognition/playing.

These chords and progressions wouldn't be so smooth without correct voice leading and you might not try them unless you were copying someone else's piece. You can go ANYWHERE smoothly at any time!

[EDIT] I mean you might not try them were it not for the exercises in the lessons. You might have to stumble upon them otherwise. /[EDIT]
 
very nice Frederick. You are really using each part of the course in a creative way.

Luca
 
Lesson IV: EIS voice leading

Frederick, you have shown what many lose sight of...that simplicity from the foundation material can be turned into creative beauty. You did youself proud with this application. I hear unity, variety and proportion and those three elements are a must in any art.

Keep it up and may all your future entries contain the life you have given this one.
 
Thank you! This is encouraging.

I must say however that I'm very humbled by the responses as I have great respect for all those who have responded. Again I'm just a learner - but believe that EIS can give one the tools to get where they're wanting to go in virtually all styles of music.

Craig Sharmat, my teacher, has been very helpful and patient. I was so confused during one lesson I couldn't find the perfect fifth! LOL! It's a little like opening the lid of your head and pouring in knowledge, and sometimes that has side effects like sensory overload. Not to worry - it all works out in the end eventually, and the instructors already know that.
 
Not finding the perfect fifth anymore? Then that would've been one hell of a lesson. I once couldn't hear the difference anymore between a perfect 4th & a 5th...due to too much composing in sucession without any sleep or food. :D

But anyway....Great composition Frederick! It grabs you at just the right moments because of it's nuanced harmonic structures and its simplicity where needed.
 
Thanks Herman! Yeah I got so turned around once - I'm sure Craig still chuckles about it lol - maybe that's why I did that thing with the fifths on the top of the piece! :)
 
It's interesting because from what I gather you're not worrying about any chords in the progression are you?

What is the experience of composing with EIS like so far Frederick?

Do you start with a melody and EIS offers you a way of composing the harmonies, counter-melodies and accompaniment without thinking in terms of chord progression etc?

In what was does this "feel" different to you while composing?

Do you use any of the knowledge you've gained over the years (theory, tricks etc) that exist outside the EIS framework?

Do you feel like you could have done this piece here with just the benefit of knowing what the notes in a scale are and some rudimentary knowledge of intervals and 4 lessons in EIS?

I'm curious about all these things and seeing as you've just started this is the best time you ask you these types of questions.

Caleb
 
Somehow I don't feel qualified to answer your questions, but I'll try.

Regarding any knowledge gained over the years outside the EIS framework, of course I have that option. However the chords and voice leading heard on the piece are 100% EIS (in that I am following the rules of EIS exactly). Afterwards I constructed the melody simply based on the tones found in each chord. Could it have been done with someone with only a rudimentary knowledge of scales and such? Perhaps. I kept it simple for a reason - this piece was an experiment to utilize voice leading principles.

Regarding my experience of composing with EIS, all I can say is that it presents an alternative to my approach. In a way it feels more like a science when using this method, as there are specific rules that makes it work. Sometimes I can start a piece using existing knowledge but lean more and more upon knowledge gleaned from the course as it presents a much smoother and polished sound. Of course for curiosity sake I compare what I know against EIS. However EIS wins most of the time, and lately I find that it gets me where I want to go much faster than I could without it.

Do I throw out what I know in favor of EIS? No. Like most musicians music is seen as an expression of self, and we pretty much know our likes and dislikes, so one doesn't have to worry that somehow we'll lose our own musical identity to concepts found here.

EIS is at once a tool, a science, and art - EIS is amazing! Your best answers however will come from your instructor and of course once you get into the course you'll know much more about it and perhaps could explain it better than I could.
 
Hi Frederick,

that sounded very nice.

I presume the exercise was using major chords going down in major thirds. Voice leading is smooth.
You have the beginning of a good piece there. :)
 
EIS VL. Lesson IV

<<Do you feel like you could have done this piece here with just the benefit of knowing what the notes in a scale are and some rudimentary knowledge of intervals and 4 lessons in EIS?

I'm curious about all these things and seeing as you've just started this is the best time you ask you these types of questions.

Caleb>>

As with all new beginnings, there must be certain nomenclatures learned and at such an early stage many pieces might fit together that were previously known elsewhere. Book I of the EIS method teaches exactly what Frederick has found and he's proceeding 'according to course' as this will grant him a foundation. He states he finds himself going to EIS more and more, and this is not uncommon. It also happened to me after Joseph Schillinger's System which was deemed the epitome at the time.

I commend Frederick for plodding this direction rather than do comparisons to verify the goodness of Spud's EIS system. The fact that many of us have gone through the course--after studying other acclaimed systems and now professing this to be the best music course ever, should say much to others.

The testimonials given in the website certainly contain some top gun names in the business. And all those names go with different venues, genres, idioms....but the common denominator is EIS. The point to all of this is: We don't have to hard sell Spud Murphy nor his great EIS course. Both he and EIS stand on their own merits, and those merits have been proven time and time again.

Frederick perhaps could have done this lesson based on his own experiences--but it didn't happen, you see. Keep in mind that however rudimental as it may appear.....that's where he is in the course. He hasn't even gotten to progressions yet as that's in Book 2. If after four lessons, he's presenting such music, then it shows merit.
David Blumberg has found Book 2 to be a most interesting and creative book, and that one could spend a lifetime finding new meanings to the theories presented. I agree. And it always points back to these fundamental learnings presently and the explicit gains you'll create later on.

Take it all in, Frederick, for this is the threshold. This course, plus all that you have previously learned, will develop you into a top notch composer, arranger, performer.
 
Frederick said:
Somehow I don't feel qualified to answer your questions, but I'll try.

Of course you're qualified to answer the questions. I was asking you specifically because you'd just started this.

People sometimes don't find the feedback and opinions from people just starting something like this valuable, but I find it quite helpful actually.

How a person feels, how fundamental they feel the instruction is to what they are producing.

It's always nice to hear testimonials from people who have finished the course but it does tend to put a distance between them and whomever they're explaining things to - it's unavoidable.

And because the course has a fairly long duration no doubt alot of the knowledge becomes completely integrated and is hard to separate when explaining to the non-initiated.

However, in this forum we (uninitiated to EIS) have a rare opportunity to share discourse with someone who is now discovering this system at the beginning.

I don't know about anyone else - but your insights as you progress and particularly at the start are very valuable to me. I can go some way in judging what I'm likely to discover in the first part of the course, what feelings of achievement I'm likely to be feeling etc..

I'm fairly sure that I am going to study EIS, but it's going to be quite a sacrifice for me and I still haven't decided when I will sacrifice or how much I will sacrifice. Your comments, observations could well help me to give me a perspective that allows me to make those decisions (and make them with more confidence).

As usual I've taken too long to say something quite simple: Don't feel underqualified in this instance because I would say you're perfectly qualified. :D

Caleb
 
Caleb said:
I'm fairly sure that I am going to study EIS, but it's going to be quite a sacrifice for me and I still haven't decided when I will sacrifice or how much I will sacrifice.

Personally I think it will be a greater sacrifice NOT to go through the course. It has helped me in ways that I had not anticipated which surpassed my expectations of it (which I think is a common experience with those going through the course.)
 
Frederick said:
Personally I think it will be a greater sacrifice NOT to go through the course. It has helped me in ways that I had not anticipated which surpassed my expectations of it (which I think is a common experience with those going through the course.)

Ah yes - but there are always other factors involved.
I want to be doing it right now and if money/time were no object....

But alas - they are - as they always are.

Over the next month I am trying to figure out how I can swing it, when I can swing it and how frequently I can swing it. :wink:

I am almost resigned to the fact that I can't afford not to do this with the kind of long term goals I have. So in the end it's not really about 'if' I'm going to do it.

But until I'm on my way, I'm very happy to experience the course vicariously through you in any way possible. :lol:

I'm glad you're finding it valuable. Nothing worse than to commit to something and find that it is bearing you no fruit.

Caleb
 
Caleb,

obviously money is a factor for you. While i am in full support of EIS , if bread is such a factor, how about a community college. While
they can't teach a method like EIS, the cost to knowledge factor is usually very good.
 
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