Moving Motives

The primary goals of the exercises presented in Moving Motives are ear training, flexibility through the keys, to know where 'everything' is, and to get a feel for how the different scales work together.

Moving Motives vol.1&2

Scales and arpeggios are the building blocks of music. Every musician has to practise them in one way or another. As a musician and educator, I have found that most people practise scales by isolating them. The main purpose is often to improve technical facility. But in the music of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell and Dizzy Gillespie scales are not isolated, they interact with each other: scales work together to create a whole that is much bigger than the sum of its parts. Moving Motives vol.1&2 offer a very practical method to practise scales and arpeggios in this interactive fashion.

When scales and arpeggios are practised in such a manner, the benefit will go far beyond increased technical facility; it improves aural skills and it creates understanding, insight and intuition for melody, harmony and rhythm.

Moving Motives also illustrates how to embellish chords and scales, how to add passing tones and how to move motives through the scale degrees. This will ultimately give the reader of this book the necessary tools to create his or her own exercises. Although there are no shortcuts, practising with this book as a guide will make the experience creative and enthralling. You might find it difficult to stop practising once you start!

Simon Rigter

The book is due to be released spring 2022.