BookatlasPiano Rabbit Hole: Improvisation Theory & Practice
6626 / 18210 · Workshop 48 — “Actual Proof”: Metric Illusion, Superimposed Groupings, Advanced Syncopation, and Staying Relaxed When the Rhythm Sounds Like It Changed Meter← prev⊞ allnext →

48.89Mini-composition exercise

Write a 32-bar fusion piece entirely in 4/4.

Requirements:

  • F-minor/Dorian center
  • one 3-sixteenth motif
  • one 5-sixteenth motif
  • one phrase of 3 bars
  • one phrase of 5 bars
  • one augmentation
  • one diminution
  • one phase-like two-layer section
  • no more than three harmonic roots
  • one C7alt→Fm cadence
  • at least one major rhythmic arrival with no harmonic change

The listener should occasionally suspect the meter changed even though it never did.